I hadn’t been to my home area in a long time. In Bulgaria, a land like a human palm, the diagonal is still between 600 and 700 kilometers, depending on where you catch it. It is nothing, if you look at it from America, for example, but from Blagoevgrad the Northeast and especially its coast do not look close. How to explain to the Americans why there is no highway on such a main artery as Sofia-Varna. But let’s focus. It is very useful for a person to refresh his or her hard drive from time to time, so to speak, especially when wonderful things await us on the other side. This is how I recently found myself in the area of ​​Kavarna, where amazing colors were waiting for me.

The gate to Kaliakra Fortress

One would say that gray is one of the most boring colors, but not when we find it in the form of stones in the main gate of Kaliakra fortress. I will not mention the patterns brought by tourists and the numerous stalls with souvenirs along the way, although I may have to. The site is in desperate need of a good management of the tourist flow, although it would probably be satisfied with any management. Because at the moment there is no such thing at all. Especially on the tip of the cape, where according to legend the 40 girls braided their hair together and threw themselves into the sea so as not to be taken into slavery. I expect that any moment they will be joined by some eager tourist who refused to wait 10 minutes to take such a landmark photo:

At the tip of Cape Kaliakra, Kavarna Municipality

I suppose you’ve noticed in the lower right corner of the photo the hat of the tourist in question, who just can’t wait for me to take my photo. I will not even mention the observance of anti-Covid measures and social distancing. At the same time, in the tiny museum arranged in one of the caves, a strict auntie mercilessly chases away everyone who finds themselves there without a mask. The museum is not very impressive, but still congratulations to the Municipality of Kavarna for trying to have it. The auntie is not the only strict guardian of antiquities in the northern Black Sea cape. If you look closely, you can see other guards around.

Fortress walls in Kaliakra

Here is where we begin to add green to the gray of the stones, combined with the white of the clouds and the seagulls, plus the bright blue of the sky. For more colors, we head north along the coast and to the village of Kamen Bryag in search of the archeological complex of Yailata. I can’t help but mention some features of the Dobrudzha village that we come across along the way. As a child, I didn’t appreciate these things, I am just beginning to notice them now. For example, the one-story houses curved into angles, the stone filigree fences, the wide sidewalks occupied by flower gardens, in all colors.

In the village of Kamen Bryag, Kavarna Municipality

The Yaila itself is also a combination of bright colors. The entrance is nicely designed, with a parking lot, greenery and a polite ticket seller, again well done to the Municipality of Kavarna. The place itself is very bizarre, something like a high plateau overhanging the sea, but protected by a rock crown at the bottom. No wonder it has been inhabited for centuries. In the most open place is actually the necropolis, which is strikingly similar to other ones we have seen carved into the rock base. I guess when you live in a place like this, you don’t have much choice.

Yaila Necropolis

Continuing along the edge of the plateau, we find the remains of a winery – people of old used to know their priorities – and residential caves. We also find walls of a fortress, partially restored with some European money, the implementation of which I will not comment on. The Municipality of Kavarna is no exception to many other Bulgarian project beneficieries where good intentions met administrative realities. The fortress brings a white-yellow note to the palette of lush greenery on the plateau and dramatic blue-black clouds, because of which we were almost devoured by ladybugs and other insect fauna.

Yailata Fortress, municipality of Kavarna

All of the above takes place against the backdrop of amazing sea views, which probably made it worthwhile to huddle in the damp coastal caves and dig hard into the stone to provide a good home for your loved ones on the road to eternity. You can get some idea from the photo at the beginning of the post. At the end I, to complete the incredible color palette of the Kavarna region, offer a look at the surrounding fields of lavender. Extreme pleasure for the eyes, although from time to time there is an orange dissonance inside.

The fields of Kavarna

You may find other adverntures of mine in the Northeast here.