Sinemorets - My Black Sea Visit

I couldn’t sleep all night because of all the excitement that was waiting for me on the next day and also because I was already late in packing up my things for the five days on the black sea coast of Bulgaria at the beautiful Village of Sinemorets, located south east of Bulgaria, near to Turkey where river Veleka flows in the sea.

My friend and neighbor Tatyana was already by my door with a coffee at 2 am in the morning because we had our flight at 5 am. She had booked the same flight as me unknowingly as she was flying back to Varna, another sea coast in Bulgaria. As we live little far away from the city center in Berlin, It was obvious that we had to leave at 3 am latest towards the Airport Berlin Schönefeld.  I was already enjoying her travel company and we chatted about some random things.

Crossing through all the flight checkups, we headed towards the Easyjet , one of the cheap flight organizers in Europe. We flew towards east, crossing Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and part of Serbia and finally landed on Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria. I already felt home seeing all the hills around the city, exactly like in Kathmandu. I headed towards the Passport control counter, where woman saw my passport and asked what am I doing in Bulgaria? My Tatyana helped to translate saying that I am visiting few friends and heading to the black sea. Because of her I wasted very less time in getting through the immigration.

Tatyana had already planned something for her evening with her family so I had to bid a short farewell to her because she had to take her bus towards Varna as soon as possible. I went outside of Airport and waited for Ani to arrive. It felt very nice to see her after a month after our last visit together to an Arctic Monkeys Concert in Zitadelle , Berlin. Our bus from Sofia left for Sinemorets at 10 pm; we had plenty of time to go to shop and eat few things on the way. I finally bought my swimming shorts. I was very ready now to go and jump into the black sea, although I hardly knew how to swim. We went shortly to her home to greet her parents and her grandmother, after packing up her things we headed towards the bus station.  We then took our bus towards Sinemorets at 10pm in the evening.  We headed towards south crossing Plovdiv and few other Bulgarian towns such as Burgas, Sozopol , Tsarevo, Ahtopol , arriving finally in Sinemorets at 5 am in the morning. I enjoyed my night bus ride very much. It was my second night bus ride in Europe after my visit to Paris two years back. We arrived in the beautiful village of Sinemorets just before the sunrise. I saw the sea for the first time in my life, never been to one. My heart pumped very fast. I cannot describe in any words how beautiful it was. And timing from my point of view was also very nice, just before the sunrise. I had never seen such a big blue thing in my life. It had no ending; it just went on and on. I remembered exactly on this very moment how Ernest Hemingway described the Sea on this book “The Old Man and the Sea”. We climbed through a small hill on the top of the sea. I could hear the sound of the sea grow bigger and bigger. Slowly the sea turned red with the color of rising sunrise. The picturesque was so beautiful, that it would stay in my eyes and mind for the rest of my life. We did manage to pose ourselves in front of the camera to catch the very moment forever.

We booked a hotel called “Dayana Family Hotel” just across the sea. It was called family hotel perhaps because it was run by the family. We arrived just too early because we couldn’t check in before 2pm in the day.  We had plenty of time. We decided to go to the beach with our luggage. My Lacoste shoes were completely full of sands. I felt quite bad for it. Sun was getting warm and warm. We had no other choice than to change the clothes at the sea. I was a little shy because I did not want to wear my beach shorts getting completely naked that’s why I tried using my old Nepali technique of wearing shorts on the top of boxer and pulling the boxer out through the legs. Yep, it was not a very good idea. I tore my underwear of course.  Ani on the other hand was rolling on the sand floor laughing at my misery.  We did manage to leave our luggage at the entrance of the hotel till 2 pm so that we could just head back to the sea. On the hotel there was a guy who had a lipstick, long hair, changing the music at the hotel bar. No one said anything to him. I just made a hypothesis that he was the owner of the hotel and since it is a family hotel, mother stayed behind the counter, father checked the staffs and general things, and Mr/Miss Dayana (I don’t even know if that’s his/her name but I made fun of him calling him with that name because it sounded quite nice and worked perfect to his/her outer look). We sat beside the bar and enjoying our coffee listening to very nice chillstep which was running on the background, when Mr/Miss Dayana ruined the occasion by playing some bullshit music. Thank to her/him.

 Ani was very excited about getting brown, the color that I got by my birth and was very eager to stay on the sunlight. I knew already that I was going to turn purple and black. Sunlight always scared me because my mother and my sister Anjali always made a big issue when I was flying kite at the top of my house facing directly to the sunlight because they always said I look horrible purple. I guess they were right; anyone would look horrible with purple color. While we were on beach I was so eager to just go to the air conditioned room of the hotel so that I could just sleep in a cool room for few hours. I counted each and every second on my clock. Not even a cold drink at the beach bar next to the beach helped me fight the heat of the sun. Finally it was 2 pm and we rushed to the hotel all exhausted and slept for few hours.

After few hours we decided to head back to the sea and swim. I was scared to jump into the water but I had to, seeing all tiny kids jumping and doing front and back strokes. I jumped and learned how to move a bit. I felt very happy that I could swim a bit. And I did try my first Kebapcheta for this year at the beach bar. It was not very good as the one that I tried a year back in Vitosha but never the less it was all right. I can never compare any Beer to Burgasko , the best beer in Bulgaria. I drank quite a lot of beer during my whole stay. But let’s not bring beer into the blog.

Two old women next to us in the beach were talking about some mysterious man who swam in the water for 12 hrs at least with his white cap and white t-shirt, whom I saw with my own eyes at the far end of the water, swimming. He was there by the way all the time in water during our whole stay. I can never figure out what he ate during his whole swim duration. Anyways I have heard about Mermaid but I pictured them only as a woman or a girl, but saw male form of mermaid with my own eyes. It was very much unbelievable. I am not trying to build up a story here or trying to tell a fake story because Ani is a witness as well. He never came out of the water and was always swimming. He might still be swimming.

There was a hotel next to the beach, called “Bella Vista Club”, a four star hotel which I called “The Mental Institution”. On that hotel the party was always on, I mean the children party where children would dance and shout “uo uo “almost all day long. I cannot figure out how people could pay 100 Euro a night to let their children go “uo uo” and sleep in that environment. Meanwhile it was also called art hotel where suddenly people start playing flute and piano at the middle of freaking night, you heard it right at 00 am in the night, where people put alarm to wake up and play Beethoven. What an art , isn’t it?

The best part about Sinemorets is the food. I always adore Bulgarian food.  Every evening after a swim, we visited local restaurants to grab a nice dinner. Red Rock Café is the best amongst all of them including all the rock music they played. I enjoyed listening to AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and even Nickelback.  We did manage to take few pictures.

Every morning at the hotel, the breakfast was provided to all the guests. It was full of Buchtiski , Salami, Bulgarian Cheese, Watermelon , Coffee , juice and so on. It was quite good. The only thing that was not very good was Mr/Miss Dayana playing romantic song of Enrique Iglesias Hero for about 10 times during the breakfast. I guess she/he liked it a lot and wanted to make a surrounding romantic as well.

The other beach where river Veleka met Sea was from my point of view the best one. Because of its picturesque, it was windy and never gave a feeling that the sun was very hot. The only thing is that, I never got courage to go and dive into its water because the water current was quite high and the water was very deep within few steps of getting inside.

On our last night of our stay at Sinemorets, we discovered a hidden beach bar, walking through the starry night above us along the beach. The bar and the place were so beautiful but it had no one. I was just surprised that how a beautiful place like that could could be not seen. I ordered a very tasty minty drink which I had never tried before, I enjoyed it a lot. We stayed there for quite some time and decided to head back to the hotel as we had to leave for Sofia early in the morning. Oh yes! We did hear “Ou Ou” and Flute at the night on our way back. To make the time even better, Mr/Miss Dayana was all ready on his/her outfit to hit some party with his male friends who were all dressed up like her/him on their skirt, long boots, and their top fitted perhaps with oranges and apples inside their bras. The music went on and on.. So will my memories of the paradise on earth at a small village of Sinemorets.

Kote

He just felt as if something from the back jump upon his neck . He looked around . It was just his imagination. It has been almost a week since it left and he is missing it as if it has been a decade. He missed caressing its tiny back bones . He closed his eyes and moved his palm upon an imaginary little thing which he imagined sleeping peacefully on his lap. It was very dearly a part of him. When it was there, he cared for it a lot. He brought milk to it in a pot every morning and watched it sipping milk slowly with its tongue. He was the happiest person. Suddenly he looks at an empty pot. He still looked around , even music on his player reminded him of his dear cat.

It slept almost all the time. After it ate, it lay down on the bed, without even caring about the world compressing its tiny body to the small possible area. He loved it. He remembered about the day when he first saw it. He looked at its eyes , and felt in love with it. He never got fed up looking at its big olive eyes. He loved it more and more when the time went by. It had an extraordinary whiskers which he teased about all the time. It jumped away every time he talked about its whiskers. Every cute little thing in the world reminded him of it.

Forrest Gump just completed running around the world . It watched Forrest Gump with its big big eyes. No wonder Forrest Gump was its favorite movie. Now each time he watches Forrest Gump and Bubba Gum , it reminds him of his dear Kote!. He missed those pre- Christmas days listening to Hobbit , when Kote was still sleeping next to him , pretending listening to the Audiobook . The song 'Green Mountain State' reminds him of those early days when Kote would come slowly next to him to save its heat during the winter.

Its tiny little paws always grasp him on his palms. It gently licked on his hand. He hugged it tightly, so tightly that poor little thing couldn’t even breathe. It tried to escape from his hug but the poor little thing was helpless. He wakes up every morning with the remembrance of those tiny paws and its grasp.

Smell of the coffee , Packet of Musli, Packet of Chocolate, Coffee Pot reminds him about Kote the most. Tiny little things in life does matter. He recollects every tiny little memories. That is the most important part of being a human. We are born, we grow up , we collect our memories and we leave the world. He loves telling stories. He might just have found the biggest story of his lifetime. His Kote!

Colors

It is getting colder. Trees lost their leaves. Few sunny glitches still hit the ground, although they are not warm at all. Every morning , coffee comfort me in one way or the other. It does help me to wake up and i love it, when the heat from its hard covered paper glass transfers into my palm, making me ignore the fact that it is cold outside. Summer said goodbye , i am already missing it. Few hard experiences this summer did make me sad, but it didnot let me down. I don't even want to remember what happend or it is worthy to be remembered. We remember only those people and events which are meaningful to our life. Those selfish events and people who look at the other materialistically and for their own benifit are like blood sucking leeches ,better to be forgotten. They can go look for happiness everywhere but they always forget the fact that happiness is all inside their puzzled brain, which is sadly missing.

Well after being ignored and left alone for a long time, i did manage to get up. It was not easy but it was definetly not impossible. I began seeing smile in people's faces after a long time.I was just like a Vampire, after hundred of years of blood sucking misery, finally being able to face the light. We human are so busy with this so called daily life, that we have forgotten the meaning of smile. It is actually effectiver than any medicine in the world. Smile is the joy of being alive. I don't regret even a single day of my life, although it had been more of a rollercoaster ride, with lots of ups ,downs, and rounds.

It suddenly happend one day , without any expection, my heart began smiling without any reason.I saw colors everywhere.It was colorful. Those green- blue colors, deeper than the sea , purer than evening sky. I couldnot even look at it because i was afraid my jealousy would ruin its beauty. I always thought that such beauty was only possible in romantic novels or some famous poet's poem. But i was wrong. It was right infront of me. Those silence moments gave me a whole new perspective how i looked at this world. Without saying anything, it told me everything. I found peace. Those glittering white light struck my eyes. It hugged me without even hugging me. I was falling down into the spongy clouds. I could see myself falling but i never felt any better. I wanted to leave this world for a while. I just wanted to keep on falling. It was like a dream where you never want to wake up . I was nervous. My mind was out of my mind, my mouth had lost it's water. I kept on talking. It didnot say anything, just listened to me silently and smiled right back on me. It was mysterious than mystery itself. Let those millions of Aurther Conan Doyles try writing mystery books,I do not think anything could be more mysterious than this.

We human are greedy. We fought many battles throughout our era. We fought it for our never ending needs. We always want more than we need and even after achieving it, we take it for granted.We are never satisfied. I, myself belong to this catagory . I tried catching these colors and keeping it for myself, hiding it from the world. I didnot want any other living being to see these. I was afraid i would loose it.

I was already addicted to it from the very first time i encountered it. I searched for different reasons to see these . I couldnot hold myself from telling it that , i was falling into it. It understood me, smiled at me , gave me a hope. Future is unpredictable , i don't even want to think about it. Past had faded away like those sand castles flushed by the sea water. I live for now. I am glad i still can see it. Thank you !

Thank you Bua

From the time i have known him , he has always been the same. He and his motorbike took my mother to different hills and dales all around Kathmandu. I've always had the feeling that my father could never really grow old. I still picturise him as an active guy,very much separated from all social burdens , carefree, whom i could ask to take me to places, solve my problems which i really couldnot face. We were pretty much all dependant on him. I could count plenty of things in life that were impossible without him directly or indirectly behind.

The face was full of wrinkles, he was thin, he gained white hairs and moustache. My heart broke into pieces. I was looking at the same guy whom i pictured as an active man, who never wanted to grow old. He was tired and exhausted as he had recently recovered from clot in Brainvessel, which Doctors regarded as a first stage of Brainhaemorrahge. I had the feeling that i could never see him again. I was happy and sad at the same time because my father had really changed.

As a kid, i was pretty much scared of the wedding music and the music which were played during the local festivals. I always gained the feeling that something different was happening, something different than the day before. It scared me. During the local jatra(festival) , where natives carried goddess of this town to the nearby town to organise her marriage with the god of that next town, and brought her back home the next day during the night with music, my father wanted me to see the occasion. I still remember how i hid behind him, late in the middle of night , rubbing my eyes , where he grabbed my hand, and how i silently peek a boo'd from his back. And he smiled looking at me below(Although i could count only very few occasions where he really smiled ). I always gained the feeling of security with him on my back.

He talked very little. Since my Sister, her husband and two kids started living in New Jersy , it has been hard for him. He loved those two kids more than anything else in life. Although he never admitted it, i could see it in every move he made. He went to the cupboard where all those toys from these kids were kept , he picked one of those rubbed them a bit and put them back, but he never told a thing.

He normally woke up early in the morning, went to the Kathmandu Asan Bazar, where local vendors sold those fresh green vegetables and fruits. He bought plenty in the morning and brought jeri swari( a form of local sweet) each time he came back. As kids, we were very excited and waited for Bua(father in Nepali)s arrival. I remember looking down from the balcony of my old home and telling my mother who was in Kitchen, bua is back. I wished i could turn back time to live the moments again..

Rememberance

The Sweetness of Rasbari greeted me every night with the goodnight. My mother bought it from the old Sweet shop in my neighborhood which stood in the same place for many years. Sweet makers even knew me. They smiled at me every time I came across. I was shy and used to hide behind my mother , peeking slowly from behind.

My relationship with the sweets has always been intimate. There are some tiny little things in life that i can't forget. I remember those cold winter mornings, when I used to wake up with the ringing bells from our praying room with sweet smell of incense. I rubbed my eyes and went directly to my mother , who used to be in the kitchen and hugged her tightly. She prepared meanwhile warm tea for the whole family. Almost every winter morning on our balcony , a bowl of iron was used for burning firewood and coals. Me and my sisters used to sit right next to it to make ourselves warm enjoying the freshly prepared black tea with cardamons.

I never liked going to school. There was nothing better in the world for than to stay at home with my mother and watch her do kitchen and household stuffs. She completely disagreed of course. I had to come with an idea . Early in the morning I used to pretend that I had some random sickness. She found out most of the times but sometimes it did work. The best part was that I used to get up as soon as my school bus went away. She hated it but later she would forget about it.

We always had American and English Students at our home. We were host family for those students and of course I used to enjoy a lot every time we had one. It was perhaps the best possible way for me to learn their language. I learned most of the English because of it as well. I could never forget the first time , when I ate pasta. A girl from Connecticut made some pasta for us. It was an amazing dish with lots of tomato sauce and cheese, in comparison to what we normally ate at home. In Nepal , people eat normally rice two times a day with lots of vegetables and pulses. Pasta was of course something new.

I started playing tennis. I came in contact with a 70 year old tennis teacher who had his own tennis club within a school and with the help of my sister who used to teach small children in his school. The old man was very nice and gave me free tennis lessons. Sometimes he did loose his temper when we kids made mistakes but nevertheless its humane. I even brought Tennis Racket and Balls back home and he never said anything about it. He had passion for sport and very healthy guy indeed.

My parents did not like the idea that I was getting much deeper into my interests rather than thinking something practical. Tennis is considered as one of the most expensive sports and for the middle class family like mine, it was impossible to afford the costs of the game. It is considered as the game of the high class society in Nepal and there are few tennis courts available in 5 Star Hotels. With the help of my coach, I did manage to get into these courts where I saw few handful of Nepalese and the rest were all foreigners. I saw white kids same age as mine, practicing and playing with their parents supporting around them. White kids always made a group , no one talked to me. I just stood in the corner. I did not have proper tennis outfit as well. Anyways I entered the tournament and won few rounds. I did not dare to tell my parents because they hated it so much. Well I had to quit. I don't regret it because from my point of view I lived Agassi Moments. I regret nothing out of life.

Sister

She wanted everything perfect and definitely gave a lot of effort to maintain it that way. It is not easy being an eldest kid in the family. As far as I can drift my mind way back, she has not been less than second mother to me and my other sister. My mother told me that she carried me everywhere in our neighborhood with her tiny hands and arms around me, although we don't have much of an age difference. We definitely share a lot of similarities. She is a calm lady, very soft spoken and doesn't get angry very often and most of all she is not greedy at all. As far as I can remember, when we were small , if she had sweets with her, she always shared it with two siblings. I have to admit, I was definitely the opposite. I ate everything by myself, every single chance I got. She wanted everything clean. In our three storied House, she cleaned it from top to bottom almost every minute, when she was at home and not at school. I was always scared when I came back home from the school, because my sister would have been cleaning like any other day and I had to check if my shoes weren't dirty , if they were, she would open her eyes wide and make an angry face like Ursula , one of the villains in the little mermaid. Not only me , but my father , other sister and visitors were scared with her just like me .I still remember the way she used to shower me. She rubbed soap about twenty times before she was finally done cleaning me officially. I often thought when will she ever get tired with it. She never got tired but came the day , when she got married and went to her husband's home. This day was possibly the day , that house, cried like never before. The sister that was with us all the time , went away to her new home and the house definitely lost its older perfection. Our grandmother died at a very early age , when I was just few years old. My oldest sister was probably the one who got chance to spent time with our grandmother. It is not always that bad to grow up as an eldest kid. She knew her perhaps better than any of us. My mother told me that my grandmother loved my eldest sister more than us. I couldn't support the fact any less as my eldest sister is probably the most sweetest person in the world and an amazing human being. She was always there for her family when there was a need and she still knows her responsibilities more than any of us. She even gave us two wonderful little kids. I remember waiting anxiously outside the hospital door like others for the arrival of my born to be Niece. The moment I could never forget in my entire life and probably one of the most beautiful moment known to the man, I was probably the most happiest person in the world seeing a tiny little baby inside an incubator, she had a tiny lips, big eyes and small fingers like that of a mouse .Although my baby Niece is no longer a baby Niece ,it is still hard for me to picturise her bigger than that. Human nature and life is wonderful in that matter.

Winter thoughts

As i went out to my balcony, freezing European winter struck me hard without even showing its mercy. Cold wind blowing from the north left

me goose bumped . My teeths trembeled , my eyes went all red at once and my nose had no sensations left. It was not a bad day after all. I

could see somewhere far into the horizon evening sun setting , glorifying the sky with decoration, decoration like a glittering beauty with

ornaments everywhere. I once read a story by Dylan Thomas " The Three Days Blow" , dark sky , faint of cloud and the winter wind blowing

turned the scenario just like in the story, all that was missing were Nick and Bill . It is one of those days, where you enjoy sitting

next to a bonfire as we used to do in those good old days back in Kathmandu, with everyone, the loved ones , friends and families around

it. Human will always remain a Human. I do enjoy little things in life though. I get highly inspired by it. I love the smell of smoke from

a freshly chopped Bonfire woods. When i close my eyes and take a deep breath , it drifts me back in time. Time before i was born, time

before everything that we see around us. Time before the time itself. I miss my old home , the home in Bhatbhateni, where i was a small

boy, free from the world. I looked at clear dark winter sky and counted the stars until i could count no more. The Bonfire smoke rose up

high and the floating ashes everywhere gave me the feeling of a freefall, freefall from the world , i wanted to leave the world so

desparately for a while. I put my head on my mothers lap. The warm smell of her clothes always gave me a feeling, if there was a heaven it

was nothing other than her smell.
Harvest moon behind those trees of my old home, glew the old street of Bhatbhateni. Although there was no electricity during those dry

winter days, Nature held us,when technology failed. I still remember going to the shop at night, trembeled with fear, fear because of all

those ghostly stories that i heard from the neighbourhood kids , when we used to play hide and seek. Light from the vechiles always

comforted me. I was always happy when someone visited us. My mother has a big family. There was always a visitor. I loved my cousins. I

wanted them to stay at our place. I forced them somehow to stay by hiding their shoes. Without shoes it was impossible for them to leave

in those cold winter nights. In our small room , we all cousins slept together, telling stories. Even at the age of ten, sometimes we

talked about Politics, Arts and even about the girls from our school. I meet them after all these years,it's amazing to see that we haven't

changed at all. We still enjoy talking like we did a long time ago. Our topics haven't even changed, although we are all grown ups now.The

bond of blood is one of the purest form of bond known . It is beautiful the way we are created. Although we have a short lifespan in this

very world, it is perfect in its own way. Everything that lives short has its own value. It is us who make our short life much more

complicated than it should be actually.
A very good friend of mine , that i met recently shares much more similar thoughts as i do. We talk sometimes about history of Europe and misery that people faced during the World War. I picturise myself during those cold winter days, where you were captured like an animal and sent to a concentration camp until your blood froze up and you were thrown like a garbage inside an oven, alive. Some victims even managed to survive , which is a miracle in itself. World lost alot of potential people during the war. I even picturise people like Anne Frank , who died at age of 14 and left a beautiful yet heart touching diary, that reminded how much sufferings she underwent.World did lost a beautiful writer like her and lost alot of other beautiful people. I never go to holocaust memorial or holocaust sites because i have a feeling that either i would break down and torn into pieces realising all the suffering that those people went through or if i wouldnot realise it , it would be highly disrespectful in its own way.
But yet history is a history that should be taken into the consideration but the most important lesson of life is the life itself. I am proud to be alive .. ..

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show. ~Andrew Wyeth