A city with a past and building a future (Varna)

Name: Aprumem

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Product:	Varna
Date:	13.04.08 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Mix of resort, port and roman ruins

Disadvantages: It took me 8 hours on the train

Varna was for me an interesting discovery because I had a different idea of this city before going there. I have Bulgarian friends and I visited Varna at the beginning of April, staying there for 3 days. I took the train from Sofia, which in itself is an interesting trip, although a bit tiring, for both the characters who board the train, and for the landscape you pass through. If you are prepared to put up with 8 hours in a train, and have a good book, going to train to Varna from Sofia is an option.

Anyway, back to the city. It is a strange city, or, better, a peculiar one. It is a large port, also a large hub, and it has enough monuments going back to the Romans to make it a cultural destination, and, at the same time, it is a large resort and in summer the base from where tourists go to the famous Golden Beach.

Out of summer the city is active, there was a lot of construction going on, and a lot of traffic too. I found it interesting that there are still some cars from the Communist days, together with modern cars and BMW and Mercedes of the new rich.

The centre of the town is not big and if you go there as a tourist you will find that most attractions are within reach if you walk. Taxis are cheap and they tend to speak very basic English.

I visited the Roman Thermae, the Cathedral and the Boris Georgiev Art Gallery, which is on 2 floors and displays mainly contemporary Bulgarian art. I stayed with friends in the suburbs and we only went to a restaurant once, nothing to write back home.

I will try to go there again next summer, and if I do, I will update this review. The general feeling in Varna is of a city of a glorious past, which is reconstructing itself with the fresh money of the economic boom which Bulgaria had in the past years.

Summary: I would like to go back