Nessebar - A bit of hi(story) and some pictures

5.45 a.m. walked on the beach and then headed along the water to Nessebar. The streets were quiet and clean. Few people jogging and sightseeing. Nessebar is a UNESCO world heritage cite. Nessebar's history dates back to the Thracians and ancient Greeks who came here in 6th century B.C. There are old ruins of Byzantine churches (a total of 40 churches in the little town), more recent Bulgarian cobble stone streets and wood houses. Small boats gently swayed by the morning breeze. It smells of seaweed and salt. Coffee houses just opening, owners hosing down the sidewalks and getting out plastic chairs and tables.

This is the Nesseber I would like to exist in its own little undiscovered bubble. Last night it was buried under the tiny make shift and house shops that sold junk, Eastern Europeans were addressed in mother tongue and coaxed to visit overprized restaurants, the noise and bustle paired with the amount of “stuff” made it impossible to stay too long. Not so today.

On the way there I met two old women. They live here. They come out in the morning at 7a.m. and stay till 8 when it starts getting hot. They told me a bit about themselves – who they were in previous lives before retirements and the ill health they have to endure now. Both poorly dressed and sad looking. Their town belongs to others…

Last night met shopkeepers who come here in the summer to work and then go to the mountain resorts for the winter to work there. Hard to make a living, global economy crisis is acutely felt. I discovered a shop with beautiful art, bought me a little souvenir, the owner is an artist too, said most everything else is from China…

Realities come and go, overlap and live side by side, stories of old and new stories..