I know this post is a bit late. In my defence I am a teacher and I have been so so busy and I do have two kids … so yeah … life happened. But I thought some of you might still be interested in the next part of our trip and I really did enjoy writing so I decided to continue as often and as best I can. In this entry I will continue to describe our six week raod trip around Southeastern Europe 2021!
After our last stop in Romania and our little detour to Serbia, we headed for Belogradtschik. It would have been a pretty short drive from our friends place, but it did not go as planned. Belogradtschik itself was pretty nice. Sofia was very impressive. I kinda fell in love with this modern, buzzling capital that has a lot of history and tradition. Afterwards we explored the Rila mountains and monastery before crossing the border to Greece. The seven Rila lake hike came with stunning views and the monastery is prestine and beautiful. Have a look at the maps and read on for more details 🙂
We left Serbia in the afternoon and thought that it would take us about 3 hours to reach Belogradtschik. So why hurry? Well … the closest border crossing point was closed for ordinary cars so 3 hours turned out to be more like 5-6. That is not a problem in itslef, but it quickly starts to look like one if the roads you have to take are narrow and lead through villages where you as a tourist turn into the main attraction of the day. Roads were not lit like at all and less than stellar. At some point we drove by a farm and it felt like being in the wild west, because we passed a “cowboy” on a black horse without a shirt leaving his farm. Somehow we managed to reach Belogradtschick though and the apartment was perfect. We even made it in time to see an important football game. At least it was one according to my husband and son 🙂 This is the route through Bulgaria.
Our apartment in Belogradtschik was clean and spacious. We had our own terrace and a pool 🙂 We stayed there for two nights. Belogradtschik is a small town, but it is a nice place for hikers and worth exploring. One of my personal highlights was Kaleto fortress. It is situated on a hill top above town and not far from the main square. It basically is a fortress made out of rock. Romans used the rock formations around Belogradchik to built their citadel. It’s an impressive mix of nature, architectural design and craftsmanship. Roman architects made it so that the citadel kind of merges with the surrounding stone formations and some of the stone formations serve as part of the fortification or viewpoints. Based on the magnitude of the fortress we expected a lot of tourists. But we were alone in the fortress most of the time. It was an amazing experience. Standing on the edge of the cliff and gazing over the surrounding landscape and marvelling at various rock formations really was an outstanding experience and I felt at peace and balanced.
One can see why this natural fortress was turned into an almost impregnable citadel by Romans. Romans, Bulgarians and Ottomans utilized those formations to defend themselves and as a stronghold. We actually tried to go on a hike and explore the surrounding rock formations. We managed to find a hiking map of the area (if you do not speak Bulgarian this is a bit tricky, but people were nice and it worked out in the end) and at the fortress paths were clearly marked … Well they were close to the fortress … After a short while however we got lost. It felt like somebody started marking the trails and at some point just gave up or decided that enough was enough. There were like no markings anymore. It could have dawned on us when we met another family on the way. They were smiling at us kind of knowingly and heading back towards the fortress. Of course it did not 🙂
We tried to find any kind of marking or to just continue based on our sense of direction, but I have to admit we kind of failed. After finding our way back to the fortress (without spotting any markings) we were a bit disappointed and frustrated. Stubborn as I am though I managed to convince my husband and the kids (which was way harder, we had to promise ice cream :-)) to try once more on a different path. So we embarked on yet another initially clearly marked trail. After a while history repeated itself . No more markings! We ended up a at a crossroads with like no signs or markings or sense of where to go. Even the stunning view of impressive rock formations and animal wildlife (a horse on its own) did not help. So we decided to turn around. Had we been on our own we might have tried to go further, but with two kids and considering that it was kinda hot and water supplies a bit limited, we decided to turn around again. We spent the rest of the evening at our place and enjoyed the pool. That was a lot of fun and it kind made up for our failed hikes. One could even call it a success! After all, we did hike a couple of kilometers, had tasty ice cream and enjoyed and amazing landscape. Sometimes its all about the path itself rather than reaching your preset goal.
And we managed to take pictures 🙂
We spent the evening at the pool and had our own little pool party. It was really nice. Our next stop was Sofia. I did not expect too much from the city to be honest, but I was suprised by it. One thing I really liked was its young urban flair. The city really felt like a young buzzling capital and it has some amazing sights and rich history.
One of the first things we like to do after arriving is to just take the metro to the city center and take a stroll. Sofia offers multiple opportunities to do some shopping and has nice cobbled streets and many churches. Streets are lit at night as are the most important sights and there are many restaurants and bars to choose from. We dedided to go for one of the restaurants mentioned in the Lonely Planet travel guide. It was a former monastery turned into a restaurant and some of the dishes were based on food served at the monastery (at least that was what the menu said). Even though I can’t confirm that bit of info I really enjoyed the food and the atmosphere at the restaurant. They were extremely friendly and the kids even got some colouring and writing books and pens and paper to draw on. Travelling with kids can be quite challenging. That’s why finding a place that tires to help and is welcoming is a relief. Sometimes we get the feeling that families are less or not welcome and there it was the opposite.
Additionally, the food was pretty amazing! We tried rabbit, fish and Thracian chicken. We even had a traditional Bulgarian dessert and tried Bulgarian beer. Our first evening in Sofia was a real success. Sofia will definitely see us again someday. We had a blast!
We spent the rest of our stay exploring the city and doing some sightseeing. There will be a separate entry on Sophia at some point. Ohterwise this entry might get a little too long 🙂 or stay unfinished forever.
After spending 3 nights in Sofia we were back on the road again and on our way to the Rila mountains and Rila monastery. The monastery is majestic. Set in the mountains and surrounded by an amazing landscape. Views from and views on the monastery truly are breathtaking and humbling. After arriving and managing to park our car (it was a challenge :-)) we set out to explore the monastery. The wall paintings are beautiful and very colorful. It is nice to see a monastery that is still used and lived in. Despite the fact that there are a lot of people, Rila monastery kept some of its original atmosphere and charm. Nuns still live there. First we visited the main church which is beautiful. Orthodox churches are impressive and we have seen a few. The ones in Rila are outstanding. What I like about orthodox churches is their colorful interior, the painted walls and the ornaments. In Rila everything is well preserved, colors are still radiant and gold ornaments are in good condition. Some impressions from the main church and courtyard are provided below:
We were quite lucky that day, because we managed to get our little private tour at the monastery. Initially we intended to get ordinary entrance tickets for the monastery museum. Instead we ended up in a private tour. Luckily for us another visitor wanted to book one and waited for people to participate. They did not do a tour for just one guy. Our guide did not speak English, but she was nice and info in English was available in the rooms. She led us to the upper floor where I took an “illegal picture” and showed us rooms with local handicrafts, art and clothing. In addition, we were able to see the monastery kitchen … the kids loved it … and an old tower from the Middle Ages. It was used to defend the monastery and has wall paintings dating back to the 12th and 13th century. Our son is a Middle Age nerd so it was not only a highlight for us but for the kids too.
It took us about 4 hours to visit the monastery and took us about 30 minutes to get to the hotel we had booked online. It was a nice simple hotel located in the forrest. It had a pool and the restaurant was located next to a small river. We even had a scorpion in the room … unfortunately everybody got scared and it did not end well for the scorpion … We ate dinner at the hotel which was okay. Fish was good though!
The next day was pretty amazing and exciting . We decided to do a hike in Rila National Park. We chose the Seven Rila Lake hike.
I used the alltrails hiking App to track our hike. You can connect it with google maps and navigate to the starting point of the tour. First you have to use a chair lift to get to the trail starting point. The trail itself has a length of 10,0 km and 545 m difference in height. Views are stunning and everything is well marked. Weather was perfect! Our favorite lakes were teardrop lake and the twin lakes. If you are looking for peaceful hike on our own however, this is not what you are searching for. There were a lot of people doing the hike. For us however it was ideal. Kids enjoyed it and so did we. We did not have to hurry or stress about getting down on time so it was a real success.
That was it as far as Bulgaria goes. There will be a seperate entry on Sofia and Sofia’s history soon. Next up in the travel/road trip map category is our summer in Greece and the week we spent in France and Germany during autumn break. Hope you liked reading this one 😉
s-trek 