Varna Local Customs

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The international fair of arts and crafts was held for 15 or 16 time this year. Art authors present their crafts that could be jewelry, textile, painted glass, ceramic, wood carving, etc. This is really unique place where you can buy something handmade. The Fair is held in the Sea Garden, close to the little stage and in the program are included also dancing and music.

This is just gratuitous use of a photo but I just had to put it somewhere!

This is a restaurant on ul Preslav, just opposite my hotel. The sign on the window says (if I've translated correctly) "Tasty Food To Take Home". The sign on the door says "Closed".

The cats obviously know when opening time is!

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The January morning I'd decided to take the train to Bourgas the temperature had plunged to minus nine and with the wind-chill was probably another ten degrees lower. The trains were still running but a little behind schedule and so I was hanging around the freezing platform waiting for mine to arrive.

Then these little angels appeared. At first I, rather uncharitably, thought they were collecting for the Red Cross but no, they were in fact giving away hot soup. It was just boullion cubes made up with boiling water but certainly welcome.

I did try to give them a donation but they refused to accept anything.

Blagodariya Girls!

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As would be expected from a city vying for the designation of European Capital of Culture for 2019 Varna has a long history of hosting a broad spectrum of National and International events. The longest running of these is the Varna Summer Festival which began in 1926 and more recent events include the International Ballet Competition (since 1964), the International Jazz festival (since 1991) and the International Theatre Festival (1993).

On of the main auditoriums is the atmospheric, Roman-arched, open air theatre in the Sea Garden where the Ballet Competion is staged and is used as a venue for the other festivals.

Links below are for the Ballet Competition and Summer Festival respectively:

According to http://news.guide-bulgaria.com on 3rd April 2009 the Municipality of Varna is seeking bids for the commercial concession to extract 157,680 cubic metres of mineral water annually.

However if you just want to fill your own bottle for free you can tap into the mineral spring down by the new bathing complex on ul Primorski. It doesn't look as if there is any limit to the size or number of bottles you can fill!

Bulgarians are great coffee lovers and as well as the cafes and restaurants there are also dozens of these coffee machines dotted around the city. These outdoor machines actually dispense a perfectly good cup of coffee if you stick to the espresso. At 40 stotinki for a cup, which you can then sit at one of the many public benches to enjoy, these certainly do provide a budget option and if you add a slice of pizza from the take away place you have a perfectly good lunch for about 1.50 Leva!

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...you'll have ample opportunity to check it here in Varna.

Most of Varna's city centre is pedestrianised and on every street you will come across an elderly person with a weighing scale who will weigh you for a few stotinki and maybe have a few bits of bric-a-brac for sale too. These people seem to be perfectly harmless, just trying to make a few Leva to supplement their (if any) meagre pensions and there is no con involved.

This is the oldest musician festival in Bulgaria,from 1926.It is representative forum of the world and Bulgarian musician art in the sphere of clasic music.It makes Varna very popularin the international cultural tourism.Includes opera,simphonic concerts,anciant music and so on.It takes place in June-July.