Explore Nessebur in Bulgaria

As morning arrived we were approaching Nessebur in Bulgaria. It was a small harbor at the city of Nessebur. The town sits on a small rocky island connected by a man-made isthmus to the mainland. It is a Unesco world heritage site. First settled by the Tracians in about 3000 BC. Greeks also came and built fortresses. It had many ruins of churches in the old town, which had coblestone streets and lots and lots of shops. Tourist seem to flood the town from nearby beach resort of Sunny Beach and other resorts.

We first were taken out of town to the country side to visit an old Bulgarian lady who had turned her home into a local show and tell attraction.

She was called grandma by the cruise people. She had a pretty nice house in the village, with front and back gardens, and grapevine covered area where she had set up tables and prepared local foods and homemade wine and brandy for us to try. The peach brandy was pretty strong! whew! The little pastries looked good too, but we just had breakfast so I couldn't eat more than one. I looked in the back yard, where she had beehives and many fruit trees and vegetables growing. There were also many old farming equipments which looked interesting. Then we were invited to tour her house. She made spices from her gardens, they were hanging on the walls. She also crocheted many beautiful table cloths or placemats. The downstairs of the house was half below ground level, where the kitchen was. Upstairs were sitting areas and bedrooms. Our local guide told us that this was really where she lived, and not just a place to show tourists.

Coming back to town, we had a walking tour of the town, visited many old church ruins, most from the outside, some were turned into art galleries if it had walls and roof.

The biggest church ruin in town was just a few walls and the foundation. The weather was hot and we got a good sweat from walking.

we then visited the Archeological Museum, which had many examples of icons (paintings on wood). What was strange was that these icons in the museum can be touched! Supposedly because they were protected by wax. But photography was not allowed. That just didn't make any sense to me. At the town square, there were lots of kids riding on toy cars around the square, apparently that's the place to get their rides. They were having a fun time.

They had a little beach too, and there were people taking scuba lessons or swimming. I walked over the ishmus to where the windmill was. The windmill was a symbol of Nessebur. There were many antique cars parked there, apparently people like to drive them here for show, the owners were just sitting around in the shade of the windmill, and other people were just milling around, taking photos of the cars, and looking inside.

Most tourist appeared to be local, since the harbor was small, and we were the only cruise ship there. It had a bustling atmosphere.

I went back to the ship to get my laptop and found my way back to the town square and the internet cafe there. The Whilte House Hotel it was called, had a lilttle internet cafe. It was 5 lev or $4 per hour! I just plugged my laptop in for about 15 minutes and checked my mail quickly.

Heading back to the ship, a nice shower to cool off. In the evening, we had the Captain's welcome cocktail and dinner.