Saints and Spirits on the Black Sea

Bulgaria's Anastasia Island trades beachy clichés for pirate legends, and monastic ghosts

- NEETA LAL

Forget beach bars and banana boats. Bulgaria's Anastasia Island, a speck in the Black Sea just off Burgas, doesn't serve you sunshine and selfies—it serves you shivers. With its pirate-haunted cliffs, a monastery-turned-prison-turned-hotel, and ghost stories thick in the air, this is not your ordinary sun-kissed beach escape. The small island lacks in mojitos and luxury, but it makes up for it with its legends, mystery, and eeriness—enough to make you sleep with an open eye and a proven spell to ward off ghosts.

A volcanic hiccup floating off the coast of Burgas, the island as small as the size of a ship, but big enough to squeeze in centuries of sacred legend, herbal remedies, and enough ghost stories to warrant its own horror franchise.

The island's volcanic cliffs have eroded into natural rock formations with names that sound less like geography and more like a prophecy: The Dragon, The Gate of the Sun, The Mushroom, and—cue ominous music—The Petrified Ship.