If you are interested, here is the vlog so you can watch and see what I am describing:
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Hi (again) Fellow Trip Reporters,
I think it fair for me to start this one with an apology for how long it has actually taken me to continue to write this trip report. I am (however annoyingly) determined to finish this series of trip reports, as I have yet to actually show you the best part of the trip (and what most of you are here for) the brutalist architecture! They say slow and steady wins the race, well over here on my trip report series, it is as though the race just sort of hit pause and waited for me to get back on the track… and in this race of finishing the report on time (during the actual trip, I wondered off course whilst the tortoise and the hare raced to the end). And here I am! In that no man’s world of trip reporting where no one actually cares anymore but I really want to document it anyway!
Ideally, I would have like to have written this and finished this months and months ago, but I think we all found ourselves caught up in grand plans with dreams and things we wish we had done and never completed as the time elapsed and the more it gets away from you, the less significant it feels. But I absolutely love writing these reports, with the prevalence of social media, Instagram, YouTube and the need for people to feel more engaged with their audience, I still prefer to romanticise my words onto the page, rather than use YouTube as a medium. If any have you have watched the Yu_Go_Gone YouTube videos, I am not exactly a star in the making over here (sounding slightly unsophisticated, with the demeanour of a 15 year old girl who has an incessant angry face every time she eats and that slight deer in the headlights look when the camera rolls) add to that my amateur AND quick camera panning which never ceases to enrage YouTube audiences (kidding, I only had a few comments about this!), without written words on a page, I am afraid I am quite ineffective at articulating myself.
Now, with that long-winded explanation out of the way, let’s get back to what you all actually came here for! An actual TRIP REPORT! I am a little rusty at this so please do try to be a little less angry at me than the “brutal” world of YouTube! (Pun intended!) So, getting back on track, we are leaving Moscow, Yugo boy cursing why we did not stay the entire month of our Russian visa, was not wanting to leave and I unable to fathom where we even were, was pretty proud of my 2 comments on my trip report and the 3 subscribers we had on YouTube, and at this stage was thinking I was doing quite well as a trip reporter and prospective YouTube “star” (without the star).
We decided to book ourselves on a charter flight from Russia, Moscow to Burgas in Bulgaria. The flight was so cheap about 15 Euro with bags and a meal, the only barrier anyone could have was actually reading Russian to be able to book the flights. Luckily, we were fine with that and with the combination of us two (okay fine, mainly Yugo boy and I was in the background encouragingly saying “yes they are so cheap! why would everyone just not book the charter flight??? It’s crazy! No it’s the right choice to go to Bulgaria and skip the Amalfi everyone goes there, have you booked yet? What’s taking so long??”).
So you see, it really was a team effort booking these tickets. And there we were having booked our flights to Burgas and having figured out why every person who was not Russian had not booked the charter flight (the CYRILLIC RUSSIAN website might have been the reason) and with Yugo boy unsure whether we were making the right choice (also unsure if he had actually booked us on the right flight and whether we would be rejected at check in) and me certain we had made the right choice, given the cheap and incredibly gourmet seafood, beautiful scenery, sunny days and how expensive the Amalfi actually is… I was so excited or as the Aussies say “dead keen”.
The flight from Moscow to Burgas can be viewed on the YouTube video, but essentially it was one of the most interesting/bizarre flights with the worst service we have seen during a flight. It was a compilation of rude, condescending Bulgarian flight attendants who asked you to buy their exorbitantly expensive basic food and then who had massive tantrums when no one bought anything (the Russians knew the game) as the next round of food was absolutely free and was a substantial portion for the 15 euro per person flight which included the food and bags. All the announcements were in Russian, not one announcement in English or Bulgarian and then I assume the landing consisted of fuel conservation in the form of no reverse thrust in an attempt to get more bang for their euro buck.
The flight was filled with Russians, every seat booked out and I was seated next to this lovely older lady who was Armenian from Russia, and who in typical former Soviet fashion, offered to share her little chocolates with us, I however preferred her conversation (yes, no one is surprised given the length of this trip report and the fact it is indicative of my love of never ceasing to talk. I promise I stop talking sometimes…ironically when I’m on camera).
We were transported to our apartment resort by a shuttle service provided by Elena the hostess and owner of the apartment on Airbnb (as every person in Bulgaria was named and ironically it was our 4th conservative hostess who was named Elena; there are quite a few Elena’s who were Airbnb hostesses). The man was a Russian named Igor (the fifth of the trip, he was in his mid 30s, early 40s who drove us) from Moscow who was also a former Psychologist (graduating from Moscow University) who lived in America for 10 years and said he worked non stop every day and made no money. He stated the best decision of his life was moving to Bulgaria as he only worked only during the summer, owned his own 2 bedroom apartment by the beach for 25,000 euro and who had the flexibility to work when it suited him). So we arrived at the apartment and were very happy with it, with Elena greeting us, and that’s when we noticed the internet did not work. Elena addressed the internet connection issue with her saying “it will work” continuously, anyway, no surprise, it did not work.
We were very excited… and that’s when things started to fall apart… with no internet… Yugo boy was fretting, and I thinking, how ever could my 2 trip report followers and my 3 YouTube subscribers live without my incessant updates on the trip (one of the YouTube followers and my most loyal follower is actual Yugo boy’s 89 year old Grandmother who DEMANDS videos but claims she has NEVER seen the videos every time she watches them… now I have revealed where all my views come from, I think it’s just yugo boy’s grandmother rewatching videos hundreds of times whilst claiming she didn’t even know we had a YouTube channel…)
Anyway, do not fret we survived by sitting by the pool in an attempt to obtain that “promised” and advertised internet connection we were told would work (anyhow, we really needed no sympathy as we were happily living it up in Sunny Beach!)
So without further ado… here is a little compilation of photos from Burgas because as we can all can see, I can drone on about every detail about the trip all day, every day (even after all the time that has elapsed!)… and “ain’t nobody got time for that!” (but, literally I could make a novel out of this and I think everyone just wants to see a few photos..) So I will provide minimal commentary on these (or now) and let make what you will of these from Sunny Beach to Nesebar (Nessebar), and unfortunately for some strange reason I took no photos on the actual flight, but I will link the youtube video where I filmed the entire flight:
This is our airbnb where we stayed!
Sunny beach - always sunny here (well, the mood is always sunny, not the weather, but close enough
)
Nesebar, such a stunning little place.. so much history and amazing views. Including the amazing restaurant where I fell in love with mussels.. big time!
We went to a folkore competition..
Back to our airbnb! with no internet... we were on struggle street as you can obviously see...
No trip to Eastern Europe would be complete without the quintessential grandmother who knitted these doilies herself. This particular one was a lovely Macedonian lady.
I hope you all enjoyed my comeback post, I promise the next ones do not have to be this long or will not… I just thought you were all owed the brutalist architecture you were promised and I failed to provide! (Yes, I’m talking to you, that one person who sounded angry, albeit devastated that I never posted the brutalist photos!)
Bulgaria is a brutalist architecture hot spot, so tune in… this failed trip reporter is here to stay so I hope you will find it in your hearts to forgive me, if not, come along for the ride anyway – Yugogirl out! ;-)