Blogs from Rila Monastery, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria, Europe

"Message in the bottle Message in the bottle Message in the bottle Message in the bottle" The Police 19 juillet Je quitte Sofia ce matin pour rejoindre encore une fois le monastère de Rila. Je dois y rencontrer les belges du trek pour récupérer du matériel laissé dans la chic voiture louée avant le départ vers les sommets. Ça me va. Ça va me permettre de visiter plus en profondeur le monastère que je n'ai qu'aperçu au départ du trek. Je me retrouve donc collé sur un timide polonais dans une mini-van bourré de touristes qu'organise l'Hostel Mostel de Sofia. Le conducteur roule vite et l'air est lourd dans la voiture. Le long de l'autoroute, des blocs appartements vieillots gardent en mémoire l'époque passée. Ce sont des blocs communistes. ... Impossible de ne pas s'écraser et ... read more

The overpowering odor of BO smacked me in the face after leaving Istanbul. Lucky to have the bus seat to myself, a tiny girl watched me for a while before visiting my seat to scribble in my journal. We stopped at the Turkish-Bulgarian border and waited to pass out of Turkey. On the Bulgarian border, there were five identical duty free shops. The people on the bus raced for the shops: it wasn't shopping; it was BUYING. I walked into one shop and a man from my bus demanded my passport. He handed it to the clerk, where they recorded the number, and the man ordered 9 cartons of cigarettes. Nine CARTONS! Why would they want my passport in a duty free store? Because there is a QUOTA per person when buying cigarettes and alcohol. ... read more

Went to Rila monastry for a day trip from Sofia, the drive there was priddy interesting id never seen so many dogs as road kill on the one stretch of road..Rila Monastry was nice but i expected there to be monks wonderin around and not a large amount of tourists there, the surrounding area was nice aswell...after spendin about 2 hours there we went back to Sofia. the hostel had organises a driver to take people there and back for 15euro because apparently its alot easier then catchin the public transport there.. ... read more

After that aromatic visit to Dupnitsa, our tour bus continued on to the Rila Mountains. Rila Monastery is situated up in the Rila Mountains some 75 miles (121 km) from Sofia. It's been an important Bulgarian cultural and religious site for centuries, with the oldest part dating to the 15th century. Rila Monastery was founded earlier, however, in the 10th century by St John of Rila (876-ca. 946). He is regarded as the patron saint of Bulgaria. The monastery was largely rebuilt in the 19th century as a symbol of Bulgarian national identify during the era of Ottoman rule. It was impressive that the monastery was respected by the then-Communist regime of Bulgaria. The church itself was completed in 1837. The exteriors of the church and buildings around the courtyard are in a characteristic black and ... read more