Manchester - July 2007
mcdog

It was raining in Manchester. It was raining everywhere in the UK according to the radio.
It had been raining for almost the whole six weeks we had been back in the UK. Did we care? Not then we didn’t, we were sitting in the airport, watching planes take-off in clouds of spray. Waiting to catch a flight to Bulgaria, where it was rumoured that people were dying of heatstroke. People were drowning in the UK, swept away by floods. We decided to accept the risk of heat-stroke.
The plane was full, full of farting holiday-makers and screaming kids, but a bottle of Boris Jelzin vodka helped us get to Burgas airport. The same bottle helped us onto a green bus that took us through the dark to the Globus Hotel at Sunny Beach. The Globus overlooks the beach, if you get a room on the right side. Our room faces the car park and a pleasant little square lined with restaurants, a hair salon and a travel agents.
We eventually suss that the air-con doesn’t work while the balcony door is open and the room starts to cool. This is the first time for weeks that we’ve been too warm. Nice.

Sunny Beach - July 2007

What a sleep. It’s early afternoon by the time we get out of the room. We’re hungry, so we walk, looking for somewhere to eat. There’s plenty of choice and plenty of places offering five or six hours of Happy Hour.
We get ‘breakfast’ in a place called The Corner. It looks more of a nighttime cafe than a place to get breakfast. The girls wear outfits that look like costumes from a Flintstones movie and the roof in part of the cafe is held up by statues of topless ladies. What the hell, they serve food. Herself orders a salad and I make the mistake of ordering a toasted sandwich of cheese and salami. A couple of beers and a small confusion over the bill later and we’re back on the street looking for a supermarket. There’s no shortage of estate agents and we glance through the photos in the window but most of the adverts are for apartments in the town. We find a shop and buy water and something to add to the remaining vodka.
Even though there’s plenty of people on the beach, the streets are not crowded and there’s a very relaxed feel to the town. We wander for a while but it’s very warm and I should have worn my hat to protect my baldie head, so we retreat back to the hotel for an exiting night in front of the tv.