Middle-aged flash packers

I don’t know whether it’s reassuring or depressing but Bulgarians also have serial car accidents on Fridays when everyone wants to get away and the last thing anyone wants is a 2 hour delay. But that’s what we got.

What is different is the police and the public actually take action against people trying to jump the queue by driving down the hard shoulder. Lorries and car drivers try to block the offender with their vehicles and anyone who gets past is met by a police officer at the end, ticketed and made to wait until the traffic is gone. Most satisfying.

We eventually arrived at Lozenets about 3pm and the main parking at and around our hotel was completely full. However, I used my powers of persuasion and managed to bag ourselves a space in the hotel’s underground car park. There it will stay until we leave on Monday.

The particular development we are staying near was known to be very popular with Russians. Many bought apartments and villas here. I don’t know if they are still coming but the cars here are insane- wall to wall Porsches, top end BMW’s and Mercedes; in fact anything super expensive is here. The clothes the women are wearing are very fancy indeed and most women are stuffed full of fillers. There is also an aroma of of arrogance – people don’t make way for each other, they just barge past. Last night we saw 2 groups of teenagers come out of a swanky villa and went off driving a Mercedes 4×4 and a Lexus. Where is all this money coming from?

The beaches in Lozenets are very pleasant. They are kept super clean despite the complete lack of litter awareness by locals. There are areas for swimming and areas for water sports, life guards etc, it’s all very organised. The “rent a sunbed” culture is here as in Italy, but there are “free zones” for people who don’t want/can’t afford to pay the rental.

The downsides are : unfinished buildings (yet again. Awful blots on the landscape.), some of our neighbours have been noisy (big row next door in the early hours) and – surprisingly to me at any rate – awful food. We haven’t had any decent grub since we’ve been here. Overpriced, poorly cooked crap basically.

On balance though, we are enjoying our stay here. The people watching is phenomenal and if we want some splendid isolation, the pool is deserted as everyone loves the beach.