Bulgarian Gems

Shortly after the rest of the new international teachers arrived here (was that really only a week and a half ago?!), we were taken on a 3-day tour of several lovely places in southwestern Bulgaria: Rila Monastery in the Rila Mountains, Melnik - a wine producing town just north of the border with Greece, and Kovachevitsa - a traditional village in the Rodopi Mountains. Follow me on a short trip to these Bulgarian gems. Click here for a MAP showing the location of these stories.

This building along the "ring road" around Sofia is I think some sort of interior design store. I think working here would give you a headache.

We had lunch at a "traditional Bulgarian" restaurant, located next to a stream in a steep mountain gorge. People have asked what Bulgarian food is like, so here is a picture. Jeff was too hungry to wait for me to get a picture, but his meal was a sausage on a bed of mixed vegetables, served on a still-sizzling skillet.


RILA MONASTARY
After a twisty-curvy drive up into the Rila Mountains we arrived at Rila Monastary. Set in a small valley with gorgeous mountains as the backdrop, Rila is a beautiful and peaceful place for meditation and reflection. Apparently you can spend the night here - it's a good place to stop along a mountain trek - and they lock you in at night. Rila Monastery is generally considered the spiritual heart of the Bulgarian Orthodox church. Over the 500 years that Bulgaria was ruled by the Muslim Ottoman Turks, Christian religious centers were often in hard-to-reach refuges like Rila.



We also got to enjoy fresh/hot/greasy donuts as we left.


MELNIK
We spent the rest of that afternoon in Melnik. This is the "smallest town" in Bulgaria. In the early 1900's there were 20,000 people there, but now there are only a few hundred people left, mostly retirees and foreign second-home owners. There are several wineries, two of which we visited and sampled. Although the Melnik reds are supposed to be wonderful, the majority of us didn't like the reds much and preferred the whites.

We met a spry 87-year-old man, who took us to his nephew's winery. He told us that he would take us to a winery located higher up in the hills, but he was concerned about his blood pressure. I hope I'm as active as he is when I'm 87!
In a Melnik wine cellar & tasting room -- how much for the whole cask?

We had a wonderful dinner with the whole group (I think there were 15 of us). We all tried the Rakiya. After seeing Jeff and Garth's faces after they tried Rakiya (in an earlier post) I was not excited to try it this night. But this bottle was much better. Not that I liked it too much, but I think Jeff found it good enough to try a couple times more.


The rakiya glass here is an example of traditional Bulgarian pottery.

ROZHEN MONESTARY
The next morning we headed up yet another twisty-curvy road to the top of the mountain above Melnik and the Rozhen Monestary. A beautiful setting with flowers and grapes everywhere. Rozhen was founded in 1217, destroyed by fire and Turks a few times, but the current buildings are about 300 years old (those grape vines in the bottom shot are about that old too!).




LESHTIN
From Rozhen we headed east across the Pirin Mountains on our way to Kovachevitsa, in the Rodopi mountains. We passed through a "Pomak" village (ethnic Bulgarians that were converted by the Ottomans to Islam, and then generally despised by other Bulgarians), a Roma (Gypsy) village (more social outcasts from "regular" Bulgarian society), then had lunch in Leshtin, where ping-pong (err, I mean table tennis) is taken very seriously...
Note the carefully crafted stone platform for the, ahem, ping-pong table.

KOVACHEVITSA
Our final destination on the second day was Kovachevitsa. The architecture there is wonderful - a mix of thick wooden beams and artfully stacked flat rocks. The homes are a seamless mix of indoor and outdoor space. The upper floors extend out above the lower floors in a Macedonian building style. [This region of Bulgaria is known as "Pirin Macedonia." The borders and even the outright existence of Macedonia is still a hotly disputed topic in Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia, not to mention in the "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" itself.]

We enjoyed yet another wonderful meal at a local pub. We even got to dance some traditional line dances. Our group was separated into two different houses, one at the top of the hill. We played cards and partied late into the night. I'm afraid the locals probably didn't like us much as our party was on an outside porch and audible throughout town. Breakfast the next morning was the best meal of the trip: a form of French toast with cheese and jam. Yum! Along with fresh cucumbers and tomatoes, select meats and other cheeses, and espresso!

There are not many "sights" to see in Kovachavitsa. It is just a beautiful and relaxing mountain village, carefully restored old homes (our guesthouse was built in the 1700s), a single restaurant/pub, and more swallows than I've ever seen. A lovely place.

BACK TO SOFIA
We headed back to Sofia by late morning and had a quick stop in Bansko - the best ski resort in Bulgaria (so they say - we'll find out more after it snows!).

We were all exhausted, but I think also pumped about this new place we're living. Sofia itself is a fast-growing city in a fairly poor country. There are nice places and nasty places, often right next to each other. As we're not really city people, we were thankful to have the chance to get out and see the truly beautiful Bulgarian countryside. The new international teachers group is a lot of fun. I think we'll get along famously and have a great experience here.