Monday, 01-Sept-2025, through Wednesday, 03-Sept-2025
One of the big escapes of this adventure in Bulgaria was Sinemoritz – a small town on the Black Sea that Andrea has worked at for a summer. Beaches, summer sun, and relaxation were the name of the game.
With that in mind… here’s the photos. There really isn’t much to tell that the photos don’t say – we relaxed on the sand, swam in the sea, and ate some simply incredible food.
Relaxing was the name of the game. And we excelled.
<How’d I post this without text or pictures? Who knows… but thank you for bearing with!>
Every year, there’s an event on the rivers in Sofia called, aptly, “The Rivers of Sofia”. It’s one of the many events that Andrea remembers fondly from her days in Bulgaria, having joined in as an attendee, so I’d heard quite a bit about it on our drive over.
In short, the idea was that it helped clean up the canals around Sofia. They’d gotten a bit messy over the decades, and this event worked by holding the event at different parts of the rivers every year. Cleaning them up in preparation, and then leaving them better than they’d found them.
Simple, efficient, and absolutely well put together! We walked, we talked, Andrea got recognized by tons of people… it was lovely. And as the evening fell, the whole event lit up magically – the river brightening, bands playing… it really was a magical summers evening.
Tuesday, 26-August-2025 through Sunday, 31-August-2025
Bulgaria.
I haven’t been to this part of the world, before. I knew that I had the best tour guide I could ask for in Andrea, and had done the base background research on the history and culture (and had obviously absorbed some myself, such as Banitsa), but the adventure was a first foray into a new world, regardless.
It was glorious.
I can’t overstate how great of a guide Andrea was / is – I lovingly call her “The queen of Sofia”, and that title was well earned the whole time we were in town. Everywhere we went, people recognized her. Every restaurant saw the owner, chef, or someone similar come out to visit and catch up… alongside consistent extras unexpectedly appearing. Each bite was excellent, and each drink was special. I was in incredibly good hands.
Now, what did we do, specifically? Quite a bit: – We visited Andrea’s Grandma for her birthday! – We had amazing food – Italian, Turkish, pastries, and BBQ – We met fun and interesting people – tons of folks from Andrea’s previous life, all interesting and enjoyable – We explored. Walking around the city, I even had an afternoon of solo exploration where I got to recollect the fun of my Grand Adventure, exploring a city where I don’t know the language.
It really was an excellent start to an excellent vacation.
