Another thrilling installment of my holiday snaps!
This time was when me and Maria and her Mum and family friends Marine and Galia went to visit one of Bulgaria’s most famous sites, the Rila Monastery.
This was a very beautiful place set up high in the mountains and near Bulgaria’s highest mountain which still had snow on it and is around 2912m high.
Both the inside of the monastery and the outer courtyard were something special. We couldn’t take pictures inside, but every inch of wall was covered in paintings and the whole interior is filled with gold leaf carvings and idols. I’ve seen the inside of a lot of Orthodox churches over the last couple of years and this was one of the best.
I’ve attached another Youtube video that we took, it’s a little long this one, but I couldn’t be bothered editing it and adding an exciting soundtrack. The soundtrack is the one that you actually hear when you are there of the hundreds of swallows flying round the courtyard.
After the monastery, we headed up the mountain side a little to find the grave of Rila, this for some reason meant passing through another very narrow cave and climbing through the roof of the cave.
Here’s another video, this time a bit shorter. We got a great view from the top of the hill.
After coming down from the forest and off the mountain side a bit, we stopped for lunch at one of the restaurants which is famous for the local trout dishes, so that’s what we had.
Even time for a quick paddle… (in the freezing mountain stream)
Before lunch!!!
