September 22, 2014

Today, we are anchored in Varna, Bulgaria harbour. It is a Black Sea commercial port. We will be tendering to the pier in a 120 person lifeboat from the ship. It will be a 10 minute ride. We went for breakfast in the Dining Room, with Bill from Malta, a woman from near Sydney, Australia and a couple from near Cardiff in Wales.  Then we went to the Celebrity Theater to get our excursion stickers.  This morning’s temperature was 20 C with a high of 27 C with a partly cloudy sky and a thin mist was on the water. We went through Bulgarian passport control again today, then on the tour bus before 9 a.m.  Our first stop, after a false start due to the Varna Archaeological Museum not opening until 10, was the Roman Baths ruins of a 7,000 square meter structure, dating back to the 2nd century, which was the fourth largest in the Roman Empire. The baths were remarkably engineered by the Romans, with water pipes underneath taking cold and heated water to different pools in the building. There were even change rooms and toilets as well as area of shops. It was the meeting place the ancient city.  We sent about 45 minutes wandering through the ruins. We returned to the coach for a five minute drive back to the Archeological Museum. It houses one of the richest collections in Bulgaria, containing over 100,000 artifacts from the Old Stone Age to the late Middle Ages, including the gold treasures from the Neolithic Period (4,500 BC), widely believed to be the oldest gold ever discovered, and other artifacts some found in burial tombs. We spent an hour walking through the rooms of exhibits.  The final stop of the Varna city tour was the Orthodox Cathedral of the Assumption, also known as Dormission of the Holy Virgin in another English translation. The cathedral interior has a mix of ornate frescoes, icons and elaborately carved dark wooden panels. When we returned to the bus we were given the news that we had an extra 30 minutes to explore the center of Varna shopping area since we were re-scheduled to arrive back at the harbour after 1 p.m.  The wander through the streets helped our total of walking steps reach 8,127 by the time we got back to the bus.  Although there were several Currency Exchange shops, we decided not to exchange any of our Euros or American dollars, to buy any Bulgarian souvenirs and just take in the atmosphere of the wide main street that was not open to traffic and peek down the narrow side streets.

There was a short wait for the next lifeboat tender back to the ship, but we were back to the ship before 2 p.m.  All passengers had to give the documentation officials their passports so that the Romanian, Turkish and Greek passport control staff can check them when the ship docks at the remaining ports of Constanta, Romania; Trabzon, Sinop and Kusadasi, Turkey and Mykonos and Piraeus, Greece.  Canadians will not have their passports returned until the second last day.  All we need, while we are off the ship in those places, is photo ID such as a driver’s license (if we brought it with us) or a photocopy of our passport (if we remembered to make a copy).

After lunch, at the Oceanview cafeteria, we tried again to sign on to the Internet connection, but with no success. The iLounge staff said there was a technical problem which should be corrected in a few hours. We decided to try a frappe at the coffee bar before going to a Digital Camera presentation which also had a technical difficulty when the first projector could not find a signal.  When it was over, it was time to get ready for the semi-formal evening and dinner. There were photographers with their backdrops located on the routes to the dining room to photograph the passengers in their semi formal wear.  For dinner tonight we chose the spinach turnover as the appetizer, Minnestone or Louisiana Gumbo soup and the entrees of Veal Cordon Bleu or Steak Diane, a New York Strip Loin with mushroom sauce. Then for dessert we chose whipped passion fruit custard or a chocolate Sacher Torte. After dinner we danced one dance, before returning to the stateroom to see it the Internet connection worked. No luck! Back in the iLounge the staffer said the package we wanted was still giving problems for the order menu and gave us a 30 minute credit to be able to use the Internet and send off the first post of the blog.  It took less than five minutes to sign on and upload the blog, at last. We hope to add pictures soon. Mission accomplished, we proceeded to the Celebrity Theatre to watch the performance of the violinist, Rafael.  After the show, we gave in and had another frappe at the coffee bar.  Since we were now sailing to Constanta and away from port the shops and casino are now open.  We looked at these locations before calling it a night at 11:30.