Whether you’re a hiker, history nerd or beach bum, you’ve discovered the perfect host. Bulgaria’s rich history dates back millenniums and there’s a bit of everything – Mediterranean, Roman, Ottoman, Persian, Celtic – in its cultural pot.
But almost a third of Bulgaria covered in forest, so hiking choices are plentiful. Choose to scale the domed Vitosha mountains on the outskirts of the capital Sofia, or take to adventure on the glacial peaks that top the Pirin Mountains.
Get your fix of history in the cobblestone streets of Plovdiv, one Europe’s oldest cities, where you can see a second-century Roman amphitheatre or visit the rubbled ruins of Eumolpias from 5000 BC. But if ruins and relics aren’t your thing, you may find your calling at one of the many beach towns lining the Black Sea coastline, where resorts run rampant.
Treating yourself to slabs of banitsa, a pastry stuffed with feta-like cheese and vegetables, is a must. And if someone offers you wine on a boozy night remember to shake your head, because here nodding means no and shaking means yes.
This monument to one of Germany’s favourite foodstuffs is as interactive as it is interesting (if sausages are your thing).
It is exactly as you would picture a museum that pays homage to hotdogs to be, with bun-shaped couches, artistically sculpted fries and glass cabinets explaining spices, flavours and all the other specifics of making the perfect currywurst.
Snag tastings are included in the tour and there is even a van set up inside for anyone who has ever dreamed of what being a street vendor must be like.
This is food and fun right in the heart of Berlin, and a must for all those who consider themselves sausage connoisseurs.
Defend queen and country with a sea-bound stay on a repurposed fort. Built 2.2 kilometres off England’s Isle of Wight in 1867 to guard against the threat of invading Frenchmen, No Man’s Fort has since undergone a spit and polish, opening its doors to guests in .
Gone are the days when 70 soldiers would hole up within its granite walls – now the structure boasts 23 luxurious bedrooms, as well as a wine bar, rooftop hot tubs and a spa centre offering signature salt treatments.
What to do while you’re at sea all day? Eat like a trooper, of course. When you’re not supping on mackerel caught from below or toasting the monarchy with a flagon of rum, take to the water for a sea-kayaking session or show off your military prowess in an on-board battle of laser tag.
Psst, want to know a secret? You should head to B&H and do it quickly. For a country whose size is dwarfed by Tassie’s there’s plenty to check out. And people are finding out about it – especially Europeans. It’s one of the most-visited countries in the Balkan region and is expected to see a record growth in visitor numbers before 2020 rolls around.
Despite being heavily damaged during the Bosnian War of the 1990s, Sarajevo remains incredibly beautiful. Parts of its Old Town, with their Ottoman architecture, feel a little like Istanbul, while some Austro-Hungarian buildings have been restored to their former glory. While you’re walking through the streets, look down to find Sarajevo roses. Small craters left by shells have been filled with red paint to honour the lives taken.
Daredevils tend to stick Mostar on their itineraries so they can leap off the elegant Stari Most (Old Bridge), but the Old City, listed by UNESCO, has an intriguing mix of influences. Climb the the stairs to the top of the minaret in the Kossi Mehmed Pasa Mosque for a superb view of the bridge and Old Town. It’s worth heading 40 kilometres out of town, too, to see the stunning cascades of the Kravice waterfalls.
Set your sights out of the city to discover a growing force in ecotourism. The alps here are pristine and the perfect spot for hikers and mountain bikers. Whitewater rafters are in for a treat, too. It’s a popular pastime in Bosnia and the Tara River Canyon is the deepest river canyon in Europe.
Belarus isn’t the easiest place to travel. Visas are fiddly to get, the service industry is fairly underdeveloped and the country’s less-than-impeccable reputation with human rights organisations all mean tourism isn’t exactly thriving. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth seeing, exploring and understanding. As the ‘last Soviet Republic’, you won’t see much advertising or a whole heap of litter or graffiti – instead enjoy pleasant country landscapes away from the cities. And while most of its buildings were destroyed in World War II, if you’re interested in the Soviet period and its effects today, Minsk makes an intriguing visit.
Step into the Belle Époque in one of Paris’s most lavish new hotels, Maison Souquet. Hidden in the saucy Pigalle district, the abode pays homage to the courtesans who once sashayed through its halls. From the exterior, the only hints of opulence are two red lanterns and a canopy flanking a simple facade, but enter the former house of pleasure and you’ll plunge into a world of intricate panelling, plush furniture and gold, gold, gold.
The 20 rooms offer unique designs created by French artist Jacques Garcia, whose credits include the tearooms of Ladurées, the refurbishment of Château de Versailles and the styling of more than 30 rooms of the Louvre with 18th-century decorative art. This is how one should slumber in the city of love.
Most of us go to the movies to relax, but just imagine blending that experience with a dip in a hot tub. A party with a single rub-a-dub tub got its organisers thinking about the possibilities of taking the concept to the people, and in July 2012 the first public Hot Tub Cinema was held in London.
These days you have to book well in advance for the summer screenings, which feature classic flicks (Ghostbusters, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Austin Powers etc.), dressing up and waiters who deliver cold beverages to your hot tub. There’s no permanent home, so the moist movie theatre pops up wherever a spot can be found. The concept has spread to Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester in the UK, as well as abroad to Ibiza and New York City. What could be better than watching Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels here?
Located just outside the city walls of Pula, Vespasian’s Amphitheatre – fondly known as ‘the Arena’ – has been drawing people into its crumbling walls for millennia. Built during the first century AD, the great Roman-style landmark was once the bloody battleground of gladiators and knights. Now the Arena is one of the largest open-air cinemas in the world, home to some of Pula’s best summer entertainment.
Hosting up to 5,000 spectators, the annual Pula Film Festival takes place during July, showcasing a program of Croatian cinema and a smattering of films from around the globe. In its 63rd year, the festival is an event not to be missed, so grab a seat and settle in for a cinema experience under the stars.
A gentle offshore breeze ripples the face of the Atlantic breakers. Fresh off the still snowy mountains it carries with it a wintery hint of the txirimiri. This is the poetic – almost endearing – name by which the people of San Sebastián know their drizzle. For whole seasons the txirimiri seems to be the default weather system here. Pulling on my wetsuit, I begin to question the wisdom of my decision to come to San Sebastián so early in the Spanish summer on the trail of what is said to be a surfing revolution.
Carrying my board across the rain-pocked sand of La Zurriola beach I count about 30 surfers lined up along the clean, eight-foot faces. The Basques are a hardy race, tempered by a land of mist-shrouded mountains and rugged coastlines. Apparently it takes more than the nip of the txirimiri to keep the local surfers from their waves.
Tucked into the corner where Spain and France meet, San Sebastián seems to benefit as the focus point for any swell that is generated by the spiralling currents of the Bay of Biscay. To the east lies French Basque Country and to the west a rugged coastline of wave-smashed cliffs and wild, windswept beaches stretches unbroken to Fisterra – literally the End of the Land – in far off Galicia. San Sebastián’s Gipuzkoa province is particularly famed for spots like the legendary surf beach at Zarautz (10 minutes from the city) and the infamous Playa Gris, which seems almost to have acted as a magnet for some of the biggest waves in the history of surfing.
The city itself has two beaches with two very different characters. The immense sweeping arc of soft sand that is La Concha is a tranquil natural harbour and the ideal town beach. The great curving promenade here is fringed with Art Deco hotels and palaces, built way back when this was the prime summer getaway for Spanish royalty who came to take in the waters and breathe the cool air of green Spain. La Concha has been called the pearl of the Cantabrian Sea, but its Spanish name simply means ‘the shell’.
Beyond the plazas, palaces and tangled alleyways of the old town, across the river in Gros quarter, you find wild La Zurriola – a beach with an altogether different mood. The humble little quarter of Gros has now launched a bid to claim the title of European Capital of Surf. This seems unlikely, until you remember Gros is just an hour from legendary Mundaka, the river-mouth wave that is rated as one of the 10 best waves on the planet.
Riding on the swell of La Zurriola, San Sebastián is leading a World Surf Cities Network, a group of nine destinations striving to have more of an impact on one of the world’s fastest growing sports. Durban in South Africa and France’s Hossegor are already fixtures on any travelling surfer’s wishlist, along with Australia’s Gold Coast and Newcastle. The others – Ericeira (Portugal), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain), Arica (Chile) and Santos (Brazil) – are less well known, but are respected for truly world-class surf.
After a winter spent surfing balmier waves in Brazil, the chill seeping through my wetsuit is somewhat numbing. But there is more than one side to the surf revolution taking place on the Spanish north coast at the moment and I’m anxious to check it out. The board I’m now paddling out into the lineout is already getting some appraising looks – along with a few doubtfully raised eyebrows. It’s what is known as a parabolic shape: its curves go inwards where those on conventional boards go out. It’s a surfboard with a waist and hips. Engineers at Pamplona-based Trinity Board Sport perfected the design using aerodynamics software normally reserved for the production of wind turbines.
My first slide down the face and swooping bottom turn convinces me the hype about these boards is not overstated. It’s shorter than any board I would normally ride, but is very stable and extremely fast. So fast, in fact, that I arrive back at the top of the wave far quicker than expected. As I go flying up over the lip and the board goes spinning up into the spattering txirimiri, I have a moment to reflect that this isn’t the most impressive start to the session. By the time another set comes through, however, I’m prepared for the phenomenal acceleration. If it’s true that these are indeed the surfboards of the future then all I can say is ¡Viva la Revolución!
A few hours later I’m in a backstreet taberna, lifting a glass of Basque cider and drinking a toast to surfboards with hips and San Sebastián’s place as the capital of European surfing.
There can be nowhere in the world that is better for curing après-surf munchies than San Seb. There are more Michelin stars here per square metre than anywhere else in the world, but it is the celebrated pintxos that are the most alluring option when you have just returned, muscles buzzing, from the surf.
Pintxos are the local version of tapas. In San Sebastián these normally simple snacks have been refined to the point where, in even the humblest bars, they are haute cuisine. I head for the first bar I see and, as I step in onto the sawdust floor, find myself faced with an entire feast. More than 20 plates are lined up along the bar. Each is heaped with perfectly prepared snack-size morsels. The place is still empty but the old bartender is busy laying out more delicacies. I ask him if they normally offer such incredible variety.
“Sometimes more, never less,” he answers with a shrug. “It takes most of the afternoon for the chef to prepare everything, but here a bar isn’t worthy of the name if it doesn’t offer good pintxos.”
He offers me a plate and starts to talk me through the list: “Mountain ham with goat cheese on oiled bread, prawns in garlic mayonnaise, baby octopus with chillies…” It goes on.
Some of the offerings are from the mountains and fertile valleys of the surrounding region. There’s cured ham, black pudding, spicy del Padrón peppers and asparagus that the king himself once famously described as cojonudo (balls-out spectacular).
Mostly, however, the bar’s specialities reflect San Sebastián’s fishing background: tuna, salted bacalao cod, delicious grilled sardines, tangy pickled anchovies and the little percebes that are delicious until somebody points out that these giant barnacles are almost entirely just huge (relatively speaking) penises.
It’s no coincidence that some of the best pintxo places are in the network of cobblestone alleyways between the market and the port. The towering statue of the Madonna on her hilltop perch looms over the grand old Santa Maria church and the pretty little fishing port. The Basques are not generally religious people and many of the fishermen here believe that a freshly painted livery of the green, red and white of the Basque flag offers all the protection their boats will ever need against the terrible Bay of Biscay storms.
The little port is a particularly evocative place to wander if you want to grasp the character of old San Sebastián. A few tourists mosey to and from the naval museum or the wonderful aquarium, with its walk-through shark tunnel, and at weekends the cluster of little seafood restaurants rumbles with Basque banter. The Euskera language is spoken more in San Sebastián and the surrounding Gipuzkoa area than anywhere else in the Eu (Basque) region. The streets of Donostia, as the city is called locally, are signposted with strange-looking words that are liberally spiked with Zs, Xs and Ks.
Despite its dual languages San Sebastián is one of the easiest Spanish cities to come to terms with. Where the cities of Spain’s far south are sultry and temperamental and the ancient fortress-towns of the central plateau are conservatively aloof, San Sebastián strikes you at first sight as chic and sexy. Outwardly it seems to encapsulate the stylish side of the Spanish character, but there’s an easygoing backstreet ambience that lures you onward into long, lazy rambles through the old-town alleys. Whatever your temperament, there can be few cities in all of Europe where it is so easy to feel at home.
By the time I’ve sated my hunger and finished my bottle of cider the streetlights are starting to come on. Despite the drizzle all is well with the world. I pull my collar up and wander the cobbled streets to the wave-break wall – a battlement to hold back the interminable onslaught of the Biscay breakers – to check out La Zurriola again.
The rain seems to be coming down heavier and a few dark storm clouds are now blotting out the setting sun. I watch several teenaged schoolboy surfers sprinting down the beach to catch a last few waves before a damp darkness falls on surf city. With this level of dedication it will take more than the txirimiri to keep San Sebastián from taking her place as the queen of European surfing.
Give the sauna the cold shoulder and air your lumps and bumps at a cool –120ºC. Haikko Manor’s Super Cold Treatment claims to leech away sleep disorders, stress and unsightly skin conditions, and locals have employed the technique to treat pain and rheumatic diseases for centuries.
Shimmy into a set of togs, pull on a pair of mittens and colourful felt booties then top off your ensemble with ear warmers – so you part with your ills, not your ears.
A one- to three-minute stint in the icebox earns you a diploma and you’ll greet a reinvigorated, refreshed you. It may not banish all your aches and pains, but for a while you’ll be too numb to notice.
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