There’s a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE site close to town, close enough for a bus ride.

It was a long one, 5 hours today on a bus altogether. 

The monastery was neat. Almost 1000 years of operation. Some crazy hermit took to eastern orthodoxy like a duck to water, and inspired lots and lots of Bulgarians. They named him st John the miracle worker. The other neat thing about the church there is that most of the visitors were praying. Not just a bunch of tourists.

Outside the parking area was of course some souvenir shops, and a stand that had a long line. They were selling two main things, fried dough (great) and this very sour almost-cheese-substance.  Like spoiled yogurt if you can imagine. Bulgarians apparently love this stuff. It was ok, kinda an acquired taste? I’ll keep trying it to see if I can’t learn to love it.

Had a nice chat with a roommate from the U.K. We’ll go to do some light hiking on Monday.

Have a good week, everyone!

I love my hostel here. Free breakfast and a washing machine for our exclusive use. Whooooohoo!

I had a nice relaxing morning and walked around until a tour at 11. The guide was good with the group size, which was way too big. We saw lots of orthodox churches. The ottoman occupation  (500 years of it) was fairly effectively reversed. There only one operational mosque. Some good-looking archaeology stuff too.

I found a second hand store that sells by the pound. You can get good stuff here for just 50 cents. My bag is full already, so I can’t buy any more clothes. 😢 I enjoyed looking anyway.

After some lunch, I went for a paid tour. The communist tours I’ve had have been so different in each place. This one was even more interesting bc of the fact that so many of the former Bulgarian leaders are still having a strong influence even today. Change seems slow to come here.

Had a nice dinner at a Turkish cafeteria type place. Stuffed peppers. Very good.

Got moved to a better bed, and the lady who snored checked out too. Life’s great.

Mary

Just a long bus ride.

The hostel has free breakfast, good cable, and a washing machine. Can’t ask for more

Nice folks here, they seem genuinely friendly😄

Have a great day!

Didn’t do anything too exciting. A walking tour as usual, an art gallery, and the local ethnographic museum.

The walking tour focused on Belgrade in the 20th century. There’s so much politically going on here still today. The guide was good and tried not to give any opinions about the decisions Serbia has made. IMHO the government has been pretty aggressive over the years. I don’t know how anyone can look at mass graves and say “that’s not genocide”. Anyway.

After lunch and a nap, the ethnographic museum. It was pretty typical, lots of costumes and farming equipment. There was a display of carpets more interesting than you would have imagined.

The art gallery was the real highlight of my afternoon. There’s some good art here. Mostly modern, the Serbians tend to have great abstract paintings and lots of bronze figures.

It rained like crazy,  so hopefully everyone’s allergies will be calmer tomorrow. 

I’m on the bus to Bulgaria in the morning; I’ll be spending 9 days in Sofia. That’s a long time for that size of city, so lots of small day trips are in my future.

Mary