Bulgaria's Rila Monastery is a place where time stands still in reverence to the beauty of nature and in remembrance of ages past. This is a Holy Place for Bulgarians and is the country's most visited landmark destination, giving visitors a sense of isolation and spirituality. The ancient wooden monastery is situated within a tranquil mountain setting that is surrounded by rock peaks, evergreen forest and beautiful meadows. Rainy Day at Rila Located in the southwest corner of Bulgaria, the Rila Monastery is the largest and most important symbol of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. It was founded by Ivan Rilski (John [View Full Entry]

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Naturally I had a flat tire in the middle of nowhere about 24 km before Giurgiu, Romania. I walked the bike close to 4 km before I saw what looked like a rustic gas station ahead. Four very small, fluffy dogs who were hoping to look ferocious ran out to warn me to keep away. I would have laughed at them had I not been so exhausted. Three men, who had been watching me walk up from the highway came out to greet me and the oldest one (maybe in his early 70s) took my bike from me and the three [View Full Entry]

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There has been no internet and English speaking people have been few and far between. It does make things a bit more difficult. Distance is measured in kilometers and on the long stretches of road there are cement markers marking each kilometer and in between each kilometer are eight smaller cement markers dividing each kilometer into eight pieces; it took 25 pedal rotations in between each of the eight small markers to get to the next one, for a total of 200 pedal rotations per km. I only know this because when my quads were killing me and I couldn't stop [View Full Entry]

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Well I am typing this in the comfort of my dining room.Still not letting me have boyana in locations so greg it has to stay at moment.Finding the mouse equiv hard to handle otherwise very pleased with set up.Using wireless connection via M-Tel card.Works anywhere a mobile works. V. convenient partic given country nature of village.From the 5/9 I will have my residency permission confirmed and have my I.D. card.Satellite and new dvd/video are working so it's becoming tech. heaven.Neighbours continue friendly and slight diff of opinion over pament for work done by georg resolved nicely and in my favour I [View Full Entry]

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Well now on the way to my 3rd property.Tho' not in Balchik area nevertheless it is S. of Varna and about 10 km from Byala resort/beach. 20 mins tops from Varna along main highway. This will become a family investment for the future. More later by way of description when final contract signed(prob by start Sept.) I have also purchased a 26" flat screen T.V. and satellite package (main house), a laptop which should be connected via M-Tel card on Mon and today bought a rotovator. All possible due to cost of living here and provision of overkill in the fruit/veg [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everybody! I am having to play catch up with the blog, because we have not had internet access for several days. I know the travelblog alerts are probably irritating to some of you. Just delete the reminders or hit unsubscribe if it fills up your mailbox. To get to Sofia, we had to ride the bus back to Skopje, Macedonia. We caught another bus there for Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. The road to Sofia was extremely bumpy. All of our muscles ached by the time we arrived. Most of the population in Sofia is made up of Orthodox members. [View Full Entry]

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Finally got to Varna! thank god, the sky cleared up today and its perfect for the beach! The night before was alright as well. Went to the hostel, and great people there!! A traveller works temp. there and he is cool!! He brings the guest to all these nice fun places in town! First we went Go-Karting!!! haaa.. 8 of us had a 15min. competition! I started in 4th place for test lap.. and then when the real thing came...AHHH..This guy without a drivers licence created this big car crash and then my place just dropped dramatically!!! AHHHHH So mad!! I [View Full Entry]

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The travel blog site I'm using crashed last week and lost my blog entries but most of them are saved so I will re-post them and update you on my travels in Bulgaria asap, but now I'm off to catch my flight to Vienna! [View Full Entry]

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Not quite sure how things are in news dept as blog seems to have lost 5 entries!!Suffice it to say I'll start on the weekend before Sam's arrival and hope that there is not too much repetition!My warwound on the shin(ex. flatbacks) was really aching so on the 20th I decided to stay at hope for RandR so locked the car Fri night and did not go back to it till Sun am when I decided to check on my e-mails in Dobrich. Set off and because Dobrich rd is reasonable decided to play CD. - surprise no CD player only [View Full Entry]

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I left you in suspense over a week ago and I am sure you have all been sitting by your computers waiting for an update... So after my adventure upon arrival in Sofia, I managed to buy some sun cream and fruit, which involved a lot of pointing and miming. In the evening I went for a meal with some people from the hostel, which also involved a lot of pointing and miming. When we went back to the hostel, the woman who was working there started talking to a couple of us, and we went out with her, which was [View Full Entry]

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