We set out from Leipzig/Hale for Burgas on 8th September in the morning. We flew with the TU 154 machine. We enjoyed the first Bulgarian beer at the very lunch time.

That’s us: Elizabeth, Lotar, Horst and I.

We saw nothing but the Sunny Beach resort and the old historical part of the town of Nessebar during that holiday. Nothing important happened and yet something very crucial happened.

We were put up in the 'Pirin' hotel. The 'Happy Bar and Grill' was placed just across the street. At the beginning we settled down in this restaurant and there we spent every day. And Vanya always served us. She was 'our' waitress. Vanya and I wanted to have a chat after a couple of days. But neither had she spoken German nor I Bulgarian. It wasn’t better in English as well. We just couldn’t understand each other.

For the first time after this situation I thought that it wouldn’t be bad at all to speak Bulgarian. I never again saw Vanya and probably I will never meet her again. She of course doesn’t know that she was the waitress because of whom I started learning Bulgarian.

The service in the 'Happy Bar and Grill' restaurant was getting worse in about 10 days. This did not concern the waitresses. They were zealous as always. But the management of the restaurant didn’t think to be necessary to supply goods that had finished. First the mastika• finished. We could order uzo• instead of mastika, but to drink uzo in Bulgaria just wasn’t good.

After that all kinds of the Bulgarian beer finished. And when the following day they didn’t bring Bulgarian alcohol drinks we left the restaurant and looked for a new 'harbor'. We were sorry about Vanya and the other waitresses but we didn’t come to Bulgaria to drink expensive foreign beer, however they weren’t on draft.

•a national Bulgarian alcohol drink with little pieces of ice in it.

•a national Greek alcohol drink similar to the Bulgarian mastika

And this way we happened to enter the 'Carribi' bar. Somehow I liked it as from the very beginning. The name of the owner was Zdravko and he was responsible for the daytime shift. He was pouring us draft beer very diligently. We were served by Jenya and Maya 'the bee'. We spent the rest of our holidays at this bar.

Jenya was speaking German perfectly because she had finished the German High School in Burgas. And with Maya we talked to each other both in German and in English. All the staff shaked their hands with us the last day. There is no need to explain more about our attitude towards the serving staff.

After this holiday it was clear to me that the next travel will be again to Bulgaria. I was charmed by the kind people, the wonderful weather and the low prices, although I had seen actually nothing from the country. Some people could be disturbed by the crowd and the row in Sunny Beach, but I liked exactly this thing.