Cigarettes and salad

We definitely haven’t done Bulgaria justice – we only ended up staying here for two days.  But we’ve had a fantastic time.  We’ve seen the sun and the sea for what feels like the first time in months; eaten lots of fish and lots of yoghurt; and discovered the cultural importance of salad and its vital supporting role in the consumption of cigarettes and alcohol.

Our first stop was Nesebar, yet another UNESCO-protected site (they seem to be buying up prime sites everywhere in Eastern Europe – surely it is no coincidence that their name rhymes with Tesco? We suspect some sort of conspiracy).  It’s a beautiful little peninsula full of old Byzantine stone churches, blue (Black) sea, fish and – most importantly – salad.  This last factor might not sound very exciting to you, but after a month or so living off preserved pork fat, it seemed pretty revelatory to us.  So at first, we were happy just to eat it, assuming in our innocence that it was simply a foodstuff like any other.  Only when we moved on to the village of Kosti did we find out what it’s really for …

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