A month in Burgas, with a two-week exit clause

I gave the place two weeks to disappoint me. It needed a lot less than that to change my mind.

I’d followed Burgas Coliving’s renovation on Instagram since around 2022. Four years to act on a mild interest. German efficiency, applied to procrastination.

The plan was to ride the motorcycle from Cologne to Burgas. Then a project came back that I really wanted to continue, and riding home to Portugal while working wasn’t going to happen. So the bike stayed in Cologne and Burgas got me with a backpack.

There was also a gamble. The community manager I hadn’t got on with in the Algarve was running Burgas too. So I built in an exit: two weeks, a trial run. Very German. Very romantic.

The first impressions queued up. The owner, Katya, picked us up after arguing with the airport police. Day one ended at 2am in the beer garden with a Beer Bastards can and a long conversation. The house is a former sanatorium in Burgas Vetren, 15km out of town, next to a brewery. People used to come here to get healthier.

What I feared happened on schedule: a manager who was barely around. What saved it was the community. A couple of people dragged me out of the coliving bubble to places where actual Bulgarians live, and two days of that changed my whole perspective.

So I stayed. Work, workouts, Bulgarian and Georgian feasts, the Metalhead Brewery next door, and a beer and music festival in the Sea Garden for my birthday. I’m going back. With the motorcycle this time.