Bulgaria Day 4

We got up bright and early the next day and checked out of our hotel.

The view from our hotel - right next to the go-cart track!

This was our lovely bathroom in Plovdiv - no shower stall, just the shower head in the corner of the room - needless to say things got really wet in the bathroom!

After checking out of the hotel we drove up the mountains to the Bachkovo Monastery. I loved the drive up there, it felt like we were driving through the canyons in Utah.

They had a bunch of little stands set up by the parking lot of the monastery and were selling homemade jams, preserves, honey, etc.

 

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the monastery, so all I got were these shots of the outside and the entrance.

We loaded back on the bus and drove for a few hours, stopping in the middle of nowhere for lunch - this was the little rest stop cafe we stopped at. All the food was displayed in the glass case on the side of the road. 

 

It seemed a little strange, but the food was really good, I loved the Bulgarian salad we had everywhere we went - so delicious!

One last photo op before climbing back on the bus. 

It was a beautiful drive, but it seemed to last forever! We were so excited to finally see the Black Sea - we thought we were there, unfortunately we still had a few hours of winding mountain roads before we got to Varna. 

Dan got a little bus sick and wanted to die!

 

We finally made it to Varna! We were so excited to get off the highway and start driving through the town.

We checked in to our resort/hotel - this was the awesome view from our room of the Black Sea. We did think it a little strange that almost all of the surrounding resorts were empty!

After getting settled, we headed down to the dining area for dinner - all our meals were included at the resort. After the long drive, all Dan wanted was olives and dessert. He loved the all you can eat buffets!

After dinner we wandered around the resort for a bit, and went exploring down at the beach. The hotel was so typical of communist buildings - big huge spaces with no reason or purpose - just because things need to be big! Including creepy red hallways leading nowhere!

We were in the elevator and it just cracked me up - every single person was on their phone trying to send messages home or check up on sports/news. 

After chatting with mom and Julie a bit through FaceTime we crashed, Dan fell asleep watching a Braves game in our room! Notice, both the ipad and the iPhone were going when he fell asleep!