Kaliningrad - Varna.
Our trip, we can say, began from the moment we decided to buy tickets to Bulgaria for Golden Sands. In advance, I studied the kitchen and other little things (what is better to buy). Moreover, our team was supposed to play on August 11 with the national team of Bulgaria and in the news everyone was talking about Bulgaria. In general, this country began to "pursue" us. And finally, the day of the beginning of our journey has come. And so our plane (Sky Express - I don’t recommend it, the service and service is just kapets), they gave 2 mini sandwiches that barely got into the throat and 2 types of juice - apple and orange, tea and coffee. The main thing is that they flew. We flew back with the same “Sky”, I’ll write more about how we flew below). And here we are in Varna, at 14.00 hours, to be honest, I was not impressed by this city. All overgrown, weeds everywhere, filthy roads. It took a long time to get to Peski, until everyone was taken to the resorts, to the hotels. And when we arrived, we immediately went to the expense of excursions to find out. Specially made visa 02 to go to Istanbul. We went to the first stall that sold excursions. . Such a "pretty" old woman ran up and fluently spoke to us in Russian, gave us a piece of paper with excursions. We agreed to go to Istanbul from her. (By the way, she had the cheapest excursions 1 day in Istanbul 115 lv 4 lv cheaper than others; 1 lv - 20 rubles). Two days were just wasted, there were no places left. We bought excursions at the hotel from the Neva Tour to the same Istanbul and also to Balchik Kaliakra. That is, it turns out that they arrived on Tuesday, for a week, and on Thursday there was already an excursion, the next day it was different. But first, a little about the hotel. We checked into the Slavey Hotel opposite the Alegra Hotel (Norilsk Nickel). As we were told earlier, the hotel is almost new, everything is so decent, only the Internet is 30 minutes -3 lions (I do not advise those who do not know English, the keyboard is in English and Bulgarian, Romanian, Russian are also built in, Russian letters are of little use in the scatter (While you figure out the keyboard, 30 minutes will fly by, you won’t notice. ) But you can live well without a net. for money, in another they give fruits, cakes, ice cream, drinks free of charge according to the schedule. (We had all inclusive). The dining room was on the 0th floor, there are 6 in total, we lived on 4 in room 420. The room is just class, only the view is not on the park, as promised (yes, there was no smell of the park there), but on the road, hotels and the sea is not 200 m, but more. Although it’s all the better, while we went to the beach we threw off kg, because we fed well and often in the canteen (buffet), the food is always fresh, but by the end of the holiday we were already fed up with it. On the first day, in the late afternoon, we went to the sea, the view and the atmosphere are wonderful, romance, the sky shone with lights, the sun did not burn in the head, the water itself. The next day we went in the afternoon, and I concluded for myself that it’s better to go to the beach in the evening or in the morning, at this time there are almost no people and, in fact, it’s much better (but this is for those who don’t care about water entertainment) and beds it turns out "free" u003d), since they are expensive during the day, you need to buy a sunbed and an umbrella separately, and the mattress comes out very expensive, and in the evening and in the morning no one sees who is sitting on what, and the sand is not hot. And, if it turned out to walk during the day, we didn’t buy a sunbed, we swam all the time, almost without going ashore, the water is always good. If you want to save money, take a large towel with you, preferably your own. There are a lot of tents on the territory of the Sands, they sell everything you need. We bought a towel with a map of Varna, a bag, caps, perfumes from the Rose Valley, souvenirs, in recent days we have made prof. retro photos (1 for - 10 lions). Note: In no case do not change money on the street, only in the Bank! Street crooks are slipping old Bulgarian money. The old woman, familiar to us above, whom I spoke about earlier, apparently in the course about this matter, perhaps at the same time, reacts well and thus distracts with her chatter. And the Bank is close, so it's easy to find it. So, already on Thursday we went on the 1st tour of Balchik-Kaliakra according to the plan. On the way to Balchik, we were taken to a potter's shop, where we saw how he sculpts vessels, bought a magnet and something like clay pots. (This was all later seen at my resort in a store, some things are even cheaper). We went further to Balchik itself, where we were led through the garden in the heat, where we had a tasting of Bulgarian wines, many, and we bought a bottle. We saw the residence of the queen, after all this we went to Cape Kaliakra. There we were told a legend about 40 "heroic" girls who, in order not to be captured by the Turks, jumped off a high cliff. We took pictures against the background of beautiful landscapes and went by bus to a restaurant with local customs, we were greeted with bread and salt, literally; took a picture at the entrance and asked for a photo of 5 lions (bought as a keepsake). We were well fed in the restaurant, we got to know the Bulgarians better, watched the dances on the coals. Late in the evening we returned to the hotel. The next day at 18.30 a bus came to Istanbul for us. While collecting all the tourists, it got dark. On the bus were brothers Slavs - Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians and Bulgarians. We drove all night, with several stops, in Burgas we decided which excursions we would go on, chose St. Sophia Cathedral with the Egyptian market and a walk along the Bosphorus (separate fee), a sightseeing tour of Istanbul and the Blue Mosque were included in the price of the entire excursion. It was also possible to choose the Sultan's Palace, but we would not have had enough strength for it, in contrast to one "collective farm" very plump man who, to our surprise, managed everywhere. We arrived at the **** hotel at 7.00-7.30, ate and after we were taken on a city tour. As always, we were the last to board the bus. And they noticed that our seats were occupied, Ukrainians were sitting on them, a lady hiding behind, thank God, her child. In theory, they should sit behind us, that is, not at 36 and 37 (these are our seats). But the fact is that there are fewer seats in the Turkish bus than in the Bulgarian one. And arrogant people "turned on the durka", which, like, they sat down correctly. Although everyone heard when Yura (the tour guide) said that everyone should sit in the same places as in the Bulgarian car. It turns out the whole bus is in its place, under its numbers, and these are “redheads”. In general, they spoiled my mood, I had to sit in discord and not at the window, but with a fat man, who was not pleasant to me at the beginning. My advice, friends, take your seats first! And try to run out of the bus first too, there are queues in the toilets, you risk being late everywhere. In general, everything was still nothing. Istanbul is a beautiful city, buy vouchers without thinking when else such a chance will turn up to visit two countries. So, we had a wonderful Turkish guide, he spoke better than the Bulgarian guide, almost without an accent. At first, we, tourists, were brought to the Blue Mosque, it is operational and in order to go inside, you need to put yourself in proper shape, cover your legs and shoulders with scarves, your head is not necessary, take off your shoes. After we went to the observation deck, which offers stunning views of the Bosphorus. Then everything is on schedule: Lunch, St. Sophia Cathedral (not operating), the market (it was hard to figure out what you need here, noise, heat all in a heap). It seemed strange to me that the Turks "traders" did not want to bargain at all, they turned away and went to their "apartments", in contrast to the sellers of the market in Antalya (we were in Antalya back in 2008, but this is a separate "pleasant" story) . Then everyone was gathered together and taken to the boat. Of course, the most relaxing in this tour was a trip along the Bosphorus. The beauty is unique, the only obstacle is wind and high humidity, but all this did not prevent me from taking great photos. Yes, one day is not enough, but taking a 2-day tour is pointless, you will see everything the same, only stretched and more expensive. If there is an opportunity, who is very interested in Istanbul, and it is interesting and beautiful, it is better to go separately. We went back to Bulgaria in the same way at night, stopping, not counting the borders, 1 time. Already more than 5 am were in the room. All excursions were filmed on camera, who wanted to buy discs, we did not. Unfortunately, the remaining days flew by very quickly, it seemed that in Turkey they were longer than in Bulgaria. It's a pity that all good things always end quickly. Every day spent on vacation, I remember forever. And this trip added to my collection, as well as magnets on the refrigerator with the inscriptions Bulgaria, Varna, Sofia and Nessebar (I bought the Istanbul magnet back in Antalya, in 2008. ). Above, I promised to tell you about the way back. In "Letishche" Varna, our flight was delayed for an hour, they said on the plane, allegedly due to financial problems. They took off not noticeably. And here we are in the air, there were enough clouds, such large ones. And here, it is not clear for what reasons, our pilots suddenly got crazy to fly through one thick cloud. It was terribly shaking, everyone was screaming, it’s good that the cloud was not long, they quickly got out of it. After that, the whole plane began to crackle, and the flight attendants to us - “Everything is as it should be! ” Draw your own conclusions. The landing was soft, everyone clapped as always, still, you can’t clap here……. !