Bulgaria..

I think that the only place on the list of countries that I was supposed to go this summer that I wasn't too sure about was Bulgaria.  This was the first time that Semester at Sea was going there, partly due to the political issues that the country was dealing with and its enterance into the EU, but it really wasn't too bad.  We had a really good time relaxing on the beach, hanging out with friends and enjoying the extremely low prices of the goods there.    
        We didn't have a plan or any rhyme or reason in Bulgaria, so we kind of just winged it.  On the first day, I had to do an FDP which was very interesting.  It was about human trafficking and the mayor even came to see us and give a speech, because our program being in Varna, was such a huge deal.  Bulgaria is the kind of country that is up and coming when it comes to tourism, and for us to be there and contribute so greatly to their tourism season was great.  It was kind of hard to understand a lot of the presentation because they were translating between English and Bulgarian but I thought that it was a good thing to experience, especially because human trafficking is such a big deal in their country.  After the program, I took the bus back to the port to meet up with Kati and we wandered off to the beach, which was really close to the port, to try and get something to eat.  We were kind of tired and wanted to get back on the boat, but because they were tendering in the morning, we had to wait a while longer to get back on the ship.  We found a little restaurant on the beach, and I ordered french fries with some kind of cheese and sausage on it, as well as a drink.  The food was amazing, and so was the drink, because it had blackcurrant juice in it, which is my favorite.  After a few drinks and a snack, we were finally able to get back on the ship, but the line was totally out of control.  It took us about 45 minutes to get back on, because they had to check everyone's bags and frisk everyone.  Once we were on the boat, we were able to get ready to go out that night.
        We were very close to beach, which had a board walk type of thing, with tons of bars and restaurants.  It was really nice to get a few drinks and relax on the beach with our friends. 
        For pretty much the entire time that we were in Bulgaria, we went to the beach, hung out, drank, ate and relaxed.  We had been so busy in Turkey and we were constantly on the go that it was good to just take in the beach.  It was really cool because there was a huge international volleyball tournament on the beach that we watched, and a whole bunch of SASers joined in.  There was also this amazing restaurant called Captain Cook's, which was right next to the ship, where Kati and I ate, she had sushi and I had shrimp tempura, and it was so amazingly good.  I ate there about three times during our time in Bulgaria.
        On the third day, we went to a place called Golden Sands, which apparently everyone was raving about.  We wanted to go there to rent jet skis and go parasailing because it was a really big beach resort, they had that kind of thing.  When we got there, it was really cute, there were little shops lining the streets and little bars and restaurants right on the beach.  Danielle, Kati and I set up our towels and laid for a while.  We eventually got up to walk down the board walk, which was kind of cute, they had a little area of amusment park rides and games set up, there was a mall and higher end shops farther down.  We had lunch and went bought snacks at the supermarket.  After all of that, we went back to the beach, where I got a massage, which was really nice, while the girls went to go get the information on the jetskiing.  It was a little late and the guy told them that it was all closed.  When it was time to leave, we got a cab, which ended up being wayy more expensive to get home, than it was to come, so we were a little annoyed with that, but the cab driver was nice and tried his hardest to explain to us that he wasn't ripping us off, that there was a higher tax in Golden Sands than there was in Varna.  We had him drop us off at the first point we knew we could walk from, which was about a half a mile, just because it was more than a 50 liva cab ride, meaning about 35$ which was still really expensive.  So we walked home to our boat and got ready for the night. 
        On the last night, it was Grace's birthday, so we all decided to go down to a club called Malali which was really cool.  We had a few drinks there first, and then we went to a club called Copa cabana.  It was good to hang out with Grace and everyone for a change in pace, plus because it was her birthday it was even more fun.  We met a whole bunch of guys at the club who were all triathletes, and they were very nice to look at. Haha.  Over all it was a really fun night, which turned into more laying on the beach for the last day.
        I know that it might have been fun to venture off and do a few more things that might have been a bit cultural, but its so hard to explain how tired that I get from travelling constantly and having to go to class on top of it all.  It really does take a lot out of you, and its nice to get to a country where we can just relax.  I have seen so many things in the past few weeks, more than the average person will ever be able to see, and I actually think that its funny because when I called my dad he told me that I will always have one up on him, because he will never go to Bulgaria.  It was a really nice country actually, I don't know if I would ever return, but with all of the struggles that it has over come, its nice to see that it has opened its doors for the travellers around the world.