Well its time, my first report card on deployment. OK I best stipulate the grading, in general being on a ship sucks and being on deployment increases the factor many times over so I will not be grading that aspect but rather the time in port. First up Augusta Bay, Italy well this was just a quick stop no liberty just a fuel and run. but during the short there I was able to go play a few games of basketball and I had alot of fun but at the very end I sprained my ankle and its been kind of tender since. The port was an industrial port and like I said we couldn't leave the pier so there really wasn't anything to look at. So I don't really call that a port visit. Lets just call it a "Pit Stop"
Now to the heart of the matter Varna, Bulgaria. First liberty port Woohoo!! well as you may know from my last deployment I tend to work a fair bit and get one day of liberty to see the town and get things to bring back home. Varna is a smaller touristy kind of town with the look and feel of old Russia with a bit of the euro flavor slowly creeping in. Sadly there was not much to see but this nice church and the little shops strewn about the area. but as far as attractions not much. Thankfully the food was really good and cheap. Mostly meats, sausage and the big thing was kabobs. kabobs on swords, sticks, anything pointy they did it.
The big spot everyone ended up at was the mall. There were two fairly good size malls about a 30 minute walk from the ship and of course everyone gravitated to the paintball area on the top floor, yours truly included. We ended up having a battle between engineers and my division and I can say that we won a few and lost a few but it was good times had by all. The rest of the day we walked around found a nice play to eat by the beach and then headed back towards the ship. I found a couple trinkets and I got to see a knew place in the world. All in all a pretty interesting experience.
Now as you have probably already googled varna and discovered I am in the black sea I will let you know that we have had some interesting interactions so far and will probably do so in the future. But I am ok and I am not worried. And if I am not, no one should be hehe
So I guess if I was to grade this port I would give it a B. Nothing to great, nothing bad and a much needed time off to eat good food and explore. I cant complain and I wont.
This experience in the black sea I think has opened some peoples eyes as to how the world is. It is not a black or white, a right or wrong, or even a good vs evil world. I don't know how many people have realized it and for me it was more of a confirmation since I am constantly reading and studying such things. But I guess if some 18 year old kid is able to finally leave home, see something new in the world and come back with a more worldly view of how things work it can't be that bad can it.
Next stop Odessa, Ukraine. Till then take care and be safe.
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