Varna, Bulgaria

We arrived in Varna by train from Sofia. The train left Sofia at 7am, the journey was ok.
We managed to doze on and off, for a few minutes every time, during the 8 hour train journey. The two young children, who were sitting with their mother in the seats in front of ours, didn’t seem to need any sleep. They were well behaved, and fairly quiet. The young boy was happy reading comics and playing on his mothers iPad, the little girl was very keen to keep things clean. She used lots of baby wipes to clean all of the surfaces within her reach; the arm of the seat, the window etc. They were definitely better behaved than a couple of the other children on board, who spent several hours running up and down the aisle screaming. Occasionally their father would come and take them back to their seats in the next carriage.
Unusually for us we were ill-prepared for the train journey. We mistakenly thought there would be a buffet car on the train. Alas we were wrong. Thankfully we had drinks with us, but no food apart from four tiny biscuits and a small packet of gummy bears. We nibbled the biscuits trying to make them last. Gummy bears are all well and good, but they’re not really what you want to eat when your very hungry.
Ha! Serves us right for expecting food and drink to be available on an 8 hour train ride. ;o

Video of Varna, Bulgaria

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We spent our six days in Varna not doing very much at all except relaxing, wandering round exploring the town, people-watching, eating, and drinking.
The only up ‘fly in the ointment’ during our stay was when we tried to buy bus tickets to Bucharest in Romania. We caught a taxi to the bus station, but found most of the ticket offices closed, and a lot of unhelpful people. Having said that, there was one lady who was very helpful, she told us that there were no busses to Bucharest (a blatant lie) and offered to sell us tickets to Constanta for 40 levs each (trying to rip us off).
In the end we gave up on trying to travel to Bucharest by bus, and instead purchased tickets for the night train.

Eating in Varna ~

We arrived in Varna after an 8 hour train journey, having eaten nothing since the previous evening. We were really hungry. We went to a restaurant close to our hotel, I can’t remember the name, it was near Alba restaurant.
It was a pleasant restaurant with lots of outside seating, shaded from the sun by a canopy of trees. The food was rustic. We ordered a mixed salad to share, it contained potatoes, ham, sweet corn, black olives, and onion, and was topped with grated cheese. We were enjoying it until we both tasted something nasty. We realised it was mouldy potatoes. I’m guessing that’s not a regional delicacy.
Apart from the salad we ordered a rabbit stew, succulent rabbit with potatoes, onions and olives. Very good. And a strange dish of bacon, grilled green peppers, fried egg and a huge dollop of cream cheese. Greasy and not that good.

Alba Restaurant
We had a very nice lunch at Alba. I ordered a chicken casserole, which had lots of cheese in it, slightly odd but nice. Laura chose something randomly from the menu, which was only written in Bulgarian, it was liver with rice. Both meals were served in clay pots, and we enjoyed them.

Master Grill
One evening we wandered towards the main square looking for somewhere to eat dinner. Unfortunately the skies opened and down came the rain. We rushed into the first place we saw, Master Grill. We ordered a chicken pizza, and a side dish of grilled vegetables. The pizza was seriously greasy, the chicken, of which there were thankfully only a couple of minuscule pieces, was grisly. The grilled vegetables were not cooked fresh, they were obviously reheated, and not properly as they were cold. They were way too raw too, and covered in nasty burnt bits.
All in all, one of the worst meals we’d ordered in a long time.

City Restaurant (BM) www.bmrestaurants.com
We ate dinner at City Restaurant a couple of times.
The first time I ordered duck served on a bed of pears, with blueberries. It was nice but overcooked, I’d have preferred the duck much rarer. Laura ordered chicken with a creamy sauce, served on a bed of mash potato. We ordered a plate of mixed vegetables to share; brussels sprouts, broccoli, carrots, and sweetcorn. Both meals were washed down with beer.

The second time we ate at City Restaurant I ordered venison, but when it arrived it was slow cooked roasted beef. The meat was good though, as was the potato is was served on. Laura ordered medallions of pork on a bed of risotto. We ordered mixed vegetables again. We washed the food down with a couple of bottles of dark beer each, Stolichno.

Pizza and Grill
We ate a tasty lunch at Pizza and Grill in the main square. I ordered a pork pot meal, which was very good, lots of different cuts of pork including a chop and sausage. Laura chose grilled chicken tagliatelle. The pasta had a generous amount of chicken, carrots, spring onions, and scrambled egg mixed through it. We shared a salad of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, boiled egg, and black olives.
.

Bodega Tapas and Wine
We ate at Bodega Tapas and Wine twice. Both times the food was very tasty.
The first time we ordered duck on bruschetta. A salad of prawn, fresh orange, pink grapefruit, avocado, lettuce, tomato, and black olives, with a lemon dressing. And falafel fritters topped with yogurt, served with a cucumber salad drizzled with tomato chutney. I oreded an apple cider, which was a refreshing non-alcoholic jug of apple juice with slices of apple. Laura chose a cherry tea, which was a jug of cherry juice with lots of cherries in. Both drinks were excellent.

The second time we ate at Bodega Tapas and Wine we ordered similar tapas to our first visit, with the exception of fried prawns in a crispy batter served with a very spicy mayonnaise, and a tangy tomato dip. They were very nice.
Both times we ate at this restaurant we ordered tortilla, but unfortunately it was not available. And the second time we ate there all of the fresh homemade soft drinks were unavailable too, which was disappointing. We had to drink beer instead. ;d

Bistro Europe
We ate at this restaurant a couple of times. First time I ordered a Taste of Bulgaria plate, which was a selection of things. It arrived on a seriously huge serving platter. There were small bite size pork sausages, several chunks of a filo pastry and cheese pie, a tomato and cheese salad, a yogurt and mint concoction, and another tomato concoction. Laura ordered a salad of their own smoked salmon, which didn’t actually have much salmon in it, but what there was tasted good. The salad was topped with two large prawns, and contained lettuce, tomato, avocado, and grated cheese.

Our second visit was not as good as the first. We ordered from the specials menu. We shared a goats cheese salad. The goats cheese was nice, but there wasn’t much if it, and it was spread on stale toasted bread, drizzled with honey, and sat on top of lettuce and tomato.
For our main course I chose spaghetti and meatballs, Laura chose lasagne. Laura’s lasagne was stone cold. It was obviously quite old and stale, it was horrible – so nasty she didn’t eat it. My spaghetti was not much better, it was overcooked, mushy, and the meatballs were made using very cheap, low quality meat.
Rather surprisingly, when we asked for the bill, the waitress told us we weren’t being charged for the lasagne as it was their fault Laura didn’t eat it.

Inter-Thai.
For our last meal in Varna we ate at Inter-Thai. The food was pretty good.
I ordered a Tom Yum soup. Laura ordered Tom Kah Gai soup. We also ordered rice with mixed vegetables, and a plate of grilled vegetables. The soups were tasty. We were pretty much full when the vegetables arrived so we didn’t eat much of them, but they were good, as was the rice which we ate with our soups.

Drinking in Varna ~

With luck we stumbled upon a decent wine shop called Casa Vino (www.casavino.bg). I’m sure we have visited another one of their stores, but can’t think where it was. Old age, or maybe one too many glasses of wine. It was a nice shop with a decent selection of wines, two bottles of which ended up in our bag.
Sublima from Varna Winery (www.varnawinery.com). I like to drink local wine, so it was good to drink a good local wine whilst in Varna. Sublime is a rich and full bodied wine, with a great nose of stewed red fruits with a damp woodland undernote. On the palate it exploded with black cherry, followed by a burst of mellow tannins. The finish is long and develops into wild Forrest fruits. 7/10

Light Castle Winery, Sangiovese 2009 (http://www.lightcastlewinery.com). Our second supping in Varna was another good offering. A well balance young wine. Lots of high red fruit notes and a long finish. Cheers to Bulgaria.

Summary ~

We had a very pleasant week in Varna, Bulgaria. It is a pleasant town to walk round with lots of pedestrian zones.
If you like beaches, it’s got beaches. If you like drinking, it’s got lots of cafes and bars. There are also a decent selection of restaurants to dine at.