Nesebar (Bulgaria)

I thought I would tell you all about my experience of Nessabur, Bulgaria. Be prepared!

●GETTING THERE●

I went to Nessabur, Bulgaria in July 2004 with my Mum, Dad and their 2 friends, Jacqui and Brian. We flew with Balkan Airlines, and for me, my Mum and my Dad, it cost £1300 for half-board. We were booked to stay in a hotel in Nessabur, named Hawaii Hotel.
We set off 3 days after my 16th birthday, ...
...you wanted to know. Anyway, we had a mid-morning flight, which took 4-5 hours, so we arrived in Bulgaria about 12pm their time. The flight was fine, but I am not reviewing the airline, so I won't describe the service and so on.

Anyway, when we landed, we got straight onto a coach which took us over to the airport, which was only about 30seconds away! There was no smoking on the airport grounds, so you could not smoke outside before ... more

I thought I would tell you all about my experience of Nessabur, Bulgaria. Be prepared!

●GETTING THERE●

I went to Nessabur, Bulgaria in July 2004 with my Mum, Dad and their 2 friends, Jacqui and Brian. We flew with Balkan Airlines, and for me, my Mum and my Dad, it cost £1300 for half-board. We were booked to stay in a hotel in Nessabur, named Hawaii Hotel.
We set off 3 days after my 16th birthday, so I remember it was the 19th July, in case you wanted to know. Anyway, we had a mid-morning flight, which took 4-5 hours, so we arrived in Bulgaria about 12pm their time. The flight was fine, but I am not reviewing the airline, so I won't describe the service and so on.

Anyway, when we landed, we got straight onto a coach which took us over to the airport, which was only about 30seconds away! There was no smoking on the airport grounds, so you could not smoke outside before you went in, or inside unless in the allocated areas, which are thought was ok, even though I am a smoker. We went into the airport doors, and we were in this quite large room with about 10 passport control booths all in a row. There were no seats, or no barriers to show where to line up. Everyone just went to the first passport control booth. Within half an hour, the person at the front of the line still hadn't got trough passport control, as there was nobody there to let them through! Within the same half an hour, about 7 more flights had arrived, and so there was a large line at every passport control booth, and more lines waiting outside. There were about 800 people in that room with more people waiting outside. About 1 hour later, a woman came to our passport control booth, but was waiting about 10 minutes between every person she let through, to let the next one through. More people joined our line, including a lot of Germans and Bulgarians. It was absolutely boiling. The English were getting really annoyed, the Bulgarians and German behind us absolutely STUNK, and I mean, STUNK of B-O. BADLY! They were pushing and pushing. About 60 kids fainted; about 20 old people were nearly fainting. It was horrific. We were in that line, or should I say crowd, for about 3 hours! I am really surprised that nobody was crushed or had died in that stinking, small room packed with hundreds of people between the times of 12pm and 3pm, the hottest hours of the day. I think I am lucky to be alive!

When we got outside, we went to our airline rep, who checked off our names, and then pointed us in the direction of our coach. We had a fag, finally, and then went over to our coach. The rep had the cheek to say, 'Where have you been? We have been waiting for you 5 for over an hour. You are the last 5 people to arrive for this coach, you better get on'. She then told us that we were staying in Sunny Beach and not Nessabur, so my Mum and her friend told her; we booked to stay in Nessabur, and not sunny beach. The rep then told us that our hotel in Nessabur has been over booked, and we have now been moved to a new hotel in Sunny Beach. The 4 adults decided to see what the hotel was like, and we were 10 minutes away from Nessabur on boat or taxi, so we could go over and visit the city anytime we liked. We finished another fag, then got on the coach. By the way, seeming as though we were the ONLY 5 people they ere waiting for, about 30 more people turned up to our coach afterwards!

●THE WRONG HOTEL AND THE WRONG TOWN●

We arrived in Sunny Beach, about 5 hours later than schedule thanks to the poor service at the airport. I'm still lucky to have even gotten to the hotel! We walked in and the pool area looked okay. We got into the hotel and it looked ok. We got to our rooms and WHAT? This was supposed to be a 3 star hotel. More like 1 star mate! At our hotel in Nessabur, which is where we were supposed to be, we had booked a 2 bed roomed room for me, my Mum and Dad. We booked a family room. The room were given was this hotels version of a family room. You walked in the room and you saw 2 beds. 1 fold over camp bed and 1 normal 1. They had a living room chair between them and a coffee table. There was 1 more room with a double bed and 2 side tables. There was a wardrobe in my room for the whole 3 of us, and a tiny bathroom. The colour was brown. Yellow walls with a manky brown carpet, brown furniture, ugh! We didn't have a TV as booked; we didn't have a kitchen, as booked. Jacqui and Brian's room was worse. 2 beds in 1 room with a bathroom. Same colour walls and furniture as us.

We were angry. If your hotel is fully booked, they should upgrade you to at least 1 star above what you had booked, not the same number of stars, and a manky hotel. The adults complained to the reps, who didn't do ANYTHING. Jacqui spilt coffee on her towels, and the cleaners just folded them and left them for 3 days. We arrived on the Monday, by Wednesday, we were pissed. So, Thursday morning we set off in a taxi to Nessabur to find our hotel we were supposed to be staying in. We found it and it was NICE! The entrance was a big café with neatly laid tables. The pool area was 60 times bigger than the mank that they had put us in. The reception walls were glass, with a blue and white design all around the reception. They had 2 lifts. The floors and walls were spotless. We didn't need to see the rooms, as we saw them in the brochure, so we knew what they would look like. That was IT! We had enough, we were complaining, and we wanted to stay in this lovely hotel that we ORIGINALLY booked, AND may I say, PAID for. We went down to the Balkan Holidays main office, where my Mum and Jacqui were inside for about 2 hours. Finally they came out and said we were going to go to Nessabur, the town we booked and paid to stay, and Hotel Hawaii, the hotel we booked and paid to stay.

Finally on Friday morning, a coach was sent for us and 2 more families who the same thing had happened to, AND, they had also booked the same town and hotel that we booked for. So we 3 families arrived in Nessabur at the Hotel Hawaii, finally.

I suppose all of the above is to do with the airline! Not Nessabur. Anyway:

●THE RIGHT HOTEL AND THE RIGHT TOWN●

Our rooms were as we booked. My room was a 2 bed roomed family room, with TV, Kitchen and bathroom. Nice balcony, fridge and everything else that we book for when we go on holiday, everything that was not in the previous hotel. May I say, the owner of the Hotel Hawaii and the owner of the mank hotel we were moved to were the same owner! Apparently, he over books the Hotel Hawaii, which is really nice, so he can fill up the mank that he has in Sunny Beach. I suppose it's because if anybody saw that mank in the brochure they wouldn't book to stay there, so he did it to fill it up!

The days were fine. The sun was nice and warm, with one or two days rain in the 2 weeks we were there, but only for about 5 minutes, and it was still warm. We were expecting rain, as Jacqui and Brian had been to Bulgaria, both Nessabur and Sunny Beach a few times before, so they told us it would probably rain. Everything was great until night time!

●SHOPPING●

Shopping was good. There small shops all over the place. We had to walk down this long road to get to the main 'town centre' were everything was, and on that long road were a few stalls. Baby clothes, sunglasses, watches etc. All the usual small stand stuff.

On a Friday, and a Saturday there was a market in a small town nearby. The market was massive. Clothes, bags, sunglasses, shoes, belts etc. Had almost everything. It was also very cheap. You could get, just like in Turkey, 10 T-Shirts for £10, but I think most of them were 5 T-Shirts for £5. They took Euros too. These T-Shirts were copied, so they are cheap in the first place. Sunglasses are about £1. I bought some sandals on a stall in the 'town centre' for about £6. It is cheap. The Market in which I was talking about is quite warm, as it is full of people, but they do have the big massive canopies over it, to keep the sun off you. I can't name any shops for you, as they didn't have names, and I can't really remember any names if they did have them!

Do be careful in the market for Bulgarian teenagers, mainly girls, as they try to go in your bag to steal your purse. My Mum was walking and felt something on her back, so she turned to see what it was and a teenage girl was putting her hand in my Mum's handbag. Luckily, my Mum's bag had 2 zips and a buckle for the main part, so the girl couldn't get in it!

There are also pastel paintings, which are really good. You give the person a picture of whoever/whatever you want them to draw, and they'll do it. They have black & white charcoal, coloured charcoal, pastels, watercolours and loads more. They're not painting, they are drawings! These are quite dear, well it ranges who you get to do your drawing for you. There about 1000 different stands all over Nessabur, everywhere you look there's a person sat on a stool drawing. They are brilliant. Jacqui got one done of her granddaughters, and it cost about £13. He messed one of the noses up though.
Most of the drawings look identical, it's brilliant. The price ranges on which type of drawing you get. Black & white is the cheapest, then coloured is the second cheapest, and so on.

●EATING●

There are quite a lot of places to eat. There some small cafes. We sat down to eat at one whilst at the market, but we soon left, because of Jacqui, because they sold Lamb's Head, and there was one sitting on the side inside!

There was a place called Chicken Palace which sold, obviously everything chicken. Anything you can think of with chicken in it, you could buy.

There was another place, which we found down one of the side streets, which I can't remember the name as it was a Bulgarian word. They did Lamb, and it was freshly done on a massive skewer over a barbeque right at the front of the restaurant where you could see, and passers by could see too. My Dad ordered the Lamb once, thinking he was going to get a lot of Lamb, with chips and veg or something, but he never! He got………………a full plate of Lamb. He couldn't finish it, it was PACKED full of lamb! And it cost about £6. And that is cheap for Lamb!

There are many places to eat ion Nessabur. There are loads of small restaurants down side-streets, so if you go, look down the side streets, because you may find a very cheap and good restaurant.

With 5 of us, we would usually have 2 drinks each. I had usually Red Lion, which is Red Bull, or, Diet Coke. My Mum and Jacqui would have Vodka and Orange juice/Tonic. My Dad and Brian would have 2 bottles or pints of beer. We would have 5 main meals, not each, I mean 1 each, which is 5 altogether! And sometimes Garlic Bread for starter. I may have a bit of cake afterwards but not always. This cost us every night, between £10 and £15, so you cannot complain.

Beer is very cheap, £1 on average I think, but it varies which pub/café/restaurant you go to. Pop is about £1, and Vodka was just over a pound I think.

One place we found was The Red Lion, and we all know, well people who go abroad a lot will know that The Red Lion is and English pub. Probably not owned by an English person, but it is set up for the English. It wasn't that full, as it was quite out of the way. It was very cheap, and it did karaoke with a man with multicoloured hair. He was funny. Did different accents all the time.

●NIGHTLIFE●

NONE! None at all. Nessabur is not a place for teenagers. I was bored stiff after my second/third day in Nessabur. My friend went earlier in the year than me and told me that it was boring as hell and should not go. She was right. My Mum, Dad and them enjoyed it. You had to make your own entertainment. One place did a Bulgarian night, but it was just dancing, and we never saw it again after that one night! Everywhere was just still. I am used to Turkey, where there is karaoke in nearly all bars, entertainment, quizzes, dancing by both workers/belly dancers and customers. Very great fun. Nessabur was opposite. I think it was a place more for older couples after a quiet holiday. Not a 16 year old wanting to do something over than shake cockroaches off her body ALL night long, sitting still in a bar with no music, no entertainment, just nothing - sat there cringing, and just waiting for 1 more cockroach to fall on my head. I hated it.

●GETTING AROUND●

You can go to Old Nessabur and New Nessabur. WE were in New Nessabur, it is the same thing, and it's just 5 minutes apart. Old Nessabur is old building, pebble streets with the small houses you can hire to sleep in. Right by the beach, full of Sea Food places and basically just an even quieter part of Nessabur that we were staying in.

You can get to the part of Nessabur you want to visit by a small wooden train, drove by a man! It cost about 50p or something I think, and it drove right by the sea. You could get on the boat which cost about £2/£3, or Taxi, which was a bit dearer. DO NOT GET ON A BUS. You will wait like 30 minutes, then when it comes it has about 50 people on a 10 seater bus!

●ANYTHING ELSE●

BEACH - The beach was really nice, always packed. There are plenty of shops and stalls for drinks or ice lollies around the beach. There are some toilets. You need to pay for your sun bed, which was about £1.50, which is ok if you are there all day. It is a beautiful beach, which has banana boats, water- skiing and much more. I don't know the prices of these as I never looked or tried them. The sea wasn't even that cold! You can't go topless. You have to go to the topless beach way down the other end! And I think they are all nudists down there, not just topless!

CHANGING MONEY - Your Reps will tell you about this when you get there. DO NOT, EVER, EVER, EVER exchange your money at an 'exchange rate booth' on the street. Even if it looks nice and proper and so on, like an official exchange rate place, it won't be. They are not licensed, and so, do not exchange your money. They just steal it! Always change your money in your Hotel/Apartment. A man who we got talking to, came and sat with us one day, after his Mum had returned from a bit of shopping. She went to change money in one of the 'exchange booths/shops', which he had told her not to do before she went out, but she did anyway. What the person at the shop did, was take her money, and gave her some notes, with one of the smallest Bulgarian notes on top. When she got out of the shop she checked the money. The first note was Bulgarian, and was worth about 5pence. The next 20 notes or so were Yugoslavian, which aren't even valid anywhere in the world anymore, and all the rest were fake! BE CAREFUL. She got ripped out of £50, that's how much she changed at that shop, and got 5pence in exchange!

PEOPLE - The people are really nice. They will do anything for you. Like most foreign people I think. Kind, nice, and not many of them try to rip you off. That's all I can say, purely nice.

SCENERY - The beach is nice. Old Nessabur is nice to look at some old buildings, but that it about it I think. Not much scenery I can think of except from bushes, trees and cockroaches all over the place.

GIFTS/SOUVINEERS (sorry) - There are lots of stuff to buy friends/family. There are loads of clothes shops, with really nice clothes in them. I bought a really nice dress for about a fiver. I bought a few tops for £1.50, which was good as they weren't copies of named stuff, but from proper shops, which also have their own catalogues! There are a lot of small souvineer places around. All the usual stuff like ashtrays, ornaments, clocks, Bulgarian house decorations, like plates and stuff. Perfume is also a thing you find a lot, as well as jewelery. Not as much perfume and jewellery stores as Turkey though. There are LOADS of tattoo and piercing places dotted around. Whilst I was there, I got my labret pierced (top of my lip) for £8. Here, well, in Preston it costs about £15. There's cheap fags and beer too. They don't sell English fags though. If you want English fags, you are best asking Taxi drivers! Local hotel taxi drivers, as most hotels have 2 or 3 taxis to take you places, such as Old Nessabur. Ask them, and they may be able to get you some. They don't have many L&B, but they have a lot of B&H. Very Cheap too. I got my sister some archers for about £3, a 2 litre bottle, which is cheap. There's some great pottery too. Plenty of things to buy for people back home. You could also give a friend/family member a cockrach if you want. They're free and theres plenty to go round!

TAKING HOME FAGS - We got to the airport, and a security guard asked us how many fags we had. We had about 2000 or something like that. He said pay me and I will let you through. We asked how much and he told us £5. £5 it cost us to keep our fags.

COCKROACHES - Big massive deal. If you hate cockroaches, please, please, please, please, please, please and more please, I am begging you for your own good: do not go to nessabur! Nessabur, Bulgaria rains cockroaches at night times. Everywhere you look, a cockroach. They drop on your head, your clothes, it's just disgusting. They fall out of the trees, and Nessabur has a lot of trees. I was petrified going outside after dark in Nessabur. I was absolutely petrified. I mean, I cried EVERY night because a cockroach was on the wall, that's how much I hate them. Luckily I only had 2 fall on me, but it could have been worse. The first time it fell on my leg. I knocked it off, being brave, but I had 3 quarter jeans with a turn up, and me being paranoid, thought it fell in the turnover! I stood up screaming. I don't care! If I'm scared, I'll cry, I don't really give a flying foo what Germans and Bulgarian, and maybe other English people think of me. I SCREAMED, I stood up shook my leg, I was sooooooo scared I couldn't tell my Mum why I was creaming, I was dancing on one, leg, when I finally managed to tell my Mum why I was screaming, I spotted the cockroach (oh my God, I'm getting visions of them all over the room!) was on the side of my leg, and my Mum knocked it off for me. The 4 ADULTS, were absolutely in tears laughing at me, they thought I was doing some mad dance.

The next time it happened, we were in this restaurant, and 2 of them were on the ceiling above me, but in front of me, if you get what I mean. The whole time I was there, I just stared, and kept watching if it was coming closer. We finished our food, and I kept asking when we were leaving. 'Five minutes' the adults kept telling me. I was like this every night. Sat cringing, sat statuingly still, frozen, just terrified that a cockroach was going to fall on me. Then it happened. I felt a plop on my head. Luckily I had my hair down. I just shook my head, then I though, 'where has it gone?, where has it gone?'. I has a jacket on as it was quite cold in Nessabur at night times. I looked at my right are, and there it was, staring at me, I could see it's little eyes, I just screamed, 'Get it, I got one, I got one, I got one, I got one, Get it, get it, please!" and they were like, 'Got one what?', Jacqui was sat next to me and I'm like trying to put my arm in next doors bar thinking my arm would come off so I could chuck I far, far away! Jacqui knocked it off, and more Germans and Bulgarians gave me funny looks and kept staring because I was crying my eyes out!

When we got back to the hotel there would be about 50 dead cockroaches all over the floor. I'd be stood cringing in the lift, incase there was any live ones. Luckily we were on the 9th floor, so none could get to our room, except one that my Mum brought up on her back one night! The first 3 floors had them running near their doors, and they are fast thing so they could run in without you noticing.

If that wasn't bad enough, my house got beetles when I got back home due to radworks outside. The worst summer of my life!

I was very lucky to not have died at the airport, I'm even more lucky to be alive now, because I could have had about 89 heart attacks during my 9 or so days in Nessabur. Luckily, I never had one.

SO, IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HAVE COCKROACHES FALLING ON YOU, RUNNING UP THE WALLS WHILE YOU ARE EATING, RUNNING ROUND YOUR FEET, RUNNING ON THE TABLE WHILST YOU ARE EATING OR HAVING A DRINK, DON'T WANT TO SIT IN COMPLETE SILENCE IN A BAR, AND IF YOU WANT TO HAVE FUN ON A HOLIDAY, THEN GO SOMEWHERE ELSE, BY ALL MEANS, AVOID NESSABUR BY ALL COSTS. ESPECIALLY IF YOU HATE COCKROACHES.

Sorry for ranting. Worst holiday EVER, in my whole life. I will never ever go there again, or recommend the place to anybody EVER. Unless you like cockroaches, in which my opinion of you is that you are one yourself, go to Nessabur and join your whole family, because I'm telling you, there must be 187843657823653952934876 million of your ancestors running around scaring innocent people like me.

I'm sorry if I have spelt Nessabur wrong all the way through my review.

Thanks for reading.
xx Staz xx
 

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