There I was, not wanting to go to Varna at all. But being a good (Ha-Ha.) husband, I finally said that I would go. We started out on the 15th, getting up a 5A.M. in the morning and racing around getting ready to catch the train in Mezdra, which is on the main line to Varna. We just made it to the train on time.
The train trip from Mezdra to Varna takes about six hours and is not a pleasant trip, especially with a child, as you know that children want to be entertained all the time. So there we were rolling along, singing a song, kind of thing and not enjoying ourselves at all. There was another man in our compartment who was from Varna and told us that the train was to get to Varna at 2:30P.M. and not at 4:30P.M., as Yura thought. This was one good thing, as we were able to go to a restaurant in Varna, as there is only snacks to eat on the train. We also had to wait for the woman who owned the apartment, we were to stay in, as she worked and would not be there to receive us until 5 or 6P.M. Gene was not happy at all!!!!
We made it to the apartment about 4:30P.M., and had to wait about half an hour for the owner of the apartment, We didn’t know the person, as she was a friend of a distant relative of our family. The owner was a nice looking young woman of about 36 years old. When she showed us the apartment, she told us that she would also be staying with us. Now Gene was really unhappy, as we were told that we would be staying in her apartment by ourselves!!!!
We decided to stay the night, as it was now 6:30 P.M. and there was not any trains until late at night and to try to find a hotel at this time of night would be very difficult. The next day we found out that there was no place to hang washed cloths, as this was a brand new apartment, also all cloths had to be washed by hand, thank GOD we were spending our time at the beach, and were not using many cloths. Next year, there will be all the amenities that a person needs. That's if we can find the time to go the Black Sea again. Now things really looked bad, but we said to ourselves to give it a few days, just to see what would happen. The landlady pounded some nails into her balcony walls and so we had a place to hang cloths, even if the nails did fall out from time to time.
The big reason to go to Varna, was because Sasha had never been to the Black Sea, and we wanted her to experience this. Also on the first full day, we could see just how much that Sasha liked the sea, so we said to ourselves that we would try to stay as long as we could stand it. It ended up, that we stayed the full 11 days
Gene liked the Black Sea, because about every fifth girl was not wearing a bra and the bottom part of their bathing suits, was stuck in their butt. So Gene had what to look at and what to take pictures of. Gene looked so long and hard, that he didn't notice that his legs were in the sun. Gene ended up with very bad burns on his lower legs and feet. In fact, we were not sure if he would have to go to the hospital or not, the burns were that bad.
Good dam thing that Gene had brought along his, cross- stitches as he had what to do, as he could not go to the beach for four days. Yura and Sasha went every day and that’s what was important. Gene did miss looking at the young girls though. Life went on!!!!!
In the mean time we were finding out just what a nice person the landlady was, so again we had a reason to stay. Now he said to himself, that this staying, was not half bad!!
After the four days were up, Gene went back to the beach, but not into the water. He was very, very careful in that we now went to the beach at 4:30P.M., and there was no chance that he was going to get any more burns at that late time in the day. Even at that, he stayed covered up.
Yura had found a friend to talk to on the beach called Tanya, who has two university degrees and still was unemployed, it could only happen in a ex-communist country. Also Yura met, a class mate of hers, who went to school with her in Vratza when she was a young girl of about fourteen years old. Now this was really nice, as Yura had not seen this girl by the name of Pauline for 31 years.
Gene started to go back to the beach, so that he could meet these different peoples, who Yura was telling me about. Tanya was not like I expected as she was at lease 10 years older then Yura had said. Anyway who can complain at my age of 67 years old. We had some pictures taken, as you will see in the picture section of this story. That’s Tanya sitting on Gene’s lap. Not bad work, when you can get it!!!!
We came back to Vratza on August 26th, tired but glad that we took Sasha to Varna.
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