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BULGARIA

RILA MOUNTAINS AND BLACK SEA COAST (Oct 2008)  photos

It took 2 days to get to Bulgaria from Montenegro, crossing Serbia again. At the border, the Bulgarians gave us a pen drive and we had to go to 5 different windows before all the formalities were complete! Every time they asked for the pen drive, and we couldn't find out what we were supposed to do with it. When I asked one guy he just said "bank" and shut the window. Amazing! We didn't stop in Sofia, but what we saw bypassing it we didn't like. We went straight to the Rila Monastery hidden in one of the valleys in Rila Mountains. It's a very famous and beautiful site, the monastery itself but also the surrounding mountains.  We spend 2 days walking there. First we went to the Kobylino Braniste Hut and spent one night there. Then we went to Popova Kapa mountain, 2695m.

For many people Bulgaria is about the Black Sea coast. We visited Nesebar, a historic town sitting on a small isthmus. It's full of well preserved ruins of churches, and walking the narrow streets was very pleasant. There were as many street sellers as tourists, probably because the season was coming to an end. The nearby Sunny Beach is the most famous beach in Bulgaria, and this time of year was quite empty, although we couldn't complain about the weather. Traveling north, we visited the city of Varna. It's long history is on display in the Archaeological Museum, where we spent quite a lot of time. Further north, there was Kaliakra Cape with it's wind farm and tall cliffs. By accident we came across a very interesting place called Yailata. It's an Archaelogical Reserve, protecting 101 caves which in so-called "cave town". Cave entrances in the cliffs at various heights above water. We decided it would be a fantastic place to spend a night and we pitched out tent inside one of the caves. Unforgettable!