Sozopol, Bulgaria

Viatarna Melnitsa restaurant and Kirik fish bar

Part 3 now and here I am on the plane home - writing the final chapter in the Sozopol entry for my blog, on pen and paper that is. I am now amongst yobbish Brits that come for the sun and cheap booze at Sunny Beach & Golden Sands - they are a delightful bunch, sporting white jogging bottoms, gold jewellery and the latest football strips.

Kirik fish bar

To carry on from where I left off, Thursday evening saw us eat at the recommended fish bar,"Kirik". For starters we opted for the Bulgarian mussel and mustard specialty (after they told us they had no black sea crab) and chicken wings. As Sam was ill and I felt a little under the weather we opted for two non-fish dishes; the mixed grill and meatballs and cheese with sauteed potatoes as mains. Our palettes were moistened by a Traminer white from the Tragovishte province. All this set us back 37lv.

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Last day in Sozopol

And onto our final day in Bulgaria - it ended as it had began - with rain and lots of it. We stayed in and packed for the morning whilst watching CNN’s terrible news coverage and wishing for the BBC. By lunch time we were bored so headed back to "Kirik" to try their infamous fish dishes now that we were feeling better. This time Sam ate the red mullet whilst I opted for the Zargan - a long thin fish with a blue spine. Sam also tried the "buttermilk" drink which she had seen others have, it tasted like some obscure liquid cheese/bitter yogurt and was promptly pushed away. 21.50lv this all costs us and the fish was fantastic.

The rain didn’t let up but this didn’t deter us from one final shopping tour and photo spree. I have officially been dragged through and around every shop in the old town. When finally my legs gave way we returned to the hotel to finish packing before having a card game of head-to-head Texas hold ‘em and a variety of "strip jack naked" incorporating snap and other rules - we dubbed it "Paul wins" three years ago. The kind hotel management let us stay in our room until we needed to leave - which is great considering our flight was at 23:45.

Windmill restaurant (again)

We paid our dues and booked our taxi before heading out to the "windmill restaurant" for our final Sozopol outing. Yes, here is ANOTHER paragraph about food - in fact this holiday has been all about REALLY good food, cheap. We ordered some more specialty starters - a serving of caviar and sarmi - vine leaves stuffed with mince meat with a side order of garlic bread.

The fun didn’t stop there, for our main course we had the fabulous Pork Kawarma that came in a hot pot on a plate of oil which once ignited cooked the food on our table for us and a scrumptious succulent Salmon in honey dish. This came as we overlooked St Ivan’s and the distant hills lit up a brilliant burning red as the sun set behind them. For dessert we had the ice cream again. This was one of the greatest meals I have ever eaten and it was the perfect end to our eatery-summer Bulgarian adventure.

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I guess I will now sit back and watch the rest of King Kong or do a Sudoku! Oh and here is a girl in a bag on the side of a van:

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