Take Me To Church

When in Sofia, a must-see is Rila Monastery; a must even just for a break in the heat. It was easily 10 degrees cooler there than in any of the cities we have visited. It was nice to be out of the heat!A hermit who was canonized by the Orthodox Church founded Rila Monastery in the 10th century. “His ascetic dwelling and tomb became a holy sit and were transformed into a monastic complex which played an important role in the spiritual and social life of medieval Bulgaria.” (https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/216) The monastery used to house around 300 monks but today there are only 8 in residence. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. From the outside, it resembles a fortress more than a monastery. Be prepared for a few super-close selfies! We had a lot of time at the complex so I played around with my camera.

After lunch and a bit of a lazy morning wandering around the monastery, we headed to another UNESCO World Heritage Site, Boyana Church. Here we had 10 minutes to enter, look around and listen to the explanation about the frescoes, and then get out. 8 people allowed in every 10 minutes- and they were strict about keeping to the schedule. I felt a little cheated when I heard we were only getting 10 minutes until I was inside. No photos allowed and the church is small- 10 minutes were more than sufficient.Since we were on a church crawl, we decided to check out a couple more when we got back to the city. First off was St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, one of the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedrals in the world. It is big! It can hold 10,000 people inside it.From here we headed to St. Sofia Church but it had already closed. This gave me an opportunity to pose with all the statues, something I love doing and fortunately for me, Nina tolerates. Off to the Russian Church next, also called Church of St Nicholas the Miracle-Maker, where I took a bunch of pictures outside but there was a service inside and you weren’t allowed to take photos so I didn’t linger long.A light dinner, some ice cream on the pedestrian street (which is hopping tonight!) and we are back to our room for the first time since bright and early this morning. Tomorrow is a full-day and then we have our last night train of the trip. Can’t wait!Ще се видим утре! (See you tomorrow!)