Varna, Bulgaria: Day 1

When we arrived in Bulgaria, Jill had two Semester at Sea trips, and so Steph, Tom, and I ventured to the Sea Gardens, an area comprised of an aquarium, planetarium, terrarium, dolphinarium, and zoo. We spent about an hour walking in the (disgusting) Bulgarian heat to make it to the dolphinarium, oogling the ever-appealing beaches, which included sand (unlike every other European beach), pools, bars, a volleyball court, and giant water slides. We finally arrived to the dolphinarium about an hour before the 3:30 show. We settled into the dolphinarium café to observe a dolphin from underwater and enjoy a mid-afternoon snack. We were warned to avoid fruits/vegetables (traveller’s diarrhea—oh no!), and so I ordered “yellow cheese and sausage with toast” (open salami and cheese sandwich) and Steph and Tom each ordered tuna sandwiches. The show was short at 35 minutes, but it was also very entertaining. Tom surprised me by being completely enthralled by the show, smiley-faced and enthusiastic the entire time (quite funny to observe, actually).

After the show, Steph could not find her Chanel sunglasses and although they let her back inside the show area to look, it was, sadly, too late. Because of tendering (damn that tendering!), the ship was in “transition” and we could not get back on it until 7, which ended up being 8. It was around 4:30 at the time, and so we stopped by a small, incredibly overheated bar called “Aapu” to enjoy a cold beverage. Unfortunately, when you put a cold beverage in a hot room, the room does not cool down but the beverage heats up! Damn chemistry, physics, proportions, whatever. Science. After about a half hour, we were joined by three jolly, giant, sweaty men who sang drunken operas to us and inquired about a business partnership. Because they were named “Marco Marco,” “John Rambo,” and “Don Correon (sp),” we could not take them too seriously. Marco Marco apparently is a championship fighter and fought in some fantastic Las Vegas fight in 1992, and now is an important component of Varna SWAT. This was pure comedy to us, as he looked near 250 pounds, was completely drenched in sweat, and was drunker than anyone else in the room. After the comedy of the situation wore off, we headed back to the ship. It was about 6:30, and we watched from the beach as our ship headed into the port. Because so many people had been waiting to get back on the ship, it took about an hour to actually get on, and I basically ran for the shower after having glistened all day.

An hour or two later, Tom called us to go out to a beach bar, but Steph opted to wait for Jill (still on her trip) and meet up with us later. I walked with Tom and his roommate down to the beach, where we settled into the sand next to a bar. After awhile, what should happen but Semester at Sea people arrived! Tom left at some point to head to the bar with some of the girls, and when I went to use the restroom, everyone disappeared from my table. I found Tom’s roommate to ask what we were doing and he basically walked away from me; Tom had been gone about 45 minutes and so I did a once-over of the bar before walking back to the ship in a huff. Apologies have since been made.