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Author : Peter of York (---.server.ntli.net)
Date : 09-26-04 16:45
Have just returned from what we can only describe as a most profoundly disappointing three weeks in Golden Sands. We had been closely monitoring this forum for the past 12 months, but what we found was nothing like what has been described in many of the messages.
We had carefully planned this holiday, and went out of our way to pick one which was merely a figment of an artist’s imagination in the brochure, but as you will see, the best laid plans of mice and men …………. !!
We travelled with Balkan Holidays, which failed absolutely to live up to its reputation, as I will reveal.
The disaster was apparent from the start. The Balkan Holidays plane took off on time, and we had to suffer full bar service, duty frees, and a perfectly adequate meal by any airline standards.
The somewhat dilapidated interior paint job had given us certain hopes, but the damn thing landed like a dream, as Tupolevs do in the hands of a Bulgarian pilot.
Getting though passport control was far too fast for our liking, and the officer was clearly not obeying his Standing Orders because he smiled far too much. There was some delay in the luggage appearing on the carousel, but the handlers were too bone idle to grasp the opportunity to break into it.
The disappointing first words of the Balkan Rep were, “No, the hotel is not overbooked, you are going to the one you chose.” Protests that we had only booked an artist’s impression went unheeded.
Things went from bad to worse at the hotel, a five star beauty.
The safety deposit boxes were in the rooms and free, and they had the audacity to tell us that sun loungers and umbrellas were also free of charge.
Despite only having been finished in the middle of June, there wasn’t a single loose fitting or dangerous wire in the room, which had the **best bathroom of any hotel we have ever been in.**
We looked in vain for ill fitting windows, draughts, leaks, or any other signs of things being unfinished – none at all, terrible it was.
The food was appalling. We were so looking forward to a German diet, but it never materialised. Had we been German, I could now be writing snotty letters to Balkan Holidays, but unfortunately we are not. Instead we had to put up with egg and bacon on a morning, it was that poor. Dinner was no better, not a bit of sauerkraut in sight.
Golden Sands itself, well how bad can it get? Again, one should not go on holiday with expectations too high. We were so looking forward to being seriously injured or at least endangered, by hordes of speed crazed six year olds on nearly silent electric scooters, golf carts or dune buggies, but not one did we see in three weeks.
We looked forward to suffering righteous indignation by witnessing sundry cruelty to dancing bears, and snakes and other reptiles being used as photographer’s props, but not one instance of this did we see.
The only members of the animal kingdom we saw were disappointingly few dogs, which had ear tags and clearly under strict control, and the odd cat.
We had high hopes of being hassled from pillar to post to go into restaurants and shops, but clearly our money just wasn’t good enough. Likewise we hoped to be morally outraged by hordes of prostitutes, but they must have gone on holiday elsewhere. We are starting to think in terms of a conspiracy to ruin our holiday!!
You would have thought the local authority might have arranged for there to be rubbish all over the place, overflowing litter bins etc, so as to make us feel at home, but no. All we saw were people using them, and workmen emptying them. They even deliberately washed the streets down first thing every morning, the swines!!
On the beach we looked in vain for mobs of Bulgarian robber-grannies stealing from bathers and leaving their footprints all over the place, but they must have been otherwise engaged selling their knitting and crochet well away from there.
If the above is not bad enough, must now mention the taxi drivers. There was no way we could get them to rip us off, and we really did try. I think they’d seen us coming and sorted out what was a very reasonable going rate to Varna. Clearly this was to spite us, and two really went out of their way.
On a return trip from Varna, one completely lost the plot and deliberately under charged us by 5 leva. But, the really bad one, on returning to pick us up from Varna, forced on us two small bottles of home made rakia he had called home specially to get for us.
Thus we soldiered on, and are now left with that empty feeling of having absolutely nothing to complain about. Not even the satisfaction of having loose change stolen from us, or our cases tampered with at Varna Airport on the way home. Even at Manchester airport, when we declared the excess alcohol thrust upon us by unfriendly Bulgarians, HM Customs couldn’t be bothered to charge us the duty.
Better luck next year!!
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впе4атления на "огор4ен" турист:-)))
впе4атления на "огор4ен" турист:-)))
