Having seen the sites of Sofia on my first day, I decided to go to see what is one of Bulgaria’s most famous sites – the Rila Monastery – on my second day. It is a couple hours outside of the city. It is possible t get there by public transit, but there didn’t seem to be any seamless options and there was an infrequency of public buses so I decided to book one of the many tour mini-buses that takes people from Sofia to the Boyana Church, to Rila Monastery and back again. Hassle free.
It was good in most respects. I saw two wonderful sites I could not have easily seen on my own, I saw a bit of the countryside, and relaxed on the ride. The way in which it was not so good was the incessant talking of the guide. She talked the whole way to the monastery. She told us the population of every town we passed, which region was settled when, the elevation of mountains, how many types of wild goats there were.
…It was so boring. I wanted to shoot myself. There was a lot of historical information being shared, but it was the most dull of trivia amounting to what happened when. I eventually opted for podcasts on my headphones. (And I like historical trivia.) Oh, and at the start of the trip she made each of us introduce ourselves to the rest of the group. (I wish I had a picture of my face at that moment.) Not really my cup of tea, but everything else was good.
We stopped at Boyana Church, a UNESCO blessed medieval church filled with colourful murals. It was lovely and I did enjoy the brief explanation about the various saints and painting styles. No photos were allowed inside, but it is worth a google.
We finally arrived at Rila Monastery, surrounded by glorious fall foliage. It was raining, but that did nothing to detract from the beauty of the buildings.
Such an interesting combination of colours, geometric patterns, and religious murals. I took A Lot of pictures. Inside the church it was guilded ornamentation, though no photos were allowed.
After wandering around for a while, I went and had lunch as a cosy stone restaurant just outside the monastery with a roaring fire. I had a shopska salad and yogurt with honey and walnuts. (They are very proud of their yogurt in Bulgaria. Apparently it has some kind of magical enzymes unique to Bulgaria. It is very good. I wish I could do a taste test with the King of Curds yogurt in Bhaktapur.)
Then we drove back to the city. Pleasantly listening to Bulgarian traditional music en route.
Back at the city I decided to walk in search of another cigar lounge. It turned out to be a very posh neighbourhood. The kind with embassies and restaurants that serve only caviar. I did eventually find the cigar lounge but was told that I could not smoke inside as I would have to register and that would take months. I feel like my appearance may not have been to their liking. (To be fair, I hadn’t showered.) I was a little grumpy about being turned away, but it was so beautiful out, walking in the dark through crispy leaves past cute little bistros. I walked back to Vitoska Boulevard where I enjoyed a glass of Bulgarian red wine, a vegan pizza, and two cigars.
And that was Sofia. The next morning I took the metro back to the airport and three flights later I was back at home.
I really liked what I saw of Bulgaria. It was just a small taste, but it was good and I left feeling satisfied. I know that I will return to some naysayers who will go on about how a weekend is not enough time to see a country (of course it isn’t but it is enough to see something), but I had an amazing time and will probably do it again.
