Little Known Medium Sized Cities

Malko Tarnovo – Burgas – Aytos, Bulgaria

Who’s heard of Burgas, Bulgaria before? 

Neither had we. 

It’s about 300,000 people and it’s on the Black Sea. 

And we love it.

It has a cute little downtown with a few gelaterias. It has bakeries and butcher shops, and fruit and vegetable stands. It has a beautiful well-kept park with shade trees and fountains and statues commemorating the good moments in the country’s and the city’s past. And it overlooks a lightly-used beach on the Black Sea. 

Just kind of nice to not be in throngs of tourists. 

On that note, I just read this article about “mass tourism” in places like Florence, Italy. Apparently the folks at the Uffizi Gallery are all upset because one of the tourists knocked a painting off the wall recently. He was taking a selfie and ended up backing into it. Oops.

I guess I see why they’re upset, but, really, those tourists are obviously spending a lot of money there. In fact, it costs about $30 per person just to visit the Uffizi – and there are about 2 Million paid visitors every year. 

Doesn’t matter. The point is that, while those check-a-box type places can be great, the highlights of a trip like this are all the places in between – the Burgases of the world. The little experiences and connections with people that make the trip memorable and fun.

On that note, we figured out that Burgas was hosting a Volleyball Nations League competition – like we had ever heard of that before – this weekend, and we went to see the Bulgaria versus Slovenia match last night. Definitely a cultural experience. 

First off, the arena itself was interesting. Just opened two years ago. It’s home to a Bulgarian professional basketball team, but it hosts other events and concerts as well. It’s nice to see something new in Bulgaria. But kind of a reflection of the economy here that there is basically zero advertising of any kind in the facility. Just blank concrete walls. Maybe that has to do with who runs the facility – probably government run – but I’m thinking it also reflects the lack of successful commmerce in the area. 

A few more thoughts along these lines – and then we’ll get back to the volleyball . . . Bulgaria had a population of more than 9 million people in 1989 – just before communism collapsed. Thirty-six years later the population is just over 6 million. Not sure where everyone went – but thinking a combination of low birth rate and mass exodus contributed . . . No wonder there are empty buildings everywhere.

You would think that with a dwindling population that there would be a lot of cheap realty and apartments and such. And there probably is. But we ran into some border patrol folks the other day at lunch – and they indicated that they see a lot of people from Turkey, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. – but they are just passing through on their way to places like Germany and France. I guess, in the end, people are mostly looking to land in the wealthier countries. Same reason people want to make it to the U.S.

Okay – volleyball. Kind of becoming a theme of our trip. First the Thessaloniki Grand Slam Beach Volleyball Tournament, and now the Nations League. We have a friend, Steve S, who played for UCLA in college and is a big volleyball fan. Steve is a fantastic sports medicine physician and, I think, also acts as team physician for the volleyball national team on occasion as well. Steve has sometimes told us about volleyball stuff, but I guess I thought it was just one of those Olympic sports that happens once every four years – but there’s not much inbetween. 

Little did we know . . .

We walk into the packed arena and there’s chanting – Bul-Gar-Ah U – F – C – and flag waving and people are going crazy cheering for every point. It was like a combination of a basketball game and a cage match. Which I wasn’t expecting because, in my mind, volleyball was maybe adjacent to men’s figure skating in its macho-ness. 

Turns out there’s lots of chest-thumping and primal screams going on . . . 

The players were all like 6’9” tall. Guys that would probably be playing professional basketball if they grew up in the States. 

I wouldn’t say I totally understand the game quite yet. First off, who or what is this libero person? They wear a different uniform from all the other players and they’re way shorter. I guess they aren’t allowed to play up at the net – but what I don’t understand is why, if they are limited in what they can do, the coaches don’t just play a short guy who can dive on the floor, but without the label that is so limiting?

Also, what is the rule with the net? Seems like there are a number of occasions where one team spikes the ball, but the other team is awarded the point. Maybe because they put their hand over the net or something? 

I guess Steve will need to give us a little education if we’re really going to be volleyball fans . . . Because volleyball is not like football, where basically every man in America somehow knows the most abstract rules of the game, even if they’re not big fans themselves . . 

Kind of glad that Bulgaria appears to be good at this sport. Because it feels like Bulgaria needs a few big wins to get itself going. The other day I asked Google about famous Bulgarians. It listed several – including Nina Doberman, Dimitar Berbatov, and Boyko Borissov. Maybe you’ve heard of them – but I haven’t . . . 

Same thing on the corporate front. 

I mean, at least Romania has Nadia Comaneci and Dracula. (If you don’t know Nadia Comaneci you are probably younger than Diana and I. Let’s just say that she was kind of a big deal at the 1976 Olympics. But don’t feel bad though . . . Our kids are tired of hearing about her too . . .) Kind of unfair, but I always think of these two countries together – almost like Romania is Bulgaria’s big brother. We’ll see if that still holds after we’ve biked through both countries. 

Time to wrap up for the day . . .

Managed to sneak a little writing in outside of a gas station as we bike along. This has been our first rainy day since, I think, Spain. Good to have the rain after dealing with some significant heat lately – ought to cool off after this . . .

We’re now headed north from Burgas toward Romania and Bucharest. Just had a motorcycle guy at the gas station, Boris – who was also waiting out the rain –  tell me we should go to Transfagarasan in Romania. Calling our research team to give us an idea of what that’s like . . . Boris did tell me, though, that we need to be careful camping there because there are big brown bears that will attack if you put your tent up in the wrong place.