Varna

 Hi everyone!

So I caught a bus from Contanta, and entered Bulgaria.

Bulgaria holds a special place in my heart. When I first visited in 2016, It was the first ever holiday I had booked up and organised myself. I had been enchanted by it's beautiful yet modern cities, its charming and rustic rural areas, and Bulgaria's interesting history. So I decided to come back!

The bus dropped me off in Varna, one of Bulgaria's biggest cities on the coast. It's a thriving seaport, with both navy and containerships jostling for space in its port. It was also a large Roman city too, and there is plenty to see. The archaeological museum is brilliant, and what sets it aside from other museums is that the walls are painted in bright solid colours, which help to make the details on the marble really pop and stand out. I love it when art galleries and museums do that, it really helps the exhibits be the main feature. Anyway, this carving proved that the roman's had the biggest dicks of all!

Also worth a visit is the Roman baths. The baths have this amazing feeling that you've walked into a archaeological dig in process. There's a few protective coverings, but there's also pillars left where they fell, and capitals just left at the side of the path for you to look at.

                                     One of the archaeologists having a well earned 'cat nap'

Thats the wonderful thing about Bulgaria, there seemed to be cats everywhere! And most of them were quite friendly and happy to say hello!

The Seagarden in Varna is a large open plan park, with many paths running through it, and also has ice cream & souvenir vendors also. It takes you through the city, keeping a view of the sea, and leads you up into the suburbs. Once you get walking there, it soon quietens down and gives some amazing views. There's also a path you can follow, which lists Bulgarian medal successes at the Olympics too!

                                                        Someone else enjoying the view!

At the end of the Seagarden, it's worth making a trip to see the Bulgarian-Soviet friendship monument. A colossal brutalist style monolith, it towers above everything else and from the top you can see for miles around. It's also a great place to have a picnic, and in my case, shelter from the rain that had just started!

It's just a shame it's not more looked after. The trouble is, monuments like this are sensitive. We have a duty to remember our past, whether it is positive or not. But we also have a duty to try to help those who were affected by that past the most. Its similar to what happened here recently in Bristol, when people overthrew a statue of Edward Coleston. For me personally, the statue shouldn't have been thrown into the canal. It should have been removed from such a prominent place, but it should have been housed somewhere, a place that it can be displayed with information that explains what he did, how he did it, and the impact on those that he traded. To destroy it and to throw it into the canal, is to try to hide and forget what happened. We here in England have a statue almost on every street corner, and it's high time we start to reflect on those statues, and if they represent us correctly. Perhaps we need to start a conversation about replacing them with statues of people that can inspire us, that can teach us, that are more reflective of the society we are today. We see these statues everyday, whether on our way to work/home, out shopping, meeting friends. These statues need to remind us of what it is to be a good person. Maybe there needs to be more statues of people like Mary Seacole, Emmeline Pankhurst, Malala Yousafzai. People who have helped to change both our society and the world for the better.

Sorry, my rant has hijacked this Bulgarian post. But its true, as a planet of people, we need to start reflecting on what these statues and monuments mean to us as a people, not necessarily what it is they represent.

But anyway, I digress! Varna is a lovely city, and it has a feeling of familiarity with it, almost like you've returned home, that sort of feeling.

Next up on my travels, Veliko-Tarnovo!