Awesome holiday to Sozopol

We're back, and what an outstanding week away that was! Wonderful. This update is likely to be long and have lots of pictures, and some videos, so grab a brew (I hope your milk hasn't gone off like mine has! Terrible planning) and enjoy the update.

The day of our holiday has finally arrived

Nicely packed Maisie

A mantis in the grass

Solid holiday day breakfast

Halil scraping the walls in the old toilet block

Waiting for mummy so we can be on our way

First view of the beach from our accommodation

Holiday day dawned bright and sunny and first thing I was down taking the roof box and roof bars back off Maisie as we did not need them. I had the car packed nice and early as well. We were not in a rush to leave and pottered around a bit (Rosie found a Preying Mantis in the garden which was awesome) then we had bacon and egg butties before saying goodbye to the men (who were working in the small toilet rooms in the chicken enclosure to make them as solid as the main room) before we got in the car and hit the road. The journey was really easy and comfortable, Maisie is great, and we stopped for lunch at a Subway which was a good place to break the trip. We had some trouble finding our accommodation in the very narrow winding streets of the old town but when we finally did we were so pleased; the location was perfect, just up some steps from the beach, surrounded by restaurants, and with a terrace and balconies that all looked over the sea. Stunning.

Going into the waves with Rosie

Watching a boat sail across the bay

Rosie eating Seafood Spaghetti

The moon rises over the old town

Moon light reflected on the waves

Old town wall lit up

The alley way to our accommodation

We got ourselves settled in then changed and went to the beach; the waves were seriously big at this time and I was actually a little worried how Rosie would react but she absolutely loved the, even when she actually went right through a wave. It was exhilarating and fun and we were in and out a few times before heading back to the house to shower and change and go for dinner. We decided to go to the restaurant right next door and this was a good choice as the food was pretty good. Angela had to go to the shop to get tomato sauce for Rosie though. With that eaten and Rosie in bed Angela and I watched the moon rise (which was just amazing!) while listening to the ever increasing sounds of very loud music coming from the beach bars; not a good sign. I went for a very quick walk to see what was going on, found one live music event and a load of cool lights and performers, and then went to bed but I did not sleep a wink all night. In the morning I went looking for the perpetrators as the bass was still thudding at 7am and found that it was a Rock Bar right below our house. I asked them to turn the music down as I hadn't been able to sleep and, to their credit, they did so and kept it much quieter all week. This was a huge relief indeed!

It looks peaceful - it was not.

Carrying Rosie in to jump in the waves

Making an amazing castle with Mummy

Very proud builders

Rosie making more castles

I must admit I was feeling very unhappy that morning and both Angela and I spent some time searching for alternative accommodation. I was all for packing up and driving all the way to Thassos while Angela looked closer and found a town with something available from that night. We were both pretty tired, though, and decided to spend some time on the beach and in the sea and playing with Rosie (who had slept right through it all) before making any drastic decisions. We also decided to get some earplugs. The beach time was awesome, first of all wave jumping then sandcastle making with Mummy then more sand play and then more wave jumping and more sand castle play. Rosie was having the best time and it really energised me and made me forget my total lack of sleep.

Out for lunch in the next town

Rosie uses Chopsticks with her chips

Rosie is sat waiting for Angela

Rosie and Angela and another awesome castle

Me with Rosie and our mocktails

Mussels for Angela

Rosie with chips on newspaper

The clown, Rosie and balloon puppy

Illuminated party boat

Red moon rising

After this lovely morning we piled into Maisie and made our way to the next town, having picked up some ear plugs on the way. We just went for lunch and found a place that sold sushi for Angela and an amazing pizza for me; Rosie used the chop sticks to spike her chips and eat them which was great. On the way back to the car we found an arcade and she had so much fun with the hammer game we actually found another one later in the week for her to do. It was a lovely visit but actually we got back to our holiday place pretty well decided to stick it out. We headed back to the beach for more wave and sand play (and another awesome sandcastle) and then went for alcohol free (well, mine and Rosie's were) cocktails at the cafe run by the lady who owned our accommodation. After that we strolled through town and settled at a restaurant for dinner that was very friendly, though they were going through some pretty explosive electrical problems and the lights kept going out! Dinner eaten we walked back through town and were stopped by a clown who made Rosie a balloon puppy and put a big smile on her face. Our evening viewing after Rosie was asleep was a succession of lit up boats sailing across the bay, and the moon rising again and looking stunning.

Sun rise over the bay

Me and Rosie going onto the rocks

Sat on the rocks with Rosie

Angela and Rosie paddling along the beach

Rosie is ecstatic at receiving Baloo

Huge burger for lunch

Rosie climbs up the climbing frame

Some Japanese meal for me that night

That night we did sleep well, thankfully, and the ear plugs did their job. The next morning was a beautiful one and after a breakfast of banitsa from a local cafe we went for a walk along the promenade and then down onto the beach at the far end. I then took Rosie for a bit of a scramble over the rocks at that end and we sat for a bit watching for fish but didn't see any. On the way back we settled ourselves more towards the middle of the beach away from where the sea weed was - one problem with this beach, it seemed, was it was totally overwhelmed with mats of seaweed the floated at the edge of the water and made it quite unpleasant to get into the water for a swim. We were in and out the water again and one time that Angela was with Rosie the party ship Poseidon did a close pass so I videoed it. Rosie was such a good girl all day that at lunch I snuck away and bought her a hand made crochet teddy and she was delighted. She settled on naming him Baloo and he has been a favourite ever since. Lunch was really nice and after that we found a play park for Rosie who had a lovely time sliding and climbing. Dinner was at another different restaurant just down the hill from us and then it was bed time again.

Rosie brings water up from the sea

Rosie buried both her and Angela's feet

Getting ready to play Snake the Board Game

Rosie with her spaghetti bolognaise

Lovely view from our table at the restaurant

Rosie laughing at Spike the Cactus

The next morning we went down to roughly the same part of the beach again and had more swimming and sandcastle making and Angela and Rosie even got their feet buried a bit. We didn't stay late but gathered ourselves up and went back to the house to have a bit of game time. We pulled Snake the Boardgame out and found that it was a huge amount of fun to play. Sadly I had a call about tournee with a problem so I ended up being quite stressed and distracted while Angela and Rosie went on for lunch at a restaurant down at the marina. I did get my stuff done and was able to catch up with them and eat lunch while they finished then went and played in the little play area behind the restaurant. Rosie had had her eye on a talking cactus (yes, really) and so we picked it up for her and she called it Spike. It plays music and dances but even better than that, it records what you say and plays it back at a higher pitch and Rosie thought this was excellent. She's had so much fun with this toy since. There was a storm threatened the next day however it actually hit that night, with some impressive bangs and crashes but again we slept well.

Lots of old wooden houses where we were staying

The ruins, above the sea

A funny shaped rock

A painting of the same rock

Rosie looks great in my hat

Rosie with Mummy

Rosie with me

Rosie with a new hat and icecream

The cormorant with its attendant gulls

I wonder what they have seen

More stunning dining views

Double rainbow after a shower

Very very tasty carrot cake

The next day we decided to have a day largely away from the beach as it was getting a little samey, and also the seaweed was a bit unpleasant, so we did a "culture" day which involved a nice walk up through the old town where we saw loads of amazing old wooden buildings and then we got to the sea where there was an archeological site which was stunningly situated. I took a picture of an interesting rock above rock pools and then we visited the art gallery right next door and there was an amazing painting of the same; it turns out that is a local landmark. We continued our stroll, having fun on the way, and stopped for an ice cream at the cafe before heading back to another museum with lots of local history in it; while I was there I snapped a picture of a cormorant sat on an old metal jetty with seagulls arrayed behind. That night we walked a different direction for our dinner and found a lovely restaurant right on the walls with very lovely staff and great food. Another brief storm blew through leaving only a double rainbow in its wake. We picked up two slices of carrot cake from another place on our way back and ate them at the house. It was a lovely evening indeed.

The information board at this castle

Looking from where we parked, beach on the right

Rosie next to the walls

We climbed up to have a look

Walking along the path at the top

A memorial at the end

Steps down into the bunker

The view from the headland

At one of the museums we had been given a booklet about things to see in the local area and I had spotted an old castle that apparently also had ruins under water you may be able to dive for so we piled into the car (without bringing food or water! Silly!!) and headed round to find it. The track down was very bumpy but we made it ok and were very pleasantly surprised to see just how lovely the beach was just next to where we had parked. First of all we took a really nice walk up past the tower (I climbed in with Rosie to have a look) and all the way along the little path to the end where there was a memorial for some thing and also a ww2 bunker complex. It was a stunning location.

I am sat with Rosie in the sea at this lovely beach

Rosie sat on a stone

Four castles with the new bucket

Two parasols now, and much better for it

Just look at that beach

Real fish and chips - Angela was very jealous

Rosie with her chips

Angela is excited about her pork ribs

Rosie watching the turtle

Flooded terrace

The run off from the storm on the beach

With the exploring over we went back to where we'd left our beach stuff and found a really lovely sandy spot to put up our parasols. The water was crystal clear, there was no floating seaweed, and the swimming and snorkeling was excellent. Rosie made some sandcastles and I swam and so did Angela which was brilliant to see. It really was a lovely spot however as we'd come with no food and water we were aware we couldn't stay all that long. There was supposedly a restaurant/cafe just next to the carpark however even though I checked a few times it remained closed to in the end we packed up and went back up the dirt track to the local town for food. We found a restaurant that served real battered fish and chips and it was very tasty indeed! Rosie had chips and spicey chicken and Angela had a super tasty pork rib dish. Lovely. Rosie then found the fish tank and watched the fish and a beautiful turtle for a while. We headed home after this and after a rest were just playing a game again when it started to spit with rain; we piled inside just in time as a torrential downpour hit us, flooding the terrace! That night Rosie chose our restaurant and we went back to the one we'd been to the first night and again it was very nice indeed. It had been a really lovely day!

The sun rises on our last full day

Set up and ready for swimming

The jelly fish that Angela found

Rosie and some of her sandcastles

Angela and Rosie looking for fish

Look at all those castles

Rosie contemplating life

The next morning was the morning of our last full day and it dawned a little cloudy with the forecast that these would stay until just before lunch. We decided to go back to the same beach again but this time took food and water and (despite my almost beaching Maisie on a loose rock on the dirt access track which was VERY scary but did no damage) we got there in really good time and set ourselves up in basically the same spot. The forecast was spot on and it stayed cooler in the morning which was a bit of a relief. We did lots of swimming and LOTS of castle making, Angela found a little jelly fish which we relocated away from our swimming place and also Angela and Rosie had fun doing some rock pooling. I swam the width of the bay and on the way saw a rather larger jelly fish and then, while getting near to our sunbathing spot I very nearly swam into what I think was the original one. Other than that wildlife we saw lots of other awesome things like crabs and fish and shrimps. It was a great place to spend our day. The sun did burn through in the end and it was baking by the time we got back in Maisie to drive back to the holiday home.

Old ambulances parked by the hospital

Angela with her sea food pasta

My dessert - scrumptious

Angela's - not tiramisu but still nice

Rosie eating ice cream

By the lights at the end of our week

On our way back I paused briefly to snap a picture of some very old ambulances parked outside the hospital then we headed home for a rest before our final evening. We went back to the restaurant with the incredible burger, which I again shared with Rosie, while Angela had a lovely sea food dish then we plumped for desserts which were just lovely. After this we had a stroll, allowed Rosie to spend the last of her holiday money, and grabbed an icecream while we waited for it to get dark and the lights to be turned on. We had a little stroll around and then they were on which Rosie just loved! We then headed back up, later than usual, and went to our beds for the last time on holiday.

Sun rise on our last morning

The sun shines through a gap in the trees

Rosie playing with play doh

Glass still water this morning

Rosie asleep at one of our brief stops on the journey

And so, finally, we reach this morning and it was a glorious sunrise indeed, shared on the balcony with Rosie. We were in no rush to leave and pottered around, Rosie had some play time and we got breakfast but then suddenly and much earlier than planned we were all set for the off. I went to collect Maisie from the carpark and drove up to the house then we very quickly loaded in (I was blocking the road, though there was no traffic so it was ok) said goodbye to the lovely hostess and hit the road. It was a really easy drive back again, Rosie had a bit of a doze on the way as well, and we reached home in time for lunch; excellent!

Nice and snug under the gate now

The cubicles are all done and painted

Drain hole in the floor

Drains for the humanure collection points

Snuggled with the puppies

Water damage in Rosie's room

Now we get to the purpose of this blog which is; renovations. While we were on holiday and our mate Steve was watching the place, Bekir and Halil have been in every day. They have made some great progress including finishing off all the cement work by the gates into the chicken enclosure, stripping, replastering and painting the toilet cubicles, including putting mesh over the windows and little drains into the floors, and today they were hard at work digging out and running the drainage for the humanure which is the next urgent priority. The puppies were super pleased to see us, of course, and were very very excited. They calmed eventually and I sat and watched ET with Rosie (after lunch) with Xena cuddling me. She then came in the pool with me and Steve for a lovely swim. One other thing that happened was on Thursday morning Steve found a huge cascade of water from the roof; the valve on our water tank had broken and it was literally fountaining into the air and hitting the ceiling so I explained how to turn the water off and then Bekir and Halil fixed the broken valve. Unfortunately so much water spewed that it went through the guest suite and then down into Rosie's play room and bed room. Tomorrow we will need to get a new dehumidifier to run in there!

And so, finally, after 99 pictures and four videos, we reach the end of this update. If you made it this far I salute you and thank you. I'll be back tomorrow with a very much shorter update as this one has literally taken me all night to write. Thanks for reading!