Advertisement
Published: October 14th 2017
Edit Blog Post
Quote from "Back to the Future"
This probably only makes sense if you are not a fan of the movies "Back to the Future". This was part of the decorations in a pedestrian underpass. Lennon, Lenin, Lion and Lloyd
During our last week in Bulgaria we spent much time hiking in the mountains. We have decided to write about the hikes in a separate blog entry. The hiking blog w will start writing as soon as this one is finished. But in between the hikes we also had time to see and do some other things.
Rila Monastery - In the first of our blog entries from Bulgaria we mentioned that if you make a list of the
Top 100 Places You Must Visit in Europe it is quite possible that not a single one of them is in Bulgaria. But if you expand that list to
Top 200... it is quite possible that Rila Monastery makes it into the list. If you travel in Bulgaria this is a place you simply must include in your itinerary. There are many monasteries in Bulgaria but this one really stands out. It is large, beautifully decorated and easily the most visited monastery in the country.
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral - this cathedral in Sofia stands out because of its size. According to Wikipedia it is the second largest cathedral in the Balkan Peninsula.
Rila Monastery
If you are travelling in Bulgaria this is a place you simply must include in your itinerary Museum of Socialist Art - this is another sight you can find in Sofia. When Bulgarians decided to give up communism and have a go at democracy instead they also dismantled many of the statues, monuments and other artworks celebrating socialism or socialist heroes. In this museum it is possible to see some of these statues, paintings and also propaganda films made in the period 1944 to 1989. It is an interesting museum and well worth visiting.
Some of the monuments they put up during the communist time are so large that moving them is totally out of the question and to even dismantle them would be quite a challenging task. Those monuments are still standing in various places in Bulgaria. They are such an important part of Bulgaria's recent history that we have decided to make a separate blog entry about them. That will eventually become the fifth and last blog entry from this trip. There are some interesting things coming in that one.
Plovdiv - The city Plovdiv is famous for having some ruins from Roman Empire and for having an interesting Old Town where many buildings are in a special style.
Rila Monastery
There are many monasteries in Bulgaria but this one really stands out A few other things we would like to mention about the Bulgarian culture
White cheese - The Bulgarians love white cheese, similar to the Greek Feta. In the supermarkets they often have a large shelf with different brands of white cheese and they are sold in large quantities. With "large quantities" we mean that if you wish to buy a small package, what would be a completely normal size at home say 200 grams, you might not find any that small. You might be forced to buy a 400 g package simply because it is the smallest they have. However, if you wish to buy a big chunk of white cheese, say 1 kg, you won't go home empty handed. The cheese tastes good, is always of good quality and is cheap. Our recommendation is to buy, eat and enjoy!
Hristo Botev - Wikipedia says that Hristo Botev "was a Bulgarian poet and national revolutionary. Botev is widely considered by Bulgarians to be a symbolic historical figure and real national hero". When we travelled through Bulgaria we ran into Hristo Botev many times. There are statues of him, streets named after him and so on. We quickly realised
Rila Monastery
It is large, beautifully decorated and easily the most visited monastery in Bulgaria that he is an important figure for the Bulgarians because he sort of followed us around on our trip. It was never annoying but he popped up every now and then.
Well, if you decide to visit Bulgaria yourself try to stay friends with the white cheese and Hristo Botev because you won't get away from neither of them.
The headline in the beginning reads "Lennon, Lenin, Lion and Lloyd". If you look at the photos the three first ones don't need any further explanation. If you find the fourth one cryptic it refers to Christopher Lloyd, the actor who played Dr Emmett Brown in Back to the Future. He is the one who said "Roads? Where we are going we don't need roads." This blog is about a road trip so maybe it is contradictory. But it is one of the best quotes from a movie ever so it is welcome in our blog.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.128s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 10; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0536s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht
Love those arches!