It is known that I have a passion for the sea and for a certain place where I consume my longing. I don't want to seem arrogant to think that I am so well known, but I rely on the fact that I have written hundreds of blogs about the Black Sea and the resort of Balchik, Bulgaria.
Balchik is a small town with a long history. Although I now go there and live in the present, the city's past is more important.
I can only imagine the past in black and white, so I try to see it through black-and-white photographs. Sometimes, I manage to believe that my photograph is a hundred years old.
As much as I would like to, I cannot avoid the modern aspects that appear in the frame, but many times they integrate and do not spoil the image.
The most famous inhabitant of Balchik was Queen Maria of Romania. It seems strange that a queen of a country should live in another country, Bulgaria. The explanation comes from history, this part of Bulgaria, called Cadrilater, belonged to the kingdom of Romania for almost 40 years.
These stone armchairs were favored by the queen when she was resting and watching the sea.
The first walk I took along the waterfront when evening was near, brought me close to the locals and tourists mingling on a pontoon near the harbor.
I love to see and discover what the locals do in the seaside towns I visit. Tourists don't interest me much but I am fascinated by the locals.
There are some tourists, I was once the same, who in their vacation program, they use to fish for pleasure and who have a problem because they don't know what to do with the fish caught.
With the locals, however, it's a different story. They fish to eat, for them, fishing has the same value as it did hundreds of years ago and is not a pastime.
Tourists, on the other hand, walk around and watch. Some see something and understand and others don't...
I like to watch. The seascape is breathtaking. Some images haunt me all winter when the sea is hundreds of kilometers away.
This is my entry for the #monomad challenge.
