18th December//Bulgaria II – My City

I was born in Varna, a city at the coast of the Black Sea. Black in October, I spent some time there and now I am going to tell you about it.

I was lucky to travel during sunny October (more than 20°C (68°F) every day!) which almost let me forget I had not seen the Bulgarian summer this year… And this is what I saw.

The beach, my sea. Love, love, love.

varna
varna
varna

This cathedral it ste ultimate sight for tourists… well, it doesn’t actually bother me. Just makes me happy to know magic places they don’t.

varna

I went to a coffe with a friend of mine. You had a stunning view over the city.

varna
varna

And when it became dark, it was just overwhelming. Look how beautiful my home is!

varna
varna
varna
varna
varna

I wish I were there in summer!
varna

Bulgaria//Grandparents’ Garden

Back in October, I went to Bulgaria to visit my grandparents and some of my friends living there. Although I stayed for just one week, I have done so many different things! This trip was definitely the right thing I needed. You must know, I did not feel good at all the last days before my autumn holidays started. So I urgently had to relax for a while. I went home on my own for the first time and it was pretty much an adventure. While travelling, I got to know so many people of all walks of life and that I had much more experience with travelling than most of the passengers. I suppose I’m lucky to know German as well as Bulgarian and that I learn English at school. It makes everything so much easier.

During this one week, precisely seven days, I took 504 pictures. I don’t know what makes me feel this way, but I need to share my experience with you. That’s why I made a special cetegory for posts like this one. You will not be confronted with all the pictures I took at once, I will show you the best of`s step by step. And here is the first bunch of them.

I was born in Varna, one of the biggest towns in little Bulgaria. Living there can be very exciting and very stressy, too. Luckily, my grandparents have a garden outside the city which is one of the most relaxing places I know. Have a look at the view outside the balcony…


My grandma said the harvest this year was so poor, that I would not have many things to take photos of. It is true that it had rained very little this summer and you could see this…

…but look what I found to prove her wrong:

These red peppers are bought. But what I want to show you is this…

She has plenty of these little hot peppers she has dried all summer, and when I was in Bulgaria, I could see even more of them grow.


And then I saw these grapes.

And these grapes.

And these ones.


Not bad, huh?

I also loved to see thaaaaaaaat many apples.





This is my grandpa picking apples…

…with this super epic tool.

But I found more than this.


(Note to self: This must be a sign.)

When the neighbors heard I had come home and wanted to take some photos, they invited me to their garden and showed me… just everything. They were so friendly and helpful. Thanks to them I had the chance to take some great pictures.






Such beautiful pumkins. And this one down here is hung on a tree in a net, because it is too heavy to hang on the tree without it and if it just lay on the tree it could not ripen because there is no sun.



That’s a luxury kitchen, eh?

The neighbor has made this well all by himself. It is very deep, I wonder how he managed it. By the way, he suffers from diabetes. But he does not tolerate the medicine he has to take. When he recognized there was no simple way to deal with his illness, he started working in his garden for a very long time. He keeps moving all day to keep his blood glucose low. That guy deserves a lot of respect.


I was fascinated by this tree and it#s story. The neighbors are physicians, you know, and the woman has been specialized on radiation. This picture a pear tree which used to be pretty nice. But one week after the catastrophy in Fukushima/Japan the radiation in the rain has been too high for the tree to tolerate it. It lost it’s leaves and has not recovered ever since. It is stunning that a disaster at the other end of the world can leave such a skeletton in my home country…

Got a huge tomato as present. So nice :). It was one of the last ones they had.

Well, it was a very interesting trip to my grandparents’ garden. The next bunch of pictures will follow as soon as possible. I hope you enjoyed this post.

Bye, then!