1. Domestic air travel. There was one gate at the Sofia airport for domestic flights, and I saw on the list that the only destination was Varna, located on the Black Sea and the third largest city in the country. A bus takes passengers to the plane. Ours was a propeller plane that was much like those used for short flights in the U.S. Flight time was about one hour. Both the Sofia and Varna airports had snack bars and shops.
2. Restaurants. I asked my hosts to arrange nothing for me the first day because overseas flights are so exhausting. The restaurant that I found for myself the first night in Sofia had modest prices and good food, but from then on the restaurants that my hosts selected in Shumen were truly great with quite low prices. A meal with good wine cost roughly $4. Breakfast is included with the room rate at many hotels.
3. Exchanging money. I feared that credits cards might not be accepted in some hotels, so I took cash and traveller's checks. All the hotels honored many different credit cards. I needed cash only in restaurants, and meals were so inexpensive that there was little need to exchange dollars. One thing to note is that the hotels insist on converting to dollars before you sign the slip. This is unfortunate because the credit card companies give you the best exchange rate.
4. Computers. My hosts from Barents all had laptop computers. They use e-mail all the time and have a slow connection to the World Wide Web. ANTIBIOTIK company had few computers and no internet connection. By sending the Barents people an image file with my photo, it was easy for them to find me at the airports.
5. The Black Sea resorts. Varna is a charming city of about 300,000 inhabitants that accommodates tourists. However, resort areas both north and south of the city have large hotel and entertainment complexes. There were not many notices in English in the hotels because their best countries for supplying tourists are Russia and Germany. A very nice room overlooking the sandy beach cost about $70 per night.