Vitosha National Park

We didn't need to be at the airport until about 1100, so rather than waste the final few hours, we  decided to get up early, breakfast and leave as quickly as we could and drive to the nearby Vitosha National Park, some 20 mins away.

Except it was Monday morning rush hour and the traffic was rather heavy with lots of cars pushing in and out, but the satnav worked fine.  Unfortunately, as we were almost out of town, I was about to cross a 4 lane junction when the lights turned amber and I had to stop quickly (the lights go red very quickly after amber here and I didn't fancy being half way across with 4 lanes of traffic bearing down on us from right and left).  We heard a crunch - b*gger.  We got out but luckily the chap behind us had stopped literally within an inch of our bumper - unfortunately the bloke behind him had been driving too close and had failed to stop in time.  I think the damage was only minor and I pointed to the lights by way of apology but they just shrugged, so we drove off and left them to it.

I was more than a little shaken, as although I was perfectly correct to have stopped and driver 3 was obviously too close, I didn't like the fact that I had contributed to their accident.  But we had to continue and soon found ourselves in a quiet suburb and then up into the national park.  We stopped briefly at the Dragalevtsi Monastery (same design as before) nestling in the woods.

It was a glorious morning;  the sun was shining through the trees and reflecting the fabulous autumn colours.  

Unfortunately it had taken us so long to get there, we only had about 10 mins before we needed to turn around and head for the airport as we needed to fill up with petrol en route.

Once at the airport we went over Minty with a fine tooth comb, but could find no further knocks or scratches so we went to hand the keys in requesting that they inspect.  We were told no one would be available to check the car for at last an hour, which I explained was unacceptable and given a previous bad experience in Italy (not true) we would not leave without the car being inspected in our presence.  To my surprise the guy in the booth then came back down with me and looked for himself, agreed the car was perfect and phoned through to the booth where Ian was waiting and our deposit was immediately released.  Sometimes you just need to stand firm.

Much relieved, we headed for the lounge which was very quiet (only 1 other person, so I don't know how we managed to sit behind him!).  It was adequate but basic and self service - Ian found a bottle of champagne and opened it with uncustomary aplomb.  I then browsed the food on offer which wasn't terribly good but there were quite a few items in sealed containers (ie. transportable) so as our best friends Sue and David were due for dinner later in the week I thought it might be fun to create the starter course from items filched from Sofia Airport; including pâté, a lovely tomato/garlic paste and cheese.

Plus assorted nuts and dried bagels.  I managed to stuff quite a few bits into my case.

We got chatting to a lovely young couple when I moved our bags so they could sit down (luggage and coats do not need their own seats) - he was Bulgarian and she British Malaysian.  I'm not sure they really believed our primary reason for visiting Sofia (achieving BA Silver status) but it was a good talking point and we spent an enjoyable half hour exchanging travel tales until the flight was called.  (Note: She then sat with us in Business Class and he was down the back, although did visit once the food had been served!)

A couple of aerial shots to finish with.  

All in all a good time and it achieved our purpose, although there are probably more interesting/picturesque areas to visit - next time!

North of Sofia

Today we decided to head North about 110kms to the small town of Vratsa.  There were a number of places that sounded interesting an hour or two's drive further on, but that would have then meant a 3hr drive home and regrettably I felt that was too far.

Ian found us a lovely, scenic route through the Iskar Gorge and we took our time enjoying  the winding road (very safe, low speed limit, plenty of crash barriers and generally good driving).  

Frustratingly, parking bays never seemed to co-incide with the glorious views, but we stopped where we safely could.

Ian loves a rope/slat bridge (not)

Fishing is obviously very popular.

Minty and the Old Bird again.

We drove past this lovely church and decided to stop and explore a bit which unfortunately involved crossing the railway line (unfortunately I have a pathological fear of railway lines and even ones with barriers fill me with terror).

We ventured down some steps and came to a beautiful, overgrown, graveyard.  On one side male and female graves were in separate rows and in another area more simple, family plots.

The setting was lovely, beside the river with the view back up to the church.  What a place to finally rest, sigh!

Sharp-eyed Ian spotted this little frog so I spent a few minutes terrorising it (with my camera, I hasten to add!). 

We drove on towards the Cherepish Monastery but in fact passed it without realising and had to double back.  It was similar in design to the monastery at Rila but considerably smaller and it was surprisingly difficult to park.  There were quite a few people around, being very noisy and behaving quite inappropriately given the setting - we surmised that a Christening had just taken place, but who knows?

The riverside setting was beautiful.

And the graveyard for deceased priests quite lovely.

We then drove on to Vratsa as Ian was particularly interested in seeing the Rogozen Treasure, a collection of 6th-4th century BC Thracian silverware which was unearthed in 1985 by a farmer digging to lay new drainage pipes on his nearby land.

We stopped at a Lidl Supermarket on the outskirts of town and bought some rolls and cheese for lunch.  As we were getting back into the car, a chap called over saying he'd heard English being spoken and just wanted to say hello.  He was doing advisory work for a nearby religious community and although he didn't know exactly where the museum was, he was able to give us the helpful info that parking was free on a Sunday.  Driving through the town we saw a lovely park and decided to stop there for our lunch; turned out the museum was just the other side of this rather communistic square.

We were the only visitors on a Sunday afternoon and I think the curator himself came over to greet us.  He decided Ian was definitely in the concessions age group and helpfully undercharged me too - £1 instead of £2.  He then gave us detailed instructions as to which areas of the museum we should see first, saving the Rogozen Treasure until last - I think he didn't want us to go straight to that and then leave (which we would have done).

We spent an interesting hour or so looking at various things; a lot of which were only captioned in Bulgarian so we weren't quite sure what we were looking at but there were a couple of superbly preserved 2,000 year old skeletons.

When we left, we wandered across the very large square and had a cup of tea/beer, but once again the overpowering cigarette smoke made us hurry to leave.

We opted to take the shorter in miles route home, which involved driving across the mountain (hill) but although the road was quite winding, the surface was good and there was very little traffic.  The view from the top was lovely.

 We stopped to investigate this little church.

There was no one there to tell me not to, so I took a sneaky shot, but it was so small I couldn't fit the altar in.

A pretty, but tatty, butterfly.

Last view of Minty and the Old Bird.

The rest of the driving home was on a fast road and uneventful apart from a 20 minute deviation for road works.

Having parked the car safely back at the hotel, we walked into town for a final meal on Vitosha Boulevard.

A couple of the illuminated churches we passed on the walk home.

South of Sofia

Having "done" Sofia on Day 1, today we planned to drive south to the Rila Monastery and then hopefully up to the Rila National Park and it's spectacular views of the 7 lakes.

Breakfast was OK, not fantastic but enough to eat and a mix of hot and cold.  Very strong smoked salmon (as it was in StP) and cream cheese so I was happy and Ian found something not too difficult for his still painful tooth hole.

It was a Saturday morning and the traffic was considerably lighter and with the aid of my phone, navigation was easy.  The road south was a two lane motorway for about 100kms and then onto a smaller road towards the town of Rila.

We stopped for a leg stretch after 90 mins or so in very much a wine growing region (actually the Bulgarian wine we've tried is very nice).

Unfortunately I cannot find out who this statue is (and yes he does look like he's falling over, but at least the horizon is straight !)

En route to Rila we'd be passing close to the Stob Pyramids; weirdly shaped natural red rock formations and as our guidebook said they were well signposted and easily accessible we thought we'd detour and have a look.

We found the start of the trail quite easily and there were a couple of locals collecting the entrance fee (c.£0.50p) and in very broken English the lady told us it would take about an hour to walk to the pyramids and back.  The trail was very easy, just a gentle slope with benches at frequent intervals.

After about 10 mins we came to a sign for church and looked forward to having a look around.

We followed the arrow and turned a corner; the church wasn't quite what we were expecting.

We carried on up the trail and shortly came to another sign, giving the legend of the Stob Pyramids.

"Well that was a really easy walk, we must be very fit compared to the average Bulgarian - never mind an hour, we'll be there and back in half that time" we commented to each other, rather smugly.

Thinking we'd arrived at the site, we walked up through the woods but then the climb got harder and harder, the terrain was loose shale and very steep, with nothing to hang onto (except a wobbly fence in a couple of seriously dangerous places).  I'd worn a jacked as it had been quite cold when we set out and was now carrying this plus my camera.

But eventually we got to the top and formations were quite impressive.

Going down was considerably harder and we seemed to slip and slide most of the way,  but luckily neither of us fell.  It took us 1 hour 15 mins in total.

Minty and some old bird.

We then drove back to the main road and through the town of Rila and headed up into the mountains.  The monastery, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a few miles out of town and was founded in the 10th century by St Ivan of Rila, a hermit canonized by the Orthodox Church. His ascetic dwelling and tomb became a holy site and were transformed into a monastic complex which played an important role in the spiritual and social life of medieval Bulgaria. Destroyed by fire at the beginning of the 19th century, the complex was rebuilt between 1834 and 1862. A characteristic example of the Bulgarian Renaissance (18th–19th centuries), the monument symbolizes the awareness of a Slavic cultural identity following centuries of occupation.   St Ivan is considered the Patron Saint of Bulgaria and the Rila Monastery is of the most revered of all religious sites in Bulgaria. 

After a short while we noticed that cars were parking on the side of the road and presumed the occupants were just going to walk in the woods.  The parking got denser and then we saw a policeman controlling where people parked and we began to wonder if in fact they were parking here for the monastery.  Someone left a space just in front of us and I quickly pulled in just in case it was the only spot.  We checked with the policeman that we were OK to park "I will no give you ticket" were his actual words.

The autumn colour of the woods was glorious.

About a 5 min walk up the hill and into the complex - it was heaving.  The buildings and design reminded me very much of the Bhutan Dzongs.

We had a wander around but the place was just rammed - people were sitting eating packed lunches, buying religious icons and books.  Inside the church (again no photos) there was a massive queue to kiss a case containing a relic (St Ivan's hand) and receive a blessing.

We walked back out of the complex in the hope of getting some lunch or at least a cup of coffee in one of the nearby, small cafes, but they were all completely full.  

Ian had a look at some of the religious books on sale and got talking to the vendor - it transpired that October 19 is the day St Ivan's dormition (assumption) is celebrated, hence the huge crowds.  Incidentally St Ivan is also the patron saint of pies!

Ian also asked the bookseller about us driving up to the lakes and was recommended that we didn't.  Apparently it would be close to freezing up there (about 15°C at the monastery) and the road as very difficult.  Snow tyres are mandatory in Bulgaria from 1 November, so we could well believe what he was telling us and decided it would be safer not to go on.

We then had to find something else to do/see in the area and unfortunately there wasn't a great deal.  It is mostly agriculture/viticulture and although the scenery is quite pleasant, it's not worth photographing.

We stopped in a small town and had a plate of chips and a drink in a roadside park.  Bulgaria is noted for its large population of stray dogs (some of which apparently carry rabies) but these two waiting for some scraps off the cyclists were the only ones we saw.

We drove to Blagoevgrad, the largest town in the SW, hoping it might be of some interest, but unfortunately it wasn't.  However we did pass this delightful edifice on the outskirts of a rather nice village.

Although we hadn't travelled vast distances (c 150kms), driving abroad is always more tiring as you have to be so totally focused all the time, so we decided to head back to Sofia.

Apart from nearly falling asleep a couple of times - open windows, talk, sing - the journey was fine and having left Minty in the secure hotel car park (€10 per day) we walked back to Vitosha Boulevard for some dinner and another massive dose of second-hand cigarette smoke.

All in all a good day but not quite what we'd hoped for (crowded monastery and no lakes).