Up and Down Through the Little Park

Every Wednesday we tell the story of our walks, more recent or older. Good thing it's not strictly about Wednesday's walks or yesterday's walks, as you might understand from the name of this community of walkers and photographers. Because I haven't been out of the house for a month, so no walk...

This freedom we have in choosing the walk to be narrated and shown allows me to go back in time to the beautiful summer, the beautiful holiday, and the walks I had then. Presenting the walk here makes me relive it, remember places, events, and sights, all with the great help of the photographs taken on that occasion.

I think you know what it's like to love the sea but not have one nearby. It's not good but it's a solution. The solution is called a seaside holiday, which happens every summer. There is also an advantage here, in our family it is not difficult to decide where to go on holiday, it is known, to the sea. Sometimes there are obstacles in front of us that try to stop us from making this summer enjoyable, such as free time, money, the state of the car (which always breaks down shortly before we go on holiday), and now this pandemic has come. Fortunately, there are wonders and we managed to see the sea in our favorite city, Balchik, on the Black Sea in Bulgaria this year.

The short walk I'm showing now I took, with my wife, in the park in the old town center, near the seafront. An old park, probably built around the 1930s, after the style in which it was built. The town of Balchik is located on a hill and the streets are on a slope, the slope leading to the sea. Therefore, much of the small park consists of terraces, stairs, and stone walls.

The park is actually a passage from one level of the city to another above, a shortcut. The walk doesn't take long but it's good exercise, both for the heart and the legs. Rest is mandatory for those with a more... mature heart.

A park pathway leads to an apparently abandoned house, as it looks like it would need urgent care. It's a house and especially the yard that I really like and it intrigues me that it's uninhabited. Unfortunately, I couldn't find out its history.

The location and size of the house indicates that it belonged to an important person, my suspicion is that it belonged to a communist leader and that after the change of political regime it was confiscated but not valued.

Immediately after leaving the park, we reached an old part of the city, a small part leftover from another era, a part hidden from most tourists who avoid crossing this park.

If it weren't for the cars parked nearby I'd think it was a hundred years ago. The houses are built on top of each other in the desire to see the sea.

I like the cobbled street with uneven stones, it looks like a city wall built horizontally.

The walk took us to a small shop where we did some shopping and then back to the park to experience the descent, which of course will be easier.

Before entering the park we meet a house built in the architectural style of medieval Bulgaria.

The small sloping road leads to the upper entrance of the park.

From above I can see the vegetation of the park. Why do I like Balchik? For the almost Mediterranean climate. Mediterranean vegetation, wild vegetation, invasive vegetation, that's what I like. The Black Sea is also in Romania but it is not as beautiful as in Bulgaria. That's precisely because of the climate in Bulgaria, closer to the Mediterranean.

We've been up and now we're going down the same route in the small park.

We pass again by the house we talked about earlier and, of course, curiosity pushes us to take a closer look.

Among the trees of the park, you can see the sea. I'm always glad when I get close to the sea.

The descent was much easier than the ascent, the cobbled pathway reached the town's paved road.

A few steps and we went from the mid-twentieth century, from the old neighborhood, in the middle of the city resort by the sea, to the modern hotels of our present time.

Tourists who have just arrived in town, eager to stay in a hotel, still do not know that on the opposite side of the sea there is a small old center, of a Balchik famous at the beginning of the last century for its streets, its buildings but especially for the light given by the nearby hills, white limestone hills. For this reason, it was called the Silver City.

Beyond the house is the sea that only the watchful seagull can see. Of course, we saw it a little later.

For us, Balchik is first and foremost the most pleasant place to holiday, relax and walk. I don't stay at the beach anymore and because of this, I have all day free for walks.

I'll say it again and again, I've found that my main activity lately is... walking. Like all of you, I love to walk, but only now I have realized that walking has become my main mode of relaxation. Slowly, slowly overtaking the other pleasures I still have.

For #WednesdayWalk by @tattoodjay