Gastronomic tour “Tastes of The Black Sea Strandzha”

Daily Tour 2 days, 1 night

8280 Ahtopol, Bulgaria Strandzha Tour Guide: Екатерина Терзиева

Strandzha Mountain occupies the southeastern part of Bulgaria and part of neighboring Turkey. We go exactly to the place where Strandzha meets the Black Sea, where the seashore meets the Perseids, and the Milky Way sinks into the warm waters of the sea.

The ancient name of Strandzha is Paroria, i.e. “Border mountain”, and its name in Greek is Strandza. It is the most exotic mountain and the least populated region of Bulgaria. And if Strandzha was once densely populated with Thracian tribes, rich in sanctuaries, tombs, hesychastic monasteries, and breathtaking natural beauty, the focus of our tour are the sea, seafood, marine nature, and sea people.

The Black Sea is one of the small and relatively closed seas. Its area is 423,488 square kilometers, and the deepest place – 2,244 meters near the Crimean peninsula. Visibility is 30 meters in deep water, salinity is about 17 per mille. There is no life below 100-120 m due to the high content of hydrogen sulfide. However, this has preserved many sunken vessels from ancient times to a hundred years ago, and even American scientists have long searched here for the remains of Noah’s Ark. We will not find them, but we will meet the rare breed of real people with big hearts and foreheads streaked by the sea breeze, who have lived here for centuries and produced our food.

Place of departure / arrival

Plovdiv. Possible transfers from Sofia, Stara Zagora, Burgas, Gabrovoq Veliko Tarnovo and other cities by prior arrangement. The program starts at 9.00 AM – meeting of Magazia 1 of the Port Complex – Bourgas for sailing by boat at 9.30 am.

Hours of departure: 06.00 am from Plovdiv through the Trakia Motorway. Meeting at the Lukoil gas station on Tsarigradsko Shosse Blvd.

The price of the tour includes:

Boat trip to St. Anastasia Island and back
Visit to the interactive museum on the island of St. Anastasia, dedicated to the history of the island
Two lunches with mussels, Black Sea fish and fish soup (without drinks)
Tastings
Visit to the private botanical garden in the Strandzha village of Velika
Dinner
Overnigh
Visit to the Museum of the Anchor in Ahtopol
Full tour guide service
Transport

Opportunity to purchase

Opportunity to buy fresh and natural farm products (different types of cheese, milk, cheese, honey, wine, jam, jams, eggs), fish and mussels at producer prices

Note

Carrying ID cards is mandatory, as I move in a border area and a sudden check by the Border Police is possible.

What to expect?

The gastronomic tour “Tastes of sea Strandzha” presents the sea part of Strandzha not only as a place for resort and relaxation on the beach but also as a gastronomic destination with preserved traditions in food production and preparation. We will travel by sea to the only Bulgarian inhabited island on the Black Sea coast, on which is the only island church in our country, we will step into the romance of an authentic fishing village and meet the old fishermen, we will take mussels with them, we will admire the lilies in Ropotamo , we will inhale the romantic pirate legend around Ahtopol with its museum of sea anchors, we will try real fish soup in Sinemorets, we will go to the mouth of the sweet and salty Veleka and to the most southeastern point of Bulgaria – Rezovo, where the Bulgarian coast meets the Turkish.

We will meet the people and stories behind:

A farm for super foods such as kale, chard and lofant
Botanical garden with coffee, cacti and Mediterranean fruit trees in Strandzha
Ancient fishing village
Organic farm with elite beef cattle breeds.

And when we see the animals of a returned Bulgarian emigrant in the fire-fighting village of Brodilovo, when we eat fish soup in the romantic Sinemorets, we will see hundreds of cacti, 9 varieties of paradise apple, pomegranate, feijoa, sacred myrtle, coffee, banana, jujube, 6 varieties of figs in botanical a garden created decades ago in the middle of the Strandzha mountain. Along with the cultivated kiwi, its wild counterpart can also be seen.

Itinerary

Day 1: The magic of the island of St. Anastasia, the fishing village, and the lilies on Ropotamo

At 9 o’clock we meet in front of Magazia 1 of the Port of Bourgas to leave at 9.30 for the island of St. Anastasia – the only inhabitable Bulgarian Black Sea island and the only one with a church. The monastery “St. Anastasia Pharmacolithria (Healer)” was set on fire several times and attacked by pirates. The island is the Bulgarian “Alcatraz”, because in 1923 it was turned into a prison for communists and farmers.

It was once called Bolshevik Island. In 1912, in the northern part of the island, the foundations were laid for the new lighthouse, which guides the ships to this day. Historical data show that Anastasia learned the medical craft and became a famous healer. The construction of an authentic hospital on the Island is connected with the abilities of the saint. Here is the place to enjoy aromatic tea or buy herbs that are typical of the surroundings and the region.

On the second floor of the large monastery building, you will find the interactive museum exhibition, which recreates the rich history of the island of St. Anastasia. A pirate treasure, a monastery cloister, prison cells, and a place that inspired Burgas writers and poets reveal to visitors the past of the island.

We have lunch in Kraimorie with fresh sea fish and beer and go to a Strandzha farm for kale, chard, and lofant. Kale is a superfood because of its high antioxidant activity. Protects against prostate and colon cancer, is good for the stomach, liver, and immune system. We will have lunch with fresh fish and seafood in the restaurant of the authentic fishing village. On the way to Ahtopol, where we spend the night, we stop at the locality of water lilies on the river Ropotamo. We have time for a late beach or photos at sunset on the beach.

Day 2: From the estuary of the Veleka river to the border in Rezovo

After breakfast, we are going to the Rezovo and we stop for photos of the estuary of the Veleka river – one of the most beautiful places on our Black Sea coast. It is located near the village of Sinemorets in the Strandzha Nature Park and is a protected area. Here the river forms a beautiful lagoon and flows into the sea under sandy hair. It has one of the most beautiful beaches on the southern Black Sea coast.

We walk in Rezovo – the southernmost coast on the native Black Sea coast and the border between Bulgaria and Turkey through the Rezovska River, which divides the two countries. There are nice views of the Turkish coast, where there is a very long and deserted beach. Interesting in Rezovo are its majestic and steep cliff shores, as well as the preserved old Strandzha houses.

We have lunch with fresh sea fish soup in a restaurant in Sinemorets and go to the farm of our emigrant from Great Britain, who is finishing marketing in Wales and giving up a successful career abroad to start his own farm. The farm raises elite buffaloes and cattle of the Aberdeen Angus, Hereford breeds.

We end the trip in the botanical garden in the Strandzha village of Velika, where in addition to looking at exotic flowers and trees, we have the opportunity to pick southern seasonal fruits – figs, apples of paradise, kiwi. The owners are the heirs of two agrobiologists, who worked for many years at the Experimental Station for Southern Cultures near Tsarevo. In the botanical garden, you can see coffee, jujube, bamboo, feifa, myrtle, and many other interesting species, but especially interesting is the rich collection of over 1500 different species of cacti from around the world.

The golden sandy beaches of the Southern Black Sea coast, caressed by the sea breeze, refreshing the air in the hot summer afternoons, and the warm seawater, which slowly cools down and makes the autumn longer. Next to them are the mystical Strandzha villages, where there is no industry, no pollutants, and life is simple and clean, like 100 years ago.