Byala, The Black Sea, Bulgaria
Posted on August 29, 2023 • 11 minutes • 2262 words
It’s dinner time after a long day, but you have just arrived to the Black Sea. How do you not go check it out? Laura, the kids and I went (way) down to the beach just to “check it out for a few minutes” and Dan and Ben headed out to get dinner. Best laid plans always stay the course, right? The water was so pleasant, soft sand and bigger than expected waves. For about 2 whole minutes of yelling at the kids to try to stay dry, I can see when it’s a losing battle.
Kids stripped to their underwear and embraced the water to the max. They loved it, running, screaming, failing, jumping, rolling, you name it. If it hadn’t been late, getting dark and on the verge of a kid losing it over hunger, we would have stayed for hours. Reluctantly the kids rinsed some of the massive amounts of sand they had all over themselves and we walked back up the hill to the rooms. The sun had set fast and the moon was amazing. I’m clearly not the photographer of the group.
Got some dry underwear and got ready for the good delivery from the guys on the Allreds’ patio. There was a little bit of everything! All delicious and Ben took a strong liking to the scad fish.
Never heard of it, Dan neither when he ordered it, but he asked for the local fish and this is what we got. Seriously, it was all amazing. We ate until it got dark and got the treat of a beautiful moon. We headed back, 100% tuckered out from the day.
Sam was still feeling a bit off and was up early. We went up to our rooftop deck and enjoyed some cuddling with the sunrise.
And the sky about 15 minutes later.
We came back downstairs, assuming everyone was up, but nope. Max and Ben slept in the latest they probably had on the trip.
A bit cold, but nothing a blanket and heat from a slightly sick 6yo can’t handle. He was a bit off, but no fever actually. When given the option to stay home with mom or go to the beach…well, it really was a dumb question. We ate breakfast and met up with the Allreds to head to the Black Sea beach again. (Dan stayed back to get some work done as he was going to be presenting his class plan in less than a week). Perfect temperature in and out of the water. The waves were still a bit big for comfort of having all 3 kids in the water. They were pretty happy splashing about in low waves, searching for shells and rocks, and building sand structures. I say ‘structures’ as there wasn’t much castle shape. Although, maybe with all the ruins we had seen of such old castles, they were going for that approach?
I love playing in waves! I feel like a such a kid! I love the feeling of being smashed into by the wave or diving under them. The feeling of the pull of the water that runs like a sine wave through you as the water goes over you with each wave is just such a cool feeling. The waves were a great size to be in the water with a kid at a time and we squealed with joy each time we had to make the split-second decision of ‘over’ or ‘under’ as the wave came. Ben was the perfect age and Sam was getting there, but I pretty much never let Max out of my bear hug each time a wave came. It was so rejuvenating! Big Ben was sweet to take some turns with me, because after the kids got a taste of the real waves, not just ankle waves, they wanted more! Understandingly so. :)
After the kids got a bit worn out in the water, full focus was switched to building and searching for things for their sand structures. I took the time to look too and was fascinated to find the roundest, smoothest, flattest rocks. They were everywhere! My Uncle Mark has a collection of them on his counter in Cape Cod, MA. He has searched for years. YEARS! And here I was with the same number in about 10 minutes…with the kids’ help. :) Yes, I sent him a photo.
(Back at the room, I stacked them up like he has in his house).
Not quite sure how we were going to convince the kids to ever leave the beach, but we did by moving to the pool so we could eat lunch without sand. Why again are they called ‘sandwiches’? Anyways, up to the pool and Ben ran back to bring down snack/lunch food. Sand-free-wiches, cucumbers and wrapped it with a bit of Nutella and bread. The parents took the opportunity to have a couple much deserved drinks from the bar.
The pool was a bit chilly, but no kids seemed to mind. And it was such a beautiful setting.
In my researching of the area, I had found a water-slide on the beach. I had NOT mentioned it to any kids, but we adults decided to power through and take them after some pool time. It had already been an amazing day, but I wanted to see the glee on their faces when they saw, and then rode the slide. It was a HUGE hit! Laura went down first to be at the bottom for kids, kids all went and then myself. A bit jostling, but worth it. Of course, the kids wanted to go again and we complied. After that time, the woman running it, waved us back up for a free ride. Kids went sprinting up the stairs as I stayed at the bottom to be there for Max as he seemed to be the only one that would come down turned 180deg around and was a bid disoriented as he plunged into the pool.
Sometimes when traveling things work out and sometimes, they don’t. Actually, this isn’t about traveling, this is just life. Awaiting the begging and possible meltdown as we were about to take over tired and probably still hungry kids back to the room to have some down time, the sky opened up and started raining on us. It could NOT have been more perfect. We HAD to go back for safety we told them. :) And we did to be honest…eventually we saw lightening afar. Showers and dry clothes and we let them all lay on the bed and watch a show. We all needed to chill.
To make our life easy, we went to the restaurant that we had take out from the day before. The storm had trailed off, but you could still see it in the sky.
Throughout the trip the kids and I have been searching for all the EU license plates. Well, it started with just EU and quickly escalated to any country’s license plate. When walking to dinner we got a new one and for some reason (well maybe since we have seen a lot of repeats) Ben and I were so excited. We found Moldova! MD! I enjoy knowing capitals of countries, but this one threw me for a full 360deg loop. Thanks to google and then youtube for showing us how to pronounce it, we can now pronounce Chişinău. Anyways, we arrive at the restaurant and we got seated up on the covered terrace, fully open to the sea air. We skirted a Sam meltdown and starting ordering lots of food. A new fish, more scad (basically a whole plate for Ben), chicken nuggets for some kids, salad, some melting pot of deliciousness and cocktails. It was just too perfect. Friends, open air, good food and more or less kids that were listening…and cats begging for food…that succeeded.
Max loved the yogurt/pickle dip, plain or used as it was intended to be used…as a dip.
On the very short walk back home we had a beautiful view of the moon. Stopped to check out some cats and ants, then slowly made it back after a short photo shoot with the moon.
Note: The really good photos are all on Ben’s phone as he has some uncanny ability to take amazing photos. Supposedly we have the same quality camera in our phones (more or less) but his are just shockingly beautiful. He claims it’s all about the angle, which had become an inside joke of all of ours on the trip.
A good night sleep was needed and luckily in store for us. The next morning we had a 10am checkout and kinda struggled with that. :) As I look at this photo, I realized my kids probably slept in the clothes from the night before and just rolled out of bed. :)
Packed up and headed out to Nessebar…another great idea of Big Ben’s when planning this trip. And it would help break up the drive, which consisted on reading time today. Sam has taken a huge liking to Mr. Putter and Tabby books.
It was just the perfect amount of time for an easy drive, easy park to get us there with a little time to check it out and then get food before lunch got too late. The whole town is a UNESCO World Heritage site and rightfully so. The streets were magical.
After parking we headed to the middle of town to Saint Sofia Church…or what was left of it. Something about this church was a little extra special. I’m not sure if it was the fact that the roof was missing and you could really see the structure that was left, or that it felt so bright (again no roof) or the symmetry of what was left that was so apparent because…yes again, no roof. Very photogenic place.
There wasn’t much to see at the church, so after walking around for a bit and taking lots of photos, we headed back to a restaurant we had passed for lunch.
The thing I remember the most about this lunch is that Ben (the kid, not adult) ate an adult sized hamburger and poor thing had a stomach ache the rest of the day.
Some adults ate half and seemed content. It was huge and yes, delicious. True to form, Dan ordered ’the local fish'.
Walking around we had seen free wine tasting, including fruit wine. Don’t worry, Herb we’ll go check it out. Kids were kinda eating slow and Dan got his food late, so Laura and I had the brilliant idea of leaving the kids with the dads and doing some wine tasting in peace. Have fun!
will never be able to drink fruit wine (even if delicious which has been the case a lot lately) without giggling or thinking of my friend Ashley and running through countless Schitt’s Creek quotes in my head. We had fun, in our matching shirts!, tasted some fruit wines, tasted a couple real wines, sorry Herb but it’s kinda true, and had some time to just look around the store. We did have to hide once as the crew went walking past.
With some purchased wine and relaxed souls, we headed out and slowly started looking for the group. Not a big place, we looped around and found them headed down to the water for one last toe dip in the Black Sea.
It really was a cute old town, that deserved some more walking around time, but we still had a bit of a drive and plans of stopping at a winery on the way. Looped around on the shore, back to the cars.
Following Ben out of the parking lot (he offered to drive today), we found a gas station, got some very good gas station coffee and chatted about which winery to go to. The conversation continued with texts back and forth and Dan and Laura seemed to have decided on one. Nice highway for driving and peaceful views.
Exiting to the ‘winery’, you’ll soon understand the quotation makes, we drove a few minutes to the location google told us, only to be on a dirt road, in the middle of fields…not vineyards, fields. We thought we saw something before, so after some 3 point turns, we found a gate that had the winery name on it. It didn’t look too welcoming, so we sent Big Ben. He chatted with the guy a bit and from what we could tell, it was more of a distribution center, not a winery where one could taste, that had white wine and black wine. We figure, we are here…let’s go in. We walk into the grounds and Dan and Big Ben go into a small room/building. Hanging outside with the kids and we see Dan poke his head out. Seems the options are 3 liter or 5 liter. Umm, we have no idea if we’ll like is, so 3? Not the experience we were going for, but it was an interesting experience and we had making jokes about the black wine.
Once again, back in the car and after about 10 minutes of driving, this happened. :)
Easy rest of the drive and pulled into street parking spots right in front ouf our AirBnB. I’d be lying if I say I didn’t seriously struggle parallel parking on the left side, but I managed with only minor yelling at Dan to leave me alone. Unloaded our stuff and into our home for 3 nights.