Rila Monastery

5-15-07

After a short stay in the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, we headed up to the mountains to visit the Rila Monastery.

The monastery was founded in the 10th century after St. Ivan Rilaski spent 7 years living in the mountains. The complex was rebuilt in the 19th century after a fire. Today it is the most popular tourist attraction in the country. Most people visit on a day trip from Sofia, but "let's Go" guide book suggested that we make it an over night trip. We thought that would be a good idea since it was on the way to Greece anyway.

Once we arrived to the monastery, we followed some directions to the Camping Bor which Let's Go recommended. It was 2 km away from the monastery. When we got to the campground, it looked vacant and abandoned for years. In one corner there were some workers cutting wood planks. We asked if we could check in, in Serbian but no reply. They didn't speak English, and couldn't understand my broken Serbian. I must of said something in Italian, because the old man began speaking Italian to me. Now we could communicate. He said the bungalows were closed. I asked if we could sleep in the field and said that we could for free. I was very happy, but the girls had other feelings. They also gave us a piece of bread and sausage which they were cooking on a fire for lunch. We were amazed at their hospitality, and decided we would give them all names of our own. That definately gave us good entertainment during our hike.

We went on a short hike and then headed to the only store to buy groceries for all of us for dinner. When we returned, the workers were packing up to head into the city where they lived. We had all this extra food. They were very nice and helped us find fire wood and built it for us. After they left we began grilling our meats and even baked some with cheese in a tile, which is on every Bulgarian menu.

After a cold night of sleep for the girls and a good one for me, we went on a hike to St. Ivan's tomb. He had lived on the side of the mountain, so that's where we headed. It was a beautiful little hike. The legend is that if you pass through the cave where St. Ivan lived, and emerged from the hole at the top you were spiritually reborn. Not wanting to miss this opportunity we squirmed our way through the cave where it was dark and quite cool. It was a good experience, but I wouldn't say I felt reborn. Later that day we headed back down to the monastery and then hopped a train to Greece to begin the next leg of our adventure. We were begining to be tired from all the traveling and our bags were getting heavy. Some peopel were struggling more with their bags than the others. Liz and Samantha were definately ready to relax on the beach but I was very sad to leave the beautiful mountains.