Ah, it's summer again! Sea, cocktail in hand, scent of sunscreen on the skin and ... vacation requests, packing, searching for last minute deals. Let's not forget the FOMO. That nagging feeling that instead of being here, I could be somewhere else where it might be more fun.
From a glimmering holiday at the seaside, summer holidays become a race against time that I still don't have enough time to respond to all the ‘Let's think of something for this summer.’ invitations.
And once upon a time, it was different. Once upon a time, I fell asleep in the back seat as we drove to the seaside, and my folks woke me up as soon as we arrived at the beach. A time when I didn't have to think about which swimsuit to wear, just which sand toys to get.
EAT.
The sea then was on schedule - 20 minutes on the towel and 5 minutes in. But not right after a meal! And those 20 minutes felt like an eternity. Just getting out of the water and I couldn't wait to get back into the arms of the sea. But first the longest 20 minutes of my life had to pass. The difficult question was - what to do during that time.
There were no smartphones then, and I didn't solve crosswords yet. All I had to do was dig in the sand and collect shells. And sometimes I would get carried away in this endeavor and forget to ask every two minutes, ‘Is it time to get in the water?’.
I was captivated by the ‘houses’ of sea dwellers, irretrievably lost in the depths, whose shells reached to the shore and formed a prickly but beautiful carpet of colors and shapes.
Ah, shells. I used to love and cherish them so much, of course, but I no longer notice them as I used to. Unless they're on a restaurant menu. Mussel natour with white wine and a view of the horizon - every other Instagram story from June to September.
If you're the kind of person who also likes to dine on seafood, you can learn to make it yourself when a proper culinary course comes along on Gift Come True.
Cooking class of your choice – perfect for beginners and seasoned home chefs
Duration: ~4 hours
Location: choose between Nemigenchev Culinary School, Metro Academy, or Menu Culinary School
Enjoy an exclusive tasting of six handcrafted ice-cream flavours—made with love, care, and our premium MILBOK double milk that lends every scoop an irresistibly velvety texture and rich, creamy taste.
TRAVEL.
Ever since I've been considered an ‘adult’, except as a dish that sometimes requires specific skills to eat, shellfish to me is just part of the beach, not the experience of being at the beach. Nowadays I don't notice them as much because I'm mostly catching up on missed sleep under the shade of an umbrella, playing belote, or spending the afternoon at a beach bar.
And while I sleep, so does the child in me, who was much more excited about the seaside holiday and was waiting for it, not to get away from the noisy city to replace it with the noisy resort, but because it really loves the sea. I don't collect seashells anymore, but receipts from restaurants so we can sort the bill later. I don't build sandcastles but lists of hotel and restaurant prices. I don't ask my folks to let me in the water, I go in when I want to, which is increasingly rare.
In recent years, I don't dig in the sand out of boredom because there are plenty of sea experiences to fill every minute of my vacation. It doesn't matter if I'm alone, in company or with a loved one, I can explore the seabed with a scuba diving lesson. If I miss out on an experience like that FOMO will keep me up until next summer.
An underwater adventure! Diving lesson! Sozopol
Duration: 1 hour 30 min
Location: Sozopol, Dive Sozopol Centre
The underwater world has an impressive variety of life and only diving can connect us to these wonders of nature. Enjoy the beauty that the marine life of Sozopol offers. Directly, with no filters.
And before? I used to fill whole buckets with shells and go into hysterics when my dad said there was no room for them in the car. So many different shapes, sizes colors. How do I choose which ones to take and which ones to leave? I couldn't explain how the sea created such masterpieces.
While lying on the beach, I stare at a rappan and remember how when I was little I used to put them up to my ear to hear the sea when I missed it (who hasn't done that?). Ever since then, I've wanted to unravel the mystery of that sound.
It turns out that the sound of the sea we hear from rapana shells and larger clams is the sound of the environment resonating with the shell cavities. So I never heard the sea, just the air in my grandmother's living room - the one she wouldn't let us into. And my brother and I used to do it in secret, so we could take the huge rapan from the cabinet and ‘hear’ the sea.
As I delve into more interesting facts about seashells, I discover that I may be a criminal. Luck was on my side because no one caught me collecting seashells. We can't say the same for a Florida lady who was arrested in 2018 for taking 40 sea shells from a Key West beach.
Turns out she was collecting shells of an endangered species of mollusk. It's like she tore down their houses. The lady was detained for 15 days and forced to pay a $500 fine. If my dad knew this, he might have used it as a threat against me when I was trying to stow buckets full of shells in the car.
LOVE.
Lost in memories and philosophical reflections, I concluded that seashells are like people - so diverse, but each beautiful in its own way. When I was little, I used to strive to find the most perfect and beautiful seashell that didn't have a single broken end. Now I look at all of them, even the ones that look like ‘nature has beaten them up’.
When I was little, at the end of every summer I said goodbye to the sea because I knew I wouldn't see it soon. I hoped the shells I collected would remind me of summers gone by. Today everything is a bit different, but one thing is for sure...
„In life, everything passes… except the desire to wake up by the sea!“
Unknown author