Sweet memories or, rather, salty memories

Walking is always with me, wherever I am. I mean even when I'm not walking when something prevents me from getting out of the house.
Like now when a terrible cold (or covid?) keeps me close to the bed. I isolated myself, and after the first couple of hard days, after my headache went away, I still tried to do something useful that I never find time for. Namely, to tidy up my photo archive which has grown so large that it has filled the laptop's memory and an external memory!

In this way, arranging the photos from the last 5 years, nostalgia and memories overwhelmed me. I have a special folder called "My Sea"... I suspect you suspect what I'm talking about.

Today is Wednesday, the day I try to keep the cadence of my weekly posts about my walks that I try to share with you, thanks to @tattoodjay, who had the wonderful idea to gather all our walks in his community!

The inability to walk combined with the work of sorting photos has me attempting a post about my many walks in Balchik, my favorite resort on the Black Sea in Bulgaria. It will not be a narrative of the walk as I used to do, i.e. in chronological order. I'll just put some photos that I liked the most...

Balchik in September, 2020

This image impressed me the most, the young father walking with his son on the seashore. It made such an impression on me because that's how I used to walk with my son when I got to the sea. Also at the Black Sea, but in Romania, the country where I live. Now my son is older than the father in the picture.

The same sea borders both Romania and Bulgaria. It is the same sea but I must admit it is much more beautiful in Bulgaria. This is for two reasons. The relief of the coast. In Romania the shoreline is flat, it's a plain and in Bulgaria, the shoreline is steeper, with hills and even mountains descending into the sea, which is very spectacular. The second reason is the climate. In Bulgaria, the climate is Mediterranean, a transition between the temperate continental climate of Romania and the Mediterranean climate, more so in Greece, Bulgaria's neighbor to the south.

Balchik is perfect for walking. This is one of the reasons why I insist on going there every year. I always chase away the temptation to see something else, although I am convinced that there are countless places worth visiting. If I were younger, I would try to see other places but at my age now I prefer to say that I am lazy and not otherwise.

Balchik is perfect for walking because it's got a long boardwalk of a few good miles...

Balchik doesn't have many beaches and places to swim in the sea and I think that's why it is bypassed by young people. Balchik is less for sea fun and more for sea relaxation, where rest and walking come first. Walking along this promenade revealed many images that have remained in my memory, so they are memorable, haha...

They had the good inspiration to border this promenade with large calcareous stones as protection against the waves. I find them very beautiful.

The lack of beaches is compensated for by numerous seawalls that go far out into the sea, good places for both walking and fishing.

Apart from these few reasons that make Balchik my favorite place, there is another very important one.

Balchik was chosen by Queen Maria of Romania as the summer residence of the Royal House of Romania. It may seem strange to say the least that the royal house of one state has its summer residence in another state. It is not strange. Here we are in the Balkans, a territory of Europe that was quite unstable in the first part of the last century, and Balchik, together with the southern Dobrogea region, belonged to Romania for about 40 years.

So, if we don't look at the sea, we look the other way, at the former royal domain, now a museum and botanical garden.

The thing I like to remember most now is the staircase down from the hotel to the promenade.

This was the beginning of the walk!

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