 |
| bulgaria |
| rila, sofia, plovdiv, veliko tarnovo |
| Built in 927, this monastery is the holiest place in Bulgaria for religious pilgrims. It's located 120km south of Sofia, the capital, in a deep forested valley surronded by mountains. The monastery helped keep Bulgarian culture alive during the Ottoman empire. It was burnt in 1883, but later restored completely. The murals that adorn the magnificent Nativity Church in the centre of the monastery are incredible. Almost every centimetre of wall is covered in brightly coloured religious paintings. |
| The Rila Monastery |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The Nativity Church with its stone Hrelyu Tower slightly obscured on the left and (right) the four leveled monastery, home to over 300 monastic cells. |
| Some examples of the incredible mural paintings of the Nativity Church. |
| Mist rises over the Rila Mountain range behind the monastery and (left) a river outside the monastery ground rushes with water after three days straight of rain. |
| Sofia, the highest capital in Europe, at 545m above sea level, was full of museums and old churches. Unfortunately the rain started up again and my two day stay was wet, wet, wet. It wasn't my favourite city. |
| Sofia |
 |
 |
 |
| The main thoroughfare of the city at Plaza Battenberg. |
| Aleksander Nevski Church, created between 1892 and 1912 as a memorial to the 200,000 Russian soldiers who died fighting for Bulgaria's independence during the Russian confrontation with the Ottomans. |
| The family who ran the hotel where I stayed. They cooked a nice steak dinner for me and we drank beers late into the night in the park behind the hotel. |
| The second-largest city in Bulgaria with a nice old medieval town and several museums and galleries, about three hours southeast of Sofia. |
| Plovdiv |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The cobbled streets of the old medieval town. |
| The best-preserved Roman ruins in Bulgaria, an amphitheatre still used for live performances today. |
| The main pedestrian thoroughfare, Dzhumaya, lined with shops, restaurants and cafes. |
| Plovdiv's 19th-century Church of Sveta Booroditsa. |
| Veliko Tarnovo rests on a hilly bend of the Yantra River in a small gorge. It has one of the most picturesque, restored medieval towns in the country and a large fortress perched high above the city. |
| Veliko Tarnovo |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Veliko Tarnovo. |
| The incredible Monument of the Asens commemorating the establishment of the Second Bulgarian Empire, when Veliko Tarnovo served as capital of the country. |
| The walkway towards Tsaravets Fortress on a hill originally settled by Thracians and Romans well before the 5th century when the fortress was first constructed by the Byzantine Empire. Over 400 houses, 18 churches, monasteries, shops and towers have been uncovered within its walls. |
| A pseudo-animatronic puppet show within the first gate of the fortress. |
| The Bulgarian flag flying high above the town on a tower within the fortress. |
| The Yantra River near the bottom of the gorge. |
| For monetary reasons, I was forced to stay in a homsetay. This older lady found me and took me to her house where she lived with her artist husband. Rosa's was the craziest place I've ever stayed with. She kept coming in my room without knocking, cooked me the nastiest breakfasts and dinners and tried to tell me what to do. She also went through my bag and claimed she was just organizing my stuff for me when I was out. Do NOT stay with ROSA at any cost! |
| ... |