Tues., 6/5/12 – At Rousse - Trip to Varna, Bulgaria on the Black Sea
We drove three hours through mostly neat agricultural landscape. Bulgaria grows canola (also called rape seed) mostly to make biodiesel fuel, lots of sunflowers, though they are not yet in bloom, and wheat and corn
Communist memorial along road to Varna
Grasshopper and a firewheel daisy
Archeology Museum
Monument commemorating overthrow of the Ottomans
Building
McDonald's
St. Nickolay Orthodox church
Street scene
Sun dial at the Sea Garden
Black Sea
Black Sea beach - yes, there are topless folks down there
Gale wading in the Black Sea
Mr. Baba restaurant (lunch) - not one of our better meals
Container facility in harbor
Gypsy housing
Gypsy housing
On our way out of Varna we drove past the area where the gypsies live. Gypsies make up about 12% of the population and present many problems for the other citizens. They ignore most government rules, don't send their children to school, don't pay taxes or medical insurance, but go to hospitals free of charge. Since gypsies tend to have six to ten children and the other Bulgarians only one or two, Bulgaria has a declining population and the percentage of gypsies is increasing.
Wed., 6/6/12 - Rousse (or Ruse or Pyce), Bulgaria
A day of leisure and reorganizing. After a late breakfast (8:30) we walked around Ruse for three hours. We entered the large town square next to the Court of Justice, looked at the Monument of Freedom, and the "Profit-Yielding" building and City Hall. Then we walked around the pedestrian street, looked at the Theater and the outside of the Holy Trinity Church. We walked to the Pantheon of National Revival Heroes and then back to the pedestrian street. We stopped in the visitor center for a better map and the agent told us to go see the inside of the Holy Trinity Church and also the Alexanderplatz at the Rousse Historical Museum. The inside of the church was beautiful. You enter and go down a flight of stairs to the sanctuary. The walls are painted with Bible scenes and apostles and the iconostasis is elaborate. We are glad we went back to see the inside.
Opera House
Pretty building
Holy Trinity Cathedral (no pictures inside - it was beautiful)
Panthenon of National Revival Heroes
Creative way to move an illegally parked car
Really impossible signs
Railroad crossing sign
Looking upstream at the Danube
