Summary

The author reflects on their enjoyable and productive extended stay in Varna, Bulgaria, where they've become part of a close-knit hostel community and engaged in various improvement projects.

Abstract

The weekly update from the author details their experiences in Varna, Bulgaria, where they have been staying in a hostel for a month. They have formed a tight-knit community with other long-term travelers and the new owner, Via. The group has been involved in renovating and maintaining the hostel, including painting murals, creating signage, rearranging furniture, and planning a treasure hunt. The author highlights the collective effort and the fun they've had, despite not yet moving on to Turkey as initially planned. They also share personal projects, the beauty of Varna during the Christmas season, and their reluctance to leave due to Bulgaria's 90-day stay limit. The update concludes with the author expressing their love for the city and a wish to return in the future.

Opinions

The author expresses a strong attachment to Varna and the hostel community, describing it as a "big happy family."
They are impressed with Via, the 22-year-old hostel owner, and are happy to support her in her new business venture.
The author values the collaborative spirit of the hostel guests, noting that everyone pitched in for maintenance and improvement projects.
They believe the treasure hunt initiative will be a fun and practical activity for future travelers, providing them with usable currency from various countries.
The author is proud of the aesthetic improvements they've made to the hostel, particularly the nautical-themed mural and kitchen redesign.
They appreciate the opportunity to have their photos taken by fellow travelers, capturing moments of their work and camaraderie.
The author is nostalgic about their time in Varna and is already missing friends who have departed, indicating a deep connection with the people they've met.
They are enjoying the festive atmosphere as Christmas lights are put up around the city and are making the most of their remaining time before they must leave Bulgaria.
The author acknowledges the reality of their nomadic lifestyle, recognizing that all good experiences must come to an end, but they remain hopeful about returning to Varna in the future.

WEEKLY UPDATE | TRAVEL | BULGARIA

It’s Hard To Leave Varna and Our Hostel Family

My Week In Photos — Week 36 — November 17–November 23, 2022

Christmas lights are arriving in Varna. Photo Credit: Author

Well, I finished last week's update by saying that if all went well, you would be hearing from us in Turkey this week.

I won’t say that things aren’t going well, but we didn’t make it to Turkey yet.

The truth is, we really like it here in Varna. We have been in this hostel for a month now, and there is a core group of others that have also been here for that duration. We are like one big happy family, and we have been having so much fun connecting with fellow long-term travellers from around the world.

Some of our friends here. Photo Credit: Author

We have also gotten to know Via, the owner, really well over the past couple of weeks. She is just 22 years old and has recently taken over the hostel from the previous owner that had it for 16 years. As she navigates this new world of business ownership, all of us travelers that are staying here have been helping her to get things streamlined.

Via and I doing some painting together. Photo Credit: Author

Of course, Chris and I are painting murals and making the place look nice, and our contributions inspired our Aussie friend Ryan to make some nice signs to replace the old ones. All in all, I think he spent about 4 days creating signage and helping her to hang them up around the hostel.

He used to own a hostel, so he knows a thing or two about what makes things run smoother.

Last week a bunch of us got busy with some small maintenance projects around the place. What started out as just me and our Scottish friend John fixing some things, quickly turned into everyone jumping on board. At one point, I suddenly looked around and people were pulling bookshelves apart, cleaning, sweeping and dusting all corners of the room.

Together, we really accomplished a lot in a short amount of time.

We even rearranged the furniture in the kitchen and living room to make the spaces more functional. Here is our Dutch friend Peter, Korean friend Kim and our Mexican friend Roy cooking up a storm in the new open layout.

A more open and functional kitchen. Photo Credit: Author

So now, the hostel looks great and Via told us that she doesn’t want us to leave! Haha. At the end of the day, we ordered a big feast of Chinese food and all sat around and ate it. Delicious! We haven’t had good Chinese food in a while!

Chinese food feast! Photo Credit: Author

I am also still painting a small project in the kitchen. When we re-arranged the kitchen, we moved some shelves and the wall looked atrocious behind where they were, so I just grabbed some paint and gave it a fun nautical touch. I think you can almost feel the sea breeze coming through the port hole.

Still in progress. Art and photo by Author.

We are also working on another fun project. As the hostel has a nautical/pirate theme we decided that it needs a treasure hunt. So we are trying to come up with a creative way to make the clues that people can follow that will lead them to the treasure.

What is the treasure? You may ask.

The treasure will be currencies from countries around the world. Many times when we leave a country, we still have a few small bills and coins. Over time, we have accumulated a lot and it is HEAVY. This will allow us to offload our excess money. We have also spoken to other travelers that have this problem as well and want to contribute to it.

PLUS the bonus will be that if somebody finds the treasure, and sees a currency for a country that they want to go to, they can take the money and use it! Can you imagine arriving in a country like Zambia and already having some of the local currency on you? It would be a dream.

So we hope that it becomes a revolving amount of different currencies that can bring happiness to travelers that come through here.

It would be really nice to get that finished before we go.

In between all of this, Chris and I work on our online projects, continuously building our content and creating money for ourselves to survive. It really is a full-time job!

I haven’t taken shots of the mural completed with the furniture re-arranged yet, but here are a few shots of the murals that are now finished and before we moved the furniture.

I will be writing an entire article about this project and will link it in a future weekly wrap-up.

We have also had the privilege of having a few photographers around here that have been taking our photos. We don’t often get our photos taken, especially both of us working together, so I was really happy with this cute shot that our friend Kim took of us the other day where we are both painting the same pillar on opposite sides.

Photo Credit: Kim — Used with permission.

This past week we said goodbye to our Ukrainian friend Urich. He left for Antalya in Turkey, and I’m sure we will see him there when we get there as well. He is chasing the warmth, as we will be doing soon also.

Another lovely friend. Photo Credit: Author

As you can see in the lead photo, the Christmas lights have been going up around the city and it is looking lovely at night. This past week has had us roaming around the city in the night with Via as we have been joining her on walks with her and her dog Dante.

Dante, Chris and our Bulgarian friend that goes by the name Darkness. Plus us out under the lights of the city. Photo Credits: Author

Unfortunately, we do have a time limit as to how long we can stay in Bulgaria, 90 days. So by December 3rd, we do need to leave whether we want to or not. Today we walked to the bus station to assess our options and to start the process of getting mentally prepared to leave.

We have had a lot of fun here, but all good things must come to an end and we have to move on eventually. It is just the nature of this life we have chosen. So if we haven’t left by next Wednesday when I post our next update, we will certainly be in serious preparation mode to do so.

In the meantime, we will continue to enjoy our time here in Varna. We truly do love this city so much and hope that we can find a way to possibly stay here longer in the future.

I send out much love to you all, and to our American friends, we wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving!

xo Jill

Here are my published articles from the past week:
Why We Hated Egypt and Will Likely Never Go Back
C Is For Christmas Island - My A-Z Of Favorite Travel Destinations

I’m tagging those who have requested to be tagged in our weekly wrap-ups. If you would like to be tagged, please let me know and I will add you to the list.

To see all of my weekly wrap-ups:

Weekly Wrap-Ups - My Weeks In Photos

I joined the Weeds and Wildflowers publication prompt "My Week In Photos" in March 2022. Later in the year, I decided…

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Full-Time Travel Has Made Me More Grateful

It’s often about the little things in life.

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