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Romanians Return to Late Queen's Beloved Coast

15 03 2007  Following the trail of their late queen, Romanians are setting their stamp on Bulgaria’s northern seaside.

By Iskra Sotirova in Varna (Balkan Insight, 15 Mar 07)

In March, the royal garden in the Bulgarian seaside town of Balchik starts blissfully to reawaken.

Water fills the cascading pools and meanders between the budding roses, giant cacti, ancient Ginkgo trees and countless lilies - just some of the more than 3,000 rare types of flora the Swiss gardener Jules Jany planted a century ago.

The fairytale park was the inspiration of Queen Marie of Romania, the British-born royal who spent many days here with her lover in the 1920s, when the area was part of Romania.

Marie died just before the Second World War. For half a century after the war, when the Communists ruled Romania, memories of her reign were officially suppressed.

But Romanians have begun rediscovering her old haunts, long after the land returned to Bulgarian rule.

Scores of Romanians have started exploring the Black Sea coast north of Varna for weekend visits or to invest in holiday homes.

Real estate agencies report a boom in sales of summer homes, which has accelerated since January when the two neighboring countries joined the European Union.

The growing interest of the Romanians is changing the region’s appearance, as new small restaurants and businesses spring up, helping once decayed resorts to revive.

The recent development is somewhat surprising, given the historic rivalry between Romanians and Bulgarians over the southern Dobrudzha, as the region is known.

During the Balkan wars of 1913, when Bulgaria’s armies were fighting Serbs and Greeks in Macedonia, Romania made use of the Bulgaria’s military difficulties in the south to invade from the north and occupy the fertile agricultural lands west of Balchik.

The land remained in Romania’s possession until 1940. The occupation left bitter sentiments among local people. This resentment was further strengthened during the Cold War. Although Bulgaria and Romania were bound together for decades by common membership of the Socialist bloc, they were divided by a number of unresolved cross-border disputes.

When Bulgaria started to develop the Black Sea coast in the 1960s, few Romanians were among the scores of eastern-bloc tourists.

After a decade of painful economic transition in both states, EU integration has finally brought the two countries together.

Over the last two years, more and more Romanians have been crossing the Danube for short trips.

In the past hardly any Romanians have been visiting local sea towns. But this spring, the Bulgarian Riviera near Varna announced Romanians have booked 400 out of the 1000 beds at the resort for the Easter holidays – usually a slow season for the Bulgarian seaside.

In 2006, Queen Marie’s palace and garden in Balchik was the second most visited museum in Bulgaria after the National History Museum in Sofia. Moreover, 70 per cent of the visitors to Balchik were Romanians.

Another attraction is the regular rock concerts held in Kavarna, a town about 80 kilometres south of the Romanian border. Concerts by bands including Deep Purple, Scorpions, Glen Hughes and Ronnie James Dio have lured thousands of Romanians over the last few years.

Many Romanians cross the border to buy good, cheap food, buying large quantities of cheese especially.

Supermarket owners are delighted. “We are under constant Romanian pressure,” laughed Tsonko Tsonev, mayor of Kavarna. He said the shelves of the town’s main food store were often empty as a result of the foreign shoppers.

Restaurants are also flourishing. The high season on the northern Black Sea coast usually ends early in September. But last year the Romanian trade extended the season until the end of October.

Waiters at the Zlatnata Ribka (Golden Fish) restaurant on the Durankulak lake have had to learn their menus by heart in Romanian. “They are our only customers in winter,” said one waiter, Petko Petkov.

Romanians do not only come to eat and shop. There is a growing interest in real estate, concentrated on the developed resort of Varna and its surroundings.

“Until January 2007 we had Romanian buyers now and then but since EU membership, the number of deals has rapidly increased,” said Daniel Dimitrov, of Palad estate agency.

Dimitrov said that while interest was dropping amongst the British, the main group of buyers, interest amongst Romanians was growing.

The local Karavel agency has sold six flats in recent weeks to Romanians for a total of 360,000 euro.

“We want to spend our holidays here,” said Stefan Radu of Bucharest, one of the buyers.

He paid 40,000 euro for a two-room apartment, which he said was half the price he would have paid for a similar property at home.

Radu said he viewed his purchase primarily as an investment, believing the value of the flat will continue to rise.

“Here you can buy a decent house with a garden for about 30,000 euro,” said Mariana Stoitsa, another Romanian would-be buyer. “For this money you can’t buy a house with land even in a poor Romanian resort like Vama Veke!”

While the boom in Varna is already a fact, real estate agencies aim to lure new customers to the underdeveloped area north of the town, nearer the Romanian border.

Realtors are already busy marketing sales in a luxurious complex under construction in the town. “Two-room flats with a view towards the new marina for 32,000 euro,” the advertisements read.

Stoil Ranev, a pensioner from Sofia who moved to Kavarna for a quieter life, intends to open an estate agency of his own in the town. “It is time for me to learn some Romanian,” he said with a smile.

Iskra Sotirova is a correspondent of the Bulgarian national daily 24 Chasa in Varna. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s online publication.