The adjacent to the Durankulak's camping site restorant

This is a short video from the adjacent to the Durankulak's camping site restaurant. Its the only place to eat or buy anything in the area, the next closest one being in the village itself, a few kilometers away.

As it can be seen from the video, this restaurant is suited only few meters away from the sea and I guess in a storm these sitting inside will be showered with droplets of seawater. The staff as with the camping itself was very friendly and nice, portion of fish would be about 2 pounds and 0.5l beer 1 pound. In the evenings there is live music and can be seen people from various countries, like Germany, Romania or Czech republic.

Most Northern point along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast

Video from one of the most northern points along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, between the Bulgaria-Romanian border and the Durankulak's campsite called "Kosmos"

Romania-Bulgaria border at Black Sea shore

I wanted to do this video at some border-indicating post or sign, but there was none at the Bulgarian side and apparently I was not allowed to film the one from the Romanian side, so I decided to do it somewhere in between.

Arrival in Duran Kulak, Bulgaria Black Sea camping site

Duran Kulak is a village 5 km from the Romanian border. What is interesting is that there are fewer visitors and the place is one of ths last calm and near wild places for camping. The sea water is pretty warm, the sea itself is calm, there are also a number of Central European visitors. All in all there and only couple of bars where the turists can eat or have a pint of beer. There is also a lake where in addition to the sea fishing one can fish in fresh water.

I've got at that place at 3 am with a friend, after spending several hours searching for calm camp site north of Burgas. Originaly I wantd to find place somewhere around Kamchia river, but we've got there sometimes after midnight and everything was closed, so we left and kept going north for another couple of hours.

Arrival at Sofia Airport, Bulgaria

Short update about my trip to Bulgaria. Just arrived at Sofia Airport. A lot of taxi drivers queuing for clients. By the way mind the Bulgarian taxis, they've been notorious in the past for the bad treatment of their clients, but I heard that this is not as bad nowadays.

Other than that, in 22:00 its already dark night, but the temperatures are pretty high with 31C as can be seen from the board on the bus stop.

Plans for travel in Bulgaria

So, I decided the first part from my walk to be between Vama Veche, Romania and Rezovo, Bulgaria, which means walking approximately 400 km along the whole Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. I bought already plane ticket from London to Sofia for this weekend and then with a bus I'll get to Vama Veche.

The issue with the wild camping in Bulgaria seems to be somewhat grey area. Big part of the land is not private property, so there is that, but still it could be somewhat illegal to pitch up tent near the coast. I'll check this more in debt and will write about it more in some of the next days. Next, there are few rivers which doesn't have bridges close to the sea, so I'll need small inflatable raft to cross them. I found one for £15, with weight 2.1 kg and I hope it should do the job of carrying me across these small rivers. Also that small raft can be used as mat, so its worth the additional weight. Fishing with fishing line should be completely legal without any licenses or permits in Black Sea, but again I'll check that to confirm.

That so far is my idea, but its not set in stone, so it may change.

Somewhere in Bulgaria around Black Sea

Plans for next travel

In case anybody wonders where I disappeared the last 5 days, worry not, I've been planning my next walking adventure. This year I am not going to see anything too exotic for various reasons, but still I'll try to do my best with what I have. So the choice is narrowed to one of the Balkan countries and I am planning to walk several hundred kilometres for several weeks along sea coast and during that time I also plan to sleep exclusively under open skies if the weather permits it and if it doesn't, in my simple tarp bivvy. Also I'll try to avoid buying food, so I'll have to see how I'll sort that issue. Probably best bet is to go fishing from time to time and also carry some food with myself in case I feel too lazy for hunting and gathering.

Next few days I'll write a bit more about that.

I want to be in places like this

Visit to the Brixton Street Market, London 2016

Today I visited the Brixton Street Market, place in London which I often have heard mentioned when people spoke about exotic foods, but somehow haven't seen yet. So my first impression is that its not really very big and while some years ago I would have thought that looks like Middle-Eastern or Afro-Caribbean market, today I think its something rather typical for London, as there are several similar markets around. When I say Middle-Eastern or Caribbean, I mean not only the exotic foods, but also the ambient, the faces of the people, the stalls without prices and covered sometimes with fruits and foods that I haven't seen yet in my life and strangely enough the prices are not really fixed and the vendors often decide on the moment how much to ask for any specific thing.

Street musicians next to the Brixton Underground Station

Other then food, other thing as these flowers can be seen, too.

"Progressive" yet ancient looking unisex toilet.

There are a few covered passages, bazaar-type

Shop with some crafted things and vegetable seeds for planting

There were also a lot of stalls with fresh fish and seafood from many different species

Most of the stalls and places for eating are Afro-Caribbean

The omnipresent rye and sourdough breads

Soursop, spiky green fruit, which I have never eaten before but found and bought from this market. Somehow I forgot to take a picture myself, so I am using this one from Wikipedia. The fruit is very sweet, its related to the Cherimoya and with somewhat similar taste, but it has a bit strange aftertaste, to which I think one has to get used first.

Sofia centre, Spring 2016

Today I'll post a few pictures I took month ago when I've been in Bulgaria's capital, Sofia. I got to the centre, strated from place called Bouleverd Vitosha, after that I passed by the National Palace of Cuture, then Slaveykov square, National teatre, the Yellow pavement and then again to the Sofia Court House, where I finished the loop. All in all it is not a great distance and can be walked in an hour or so if you don't get distracted too much.

Bouleverd Vitosha, also called Vitoshka. It is considered to be the centre fo Sofia

Sofia Court House

On Vitoshka can be found pretty big bookshop with Cafe in it, which makes the reading and buying of books extra pleasant experience

There are a lot of benches for people to rest from their walk or shopping

The garden of NDK (National Palace of the Culture), the building itself can't be seen oh this photo

Sleeping dog in the middle of Slaveykov square. The stray dogs are big problem of the city, but some of them seems to be better integrated and don't do any problems at all.

The very first McDonalds opened in Sofia in the mid-nineties. It was considered exotic and posh place to eat and so expensive, that only the richest Bulgarians could eat regulary there

Side roads around Vitoshka

Slaveykov square used to be one of the biggest street markets for books in the World, but now for various reasons it is not so big anymore

Big part of the Sofia's public transport net are the tram lines, which criss-cross the city

The National Theatre "Ivan Vazov"

The garden in fron of the National Theatre

The place where the "Mausoleum of Georgi Dimitrov" used to be before being distroyed after the fall of the communism

The Yellow Pavement, iconic Sofia's area

Shop for crafted chocolate figurines

Vitosha mountain can be see looming above Sofia