Varna, baby!!!

You know what they say about New York City.... not the "if you make it there, you can make it anywhere in the world" saying, but the "you never find anyone who's able to give you directions since there everyone's a tourist" saying. Well, when Mark and I went to Varna last week I realized that half of the people there were just visiting and the other half had lived abroad for at least a few years. While checking into our modest hotel, the lady at the front desk gave us a quick summary of her whole life and informed us she'd lived in several different countries including The United States. Her late husband had been a captain of a ship so she'd traveled to numerous places along with him. When she finally finished and let us go, we left our bags in the hotel room and ordered a taxi to take us to our interviews. The cabby seemed to possess the wisdom of Solomon and gave me a warning that the teaching profession is a hard profession. He'd just returned from America. He'd stayed in New Jersy for six months, cleaning oil from colossal tanker ships, which, he said, had been a disgustingly dirty job. He then had gone to Miami though did not specify what kind of work he did there. He had been granted a two-year visa, but came back to Bulgaria after the completion of the first. He said it was the hectic way of life that he disliked.
Everywhere in Varna you hear a cocktail of foreign languages, predominantly English and German. It's a big enough city where everyone's doing their own thing, unlike my hometown where you feel like you're in a fishbowl and everyone's staring. Mark and I went down the main street, which is pretty much like a wide promenade where cars are not allowed and both sides of the walk are studded with various coffee shops, restaurants and shiny clothing stores. The best part of the main street is the Sea Garden at the very end of it, which is a considerable, picturesque park that reveals a scenic view of the Black Sea. You stroll through the Sea Garden, go down some stairs and you find yourself right on the beach. There are plenty of cafes and restaurants there so we decided to have dinner at an Italian restaurant while looking at the waves crashing and the seagulls hovering above.
Varna, baby!!!