Varna Things to Do

Following Bulgaria's National Liberation in 1878 Varna quickly became established as Bulgaria's most important port and the city centre was substantially rebuilt in a variety of asthetically pleasant architectural styles. Despite the post WWII socialist developments and the more modern additions many examples of this turn of the century architecture still remain and are well worth looking out for.

As soon as the first hint of a sunny day arrives the cafes and restaurants around the main square (pl Nezavisimost - Independence Square) become the place to be where you can sit with your coffee and watch the world go by - in my case sit watching the pretty women ;-)

One word of advice though is that coffee prices vary enormously between the cafes and that the best value for money is The Happy Bar and Grill.

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It may be a bit of a cliche to say that "the best things in life are free" but it is, in my personal experience, quite often the case. Here in Varna one of my favourite places is the magnificent Sea Garden which sprawls northward from the city centre for several kilometres following the Black Sea coast. The Sea Garden (sometimes referred to as Primorski Park) is one of Europe's largest city centre public parks with an area of about 90,000 square metres and is an eclectic mix of both formal and informal cultivation.

Many of Varna's main tourist attractions are situated within the park including the Dolphinarium, the Observatory and the Varna Aquarium as well as several cafes and restaurants. What I especially love about the place is that when you get off the main promenades, with their sculptures and monuments, pleasant though these concourses are, you really can just escape from the city and surround yourself with birdsong and the vegetal scents mingled with those of the sea.

On one of my meandering wanders I had a bit of the park pretty much to myself until I came across another like-minded guy. This guy was just standing on the dirtpath, transfixed in his own solitude, listening to the birds and breathing deeply. This was one of those times where you don't need to have a shared language in order to be able to communicate as he greeted me and said (in Bulgarian) what I would assume was "Isn't this beautiful, listen to the birds..." I stopped and we stood a while in silence before I replied (in English) "Yes it is..."

We shared a smile and parted company having shared a small moment of humanity and each set up for the rest of our day with the shared smile and the birdsong as our day's highlight.

It has much to tell about the cultural, social and political life of Bulgarians during their National Revival period. This building has been housing the school, the church, the community central library and the church-school management since 1862.

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The idea to build an impressive city clock tower was accomplished in 1888 . The construction site was carefully chosen - the new clock tower in the city park and the Cathedral formed the city centre boundaries of those times.
Firemen used the tower since high buildings were still rare and from top of it they could watch over the entire city untill 1898.Then was bought the clock mechanism from England

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At the start of Varna's magnificent Sea Garden is the hidden little gem of The Varna Aquarium. This is more of a local educational facility rather than a tourist attraction and the fish and shellfish exhibits are presented more with a bias towards knowledge rather than gaudy showmanship.

The main room is dedicated to tanks holding examples of Black Sea fish, shellfish and indigenous river species (with a couple of exotics thrown in). The signage is mostly academically worded but there are some interesting facts to be learned by careful reading.

It was here that I discovered what the "Som" fish I had for lunch in Vidin the week before was. I'd assumed it was some sort of river fish, maybe of the Pike or Perch family, but the definitive answer was to be found here. "Som" turns out to be the local name for the "Wels Catfish" (Silurus Glanis) and is indeed a river fish and the bits of one that I ate on the boat restaurant on The Danube probably did come from that river.

Yep, very educational!

I do believe there is an entry fee of 2 Leva (which might be more for foriegn visitors) but on the day I visited there seemed to be no-one collecting the money and so for me it was free!

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TheCathedral is the largest and most famous Bulgarian Orthodox cathedral in the Bulgarian Black Sea port city of Varna, officially opened on 30 August 1886. It is the residence of the bishopric of Varna and Preslav and one of the symbols of Varna.
Primarily materials from the vicinity of Varna were used for the construction of the cathedral. Stones from the destroyed fortified walls of the city were collected, material for the façade was brought from the neighbouring villages of Lyuben Karavelovo and Kumanovo, the inner columns were made of local stone. The outer columns under the windows used stone from Rousse and the arches relied on limy freestone. Copper plates for the roof, as well as elevating gear to lift the blocks of stone, were brought from England

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Pobiti Kamani is a rock phenomenon located near Varna . It consists of several groups of natural rock formations on a total area of 70 km². The formations are mainly stone columns between 5 and 7 metres high and from 0.3 to 3 metres thick. The columns do not have solid foundations, but are instead hollow and filled with sand, and look like they are stuck into the surrounding sands, which gives the phenomenon its name.
In order to be preserved, Pobiti Kamani was designated a natural landmark in 1937.
There are a number of theories regarding the phenomenon's origin, divided roughly into two groups — supporting an organic or a mineral origin. According to the former, the formations are the result of coral activity, while the latter explain the phenomenon with the prismatic weathering of the rocks, the formation of sand and limestone concretions, or lower Eocene bubbling reefs.