In her last post Cora already wrote about how things often turn out unexpected. I can only confirm this. Let me tell you about the ferry we are about to take….hopefully….soon.
It goes from Varna to Batumi. Well Varna isn’t really correct. It is actually Beloslav a little town 20km outside Varna. It is a lovely place with cafes and restaurants and banks. But no hotel. No guesthouse. No private rooms. We asked everywhere.
So when we arrived here on Tuesday we had no other choice than to pitch our tent just around 500m away from the ferry complex surrounded by mosquitoes and ticks. Actually we wanted to spend the two days here writing postcards and updating the blog.
Yesterday we then moved to Devnya 15 km away from the ferry complex because there was at least a hotel. The cheapest so far and finally one of those soviet style buildings. Lady at the reception of course doesn’t speak any English and has difficulties writing my middle name and Cora’s two middle names in Cyrillic letters.
Anyway we get the suite according to the fire rescue plan. As they have St. George day most shops are closed. We meet a friendly guy in a security car though. He takes us to a nice little bar and restaurant called Infinity. You wouldn’t believe you could find something like this in a town like Devnya which is actually inhabited mostly by people working in the huge cement mine next to the harbor.

Now the ferry agent told us to be at the ferry complex at 9am for the document check. So we get up at 7, pack our bags and cycle back 15km. Some motorcyclists gather at the complex but other than that not much is going on here. We call the agent to clarify if we can pay with credit card. „No, only cash“, he says. „And no document check before 1pm“. But he recommends drinking a coffee in one of the nice cafes in Beloslav. We are not sure if he is the ferry agent or just promotes the local gastronomy.

I forgot why I actually write this post: The last days when we thought about the ferry we thought about lying on deck taking a sun bath and enjoying the all inclusive because you can only book all inclusive. When we arrived in Beloslav, however, it turned out to be slightly different. Since there is only this cement mine this is only a freight harbour. And the ferry is a freight ferry.

I expected a ferry like when you go from Denmark to Norway. Not really. Their website already was a hint since it hardly existed and was more about the ships and cargo than about happy families traveling to Georgia with their air mattresses and this happy-life-smile.

But I’m actually happy it turned out differently. This will probably be an interesting journey some 1500km across the Black Sea. You will see some nice pictures in 3 days when we arrive in Batumi.

Right now we are in Beloslav drinking our second coffee. We got the money after a long wait because apparently today the pension was paid and a lot of elder people now try to get their money.

All we can do is wait and hope the document check goes flawlessly. We try not to expect anything. But secretly I expect we will fail to not expect anything at all. Maybe I’m wrong.