THE Bulgarian seaside - a beautiful, peaceful and clean place. Or is it? For a teenager, the beauty of the seaside is irrelevant. The seaside for them means a long day at the beach, playing Frisbee and beach volleyball; swimming, diving, fishing - anything to do with water. They spend their evenings in a bar, or restaurant, depending on taste, and at night, they go wild. Discos, night clubs, loud music; that's a regular teen's evening. Of course, that is when they're with friends. But when they are with their parents, their options are greatly limited.
In Bulgaria you can see 14-year-olds everywhere at 1.30am. The police in the resorts don't seem to be bothered by it. "As long as the youngsters don't cause trouble, they're fine," say the police, even though it's prohibited by law for an underage person to be out later than10pm. The teens are just fine with the idea. As a group of 14 year-olds say: "Why should we stay at home, when we've come on vacation to have fun?" And that is precisely what they do. Even the underage foreigners are tempted into the late night activities.
At night almost every club or disco you go into on the Black Sea coast is crowded, not only by teenagers, but also by people in their mid-thirties or even early forties.  There are also beautiful 20-year-old women with their boyfriends, who are not so beautiful, but significantly more muscular or rich than any other man in the place. Another must for any Bulgarian seaside evening party is alcohol. The amount of alcoholic drinks consumed in the Bulgarian summer resorts probably adds up to the amount of water in the Black Sea. And logically, at around 3am, almost everybody is drunk.
Favoured party locations are the big chalga-clubs. People are lured into them by the bright lights and loud music. There they go wild, the dance floor is almost always packed, and everybody has a great time. Of course, there are those people who would much rather stay in a quiet and dimly lit bar, with a bottle in hand and some friends around a small table. Or others, who even at night can't withhold their passion for pool, cards, table football and such. You can also rarely find an empty computer club in the evening.
But it's not necessarily a club or bar that provides fun for others, who would much rather stay somewhere quiet with friends, or their boyfriend or girlfriend. The vacation homes are a load of laughs themselves. "We really like chasing each other in the woods next to our house, or on the beach" or "we love chasing frogs in and around the swimming pool" (yes, frogs: makes you think about the hygiene, doesn't it?), say two groups of young girls.
As for the daytime, for those who didn't get drunk during the night, there are various activities on the beach or in the water. There are volleyball courts, table tennis tables and windsurfing clubs all over the place. But for most people, the most popular beach activity remains lying in the sun with a refreshing drink next to them, soaking up the sunshine. The laziness on the beach has a fascinating charm to it.
Water activities are also among the favourites: swimming, diving and all sorts of other fun things. But the sea is a harsh mistress. Only last year several people lost their lives in the Black Sea, due to carelessness or bad luck. The beautiful and seemingly shallow waters carry many unexpected surprises, such as sudden depressions in the sea bed and strong underwater streams that pull you out to sea. My personal advice is to stay within the marked areas, under the supervision of lifeguards.
The water also has its benefits. For one thing - saltwater is healthy; it helps cure all sorts of discomforts such as pimples, scars and rashes. But the Black Sea coast is far from healthy. The pollution is immense, and there are pieces or rubbish floating on the surface of the water. What could be a wonderful and beautiful gulf, the Burgas gulf, has now, due to industrialism, poor infrastructure and the carelessness of the community, been turned into a waste-dump. It's the same on land. Even in the most luxurious Bulgarian seaside resorts, the streets are covered with rubbish, and building sites continue work even during the tourist season. Besides the fact that it's annoying, it's also bad for business. No one in their right mind would come back to a place where pneumatic drills make noise all night, and heavy-duty trucks criss-cross the roads wherever they want.
Yet, even with the dangers, pollution, noise and poor supervision, why is the Bulgarian coastline one of the most thriving tourist locations in the world? It's simple: prices. The most attractive thing about the resorts is that they're cheap for European standards. Compared to places like the Riviera or the Caribbean, Bulgaria's three times cheaper, if not more. For the average Bulgarian worker, the prices are seemingly high, but for a middle-class foreigner, they're very low. That's what lures them to the Black Sea coast.
For the Bulgarian teenager on the other hand, the seaside is expensive. Therefore, most young Bulgarians find jobs in restaurants, bars or hotels to earn money for a 10 day vacation with friends. The pay is not much, but a month's worth of work as a waiter pays enough for a pretty good holiday. The working hours for teenagers also benefit their stay there. For instance, an 18-year-old boy said: "I work seven hours a day, every day, and I still get time to go out in the evening and have fun with my friends." Some even actually get paid to have fun. Bartenders get pretty high wages and stay around people all evening.
But the dream of going to a world-famous tourist location, such as Mallorca, the Riviera, the Caribbean or Hawaii lives in every Bulgarian teenager. When I asked some Bulgarian girls whether they have ever been out of Bulgaria, I was surprised to find out that they have never left the country for a holiday. They don't have the money to do so. Until the Bulgarian youth get a chance to visit those places, the Black Sea coast will always provide the unforgettable moments of a wonderful holiday.