Journal / Balkans / 2014-05-03

Rila Monastery

After another great breakfast in the hotel, we left at about 9:30am on Friday for the Rila Monastery. It was a rather long bus ride — about two and a half hours — but the scenery was awesome as we made our way up into the mountains.

The monastery itself was incredible. It was surrounded by tall rectangular buildings that formed somewhat of an irregular cube fortress. The inside of the monastery was overwhelming — ever inch of the walls was covered with beautiful artwork and intricate decorative engravings. I wish I could have snapped a few pictures of the inside, but they honestly would not have done it justice.

I imagine the constant stream of tourists at the monastery take away from the sacredness of the refuge — the religious figures who live there no doubt must get annoyed. But the space is still really powerful and the surrounding landscape that includes snow-capped mountains was unreal.

Unfortunately we did not have too much time to spend in the monastery as we had lunch reservations around noon at a restaurant just down the street. As usual, the lunch started with a fresh vegetable salad with tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and cheese. I ended up choosing to have chicken for my main email, but those who chose fish were presented with an entire fish — head, eyes, tail and all. Despite the unexpected presentation, I heard it was pretty good! For dessert, we had a crepe with honey.

When we got back to the hotel, I went on a run with a few people through the streets of Sofia. Running outside is definitely not a thing in Bulgaria. So naturally we were getting some pretty weird looks, but it was still a really good time. We were only a ten minute run away from the city center, so it was cool to retrace our steps we took on a walking tour earlier.

After the run, I headed down to the city center again with a group for dinner — this time on the metro, which was actually really nice and clean. The ride was only three quick stops. We ended up at the Happy Cafe (or something of the sorts) and I had some chicken and pasta. Again, not the most authentic Bulgarian food, but certainly better than the McDonald’s down the street. The restaurant itself actually reminded me a little bit of a Hard Rock Cafe — the had (fake) saxophones, guitars and electric string instruments hanging on the wall. Still cool though, and the food wasn’t bad.