http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Rila-Monastery/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Bulgaria , West , Rila Monastery en-us Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:04:11 UTC Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:04:11 UTC OK day 1 Sofia wasn't really spent in Sofia but instead about 120 kms south in the Rila Mountains at the 'Jerusalem' of Bulgaria the Rila Monastery.3 of us piled into a taxi for the 4 hour round trip on a grey morning but as we drove out of Sofia and headed south the sun came out well for a while before the mountain fog closed in. One minute you are enjoying the countryside in sunshine then y http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Bulgaria/West/Rila-Monastery/blog-327616.html 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 TurkishBulgarian 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 http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Bulgaria/West/Rila-Monastery/blog-129672.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Bulgaria/West/Rila-Monastery/blog-87572.html the day started out a bit earlier than normal since we had to be ready 930 for our excursion to Rila a bit to the south and in a more mountainy area. we decided that we needed to pick out something monasterical to wear there and so started the day's joke. there were 5 of us but we split into 2 and 3 since we were taking taxis there even though it was like a 2 hour ride each way. kasia and http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Bulgaria/West/Rila-Monastery/blog-78668.html After a few days in the bustle of Sophia we headed south to the Rila Monestary. Famed world wide for its beauty and tranquility. The slow journey by bus from Dupnitsa yielded successively more impressive views until we arrived.We wandered around briefly it is such a beautiful place why so many policeWe couldn't stay too long as we needed to find a camp site. About 1.2km along the only road into http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Bulgaria/West/Rila-Monastery/blog-934.html