Turkey... Bulgaria... Romania.. 2024

There's four of us on this journey, My brother Nigel, his wife Kathy, my husband Darin and I are all on board and ready for the 10 hour flight from Seattle to Amsterdam. We're all seated near each other and have our snacks and pillows for the long flight.

It's September 11, 2024 and we are embarking on our longest European trip yet. In 2016 we spent 2 weeks visiting England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Berlin, Germany. In May 2023 we spent 2 weeks visiting Switzerland, France and Italy. While in Italy, I broke my ankle and it literally took over a year for me to convince the doctors that my ankle was actually broken. Finally an MRI showed the bone chip had lodged deep in the middle of the many bones that make up the ankle. Once that surgery was complete, we could make definitive plans for visiting Bulgaria. Nigel and Darin were also recovered from their respective surgeries. Is this how it is when you get old? Plan your vacations around surgeries and body part replacements?

So back to the 10 hour flight. Just as the wheels left the runway and we began our ascent, I started getting back spasms in my lower back on the right. I ask Darin to rub the area a bit to see if it would relax, it did not. All of a sudden I had to get to the restroom quickly, nausea and vomiting kept me in the tiny toilet room for the better part of an hour with increasing lower back pain and abdominal pain. When I felt stable enough to exit, I alerted the flight crew to my situation. They call over the PA for any doctors on board, an MD, a PA and 2 RN's showed up and assessed the situation. The vomitting continued as they discussed diverting the plane to the nearest airport, which I was objecting to between throwing up and crawling around in pain, The MD said he thought I was passing a kidney stone, which I was and did for the next 8 hours! By the time we landed in Amsterdam I was just fine, all things considered and we headed to our next gate. Whew! Boy was I glad for that to be over.

The Amsterdam airport is like a high-end mall, our destination airport in Istanbul, not so fancy. There were a few places we wanted to see in Istanbul before boarding our night train to Sofia, Bulgaria so we spent a couple of days touring around the ancient city and shopping in the Grand Bazaar. According to Wikipedia, the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with 61 covered streets and over 4,000 shops attracting between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily. In 2014, it was listed No.1 among the world's most-visited tourist attractions with 91,250,000 annual visitors. The Grand Bazaar at Istanbul is often regarded as one of the first shopping malls of the world.

Istanbul had some interesting folks... it seems that everyone we encountered on the street was a carpet salesman claiming to not be a carpet salesman. Now granted, those carpets were nice but no way could we fit them in our luggage! The men trolling the streets, (maybe they were strolling) really were pushy at times and we had to get fairly assertive to get them to back off. While there we also visited  the Basilica Cistern and the Blue Mosque, where someone offered my brother 50 donkeys for me - the sister.

After a couple nights in Istanbul, we took a night train to Sofia, Bulgaria. That was a ride I'll never forget! Somehow, the conductor managed to get us to our destination about 8-10 hours late. The fact that we had sleeper cabins and access to toilets was a plus but the experience was fairly disturbing in regards to how long the border crossing took and the condition of the toilets. Trust me when I tell you we are spoiled. All things considered, Istanbul was a cultural experience I truly enjoyed.

Once we arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria and got our rental car, we got settled into a nice AirBnB that looked over central downtown Sofia with perfect access to the local tourist attractions.

On the first full day in Sofia, my brother Nigel and his wonderful wife Kathy had some business to take care of so we turned it into a sightseeing field-trip. Sofia is the capital and the largest city in Bulgaria. The people are friendly and tolerated our language barrier very nicely. Our memorable meals there were at the Cafe Ma Baker, the Izbata Tavern, Checkpoint Charly and Godzilla.

The Izbata Tavern was one of our favorites because the old fashioned atmoshpere and traditional food. The service was spectacular and the food was delicious. If you ever find yourself stomping around Sofia Bulgaria - please stop in for some great food. Checkpoint Charly (Modern Bulgarian cuisine and  excellent service is the reason to come back here again and again. The only place in the city center, where there is live jazz every Friday night. The tasty and varied lunch menu makes Checkpoint Charly a favorite place for lunch for the local buisness people.) This was a wonderful Jazz Restaurant with an old

fashion vibe and modern food choices.

Godzilla was a fun quirky spot with a weird atmosphere, what else would you expect from a place called Godzilla?

We walked around Sofia and saw as many touristy things as we could, the city is alive and thriving, some areas were packed with high-end shops and restaurants while others looked neighborly and quaint. As we were walking around we came across the Glory Hole Donut Shop. Needless to say, we went for it. We even videoed our fun eating the donuts...

Sofia has many museums and sites to explore along with mineral water springs for people to collect as much water as they wish general feel for this city was of local community and cultural history

Off to the ROSE MUSEUM!! We all picked a few things we really wanted to see, I chose the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul and the Rose Museum near Plovdiv. It was small and we were there in the off-season but I enjoyed every step of the museum, I LOVE roses!

By the time we made it to Plovdiv, I realized that I had COVID and had passed it along to Darin and Nigel - they did not really get out and about much there but Kathy and I were able to get out for supplies. Yes, that's right so far we have battled a kidney stone and COVID, but we are troupers and eventually we rallied and headed to the southern coast of Bulgaria. We visited Lozenets, Kiten, Primorsko, Sozopol and Burgas. This area is pretty remote and somewhat rustic compared to Sofia. We did however enjoy the great location of our AirBnB which was right on the water. We had coffee every morning looking out over the Black Sea. The water was a great temp so we, by we I mean Darin & Nigel, had a nice swim. Another highlight of that region was the Upside down house! We were like kids in a candy store.

There will be a massive photo dump at the end of this, so stay tuned.

Here's Nigel and Kathy having a sit down at a fun little castle themed park.

Next stop... the northern coast of Bulgaria and a quick trip to Romania!

The northern half of Bulgaria's coast is more modern in my opinion and has more to do. I suppose that is the draw for my brother for considering a move to Europe.

We found this lovely place while on our way to the next AirBnb. We certainly enjoyed seeing Varna and will likely return in the future. The drive to the AirBnB was longer than we thought it might be but the house was nice and big with a view of the Black Sea.

Once we settled into the new digs, we needed to take a road trip for more business that Nigel and Kathy needed to handle.

It was surprising how much Mistle Toe was growing on the trees near the coast and near the freeway. It certainly made for a scenic drive inland. After the business part was finished we visited the Balchik Palace, the Gardens and the Winery. I'll be dropping lots of photos at the end. The Palace Gardens were gorgeous and well worth the trip.

During one of our drives back to the AirBnb we encountered a very odd situation. Now mind you, I grew up in rural America and trust me when i tell you that weird shit happens there but this gave us a good laugh.

A horse and buggy heading down the road carrying that driver and a jackass. Darin pulled a quick u-turn to just verify what we actually saw so we got the video and some pictures.

The driver was less than happy about his picture being taken but we couldn't help ourselves.

We decided a quick trip to Romania was in order. The atmosphere there was lively and friendly. We had a great meal near a big marina and headed back toward Bulgaria but stopped at a beach on the way and met 'Captain Jack".

The water was nice, the guy was weird. All during our visit, i could tell that my kidney stone incident had caused lasting issues that were now getting worse. I did look around for an urgent care to no avail but thankfully we had some over the counter remedies that were providing me with some relief. I was literally counting the minutes until we headed home.

That aside, a rain storm moved in and flooded the area around us pretty good. Strangley enough we decided to take a drive, Darin sees a little road that lead to a beach and started down the muddy road... we did not get very far. We bogged down and were absolutely stuck in the mud. No matter what we tried, we were stuck. Eventually, my situation began to feel more urgent so I started walking. Nigel and Kathy joned me, Darin stayed with the car and a stray mama dog and her pups also joined in the journey. Fortunately, a police officer approached, we flagged him down and another gentleman stopped then a tractor drove up. The holy grail! Thank goodness the tractor pulled us out and we were once again on our way. Well sort of.

We got back to the AirBnB, washed the car as best we could then headed to town for food. Once on the road we realized the car needed more cleaning as the mud had caked underneath and we couldn't drive over 30 mph due to the violent shaking that happened if we excelerated. Thankfully we found a car wash and was able to clean the under carriage. What a mess!

Our Bulgarian adventure was coming to an end and not a moment too soon. I needed an urgent care and that required a six+ hour drive back across the country, Our flight home was from the capital Sofia and thankfully there were emergency rooms in Sofia - the issue was actually finding one. After stopping at one 'medical facilty' and realizing it must be an asylum (armed guards and all) we eventually found a hospital where I was asked to pee in a small clear solo cup. The bathroom had no doors and the floor was covered in about 1/2 inch of pee! Gross doesn't really cover it. Thankfully a doctor saw my urine and the test results and gave me exactly what I needed in order to get back on a long plane flight home. American Urgent Care here I come!

All in all the trip was amazing. Three weeks on the road with another couple could have gone horribly wrong. We were very happy with our travel companions and look forward to another great adventure! By the way, next we are heading to COSTA RICA!!