Sofia and the Rila Monastery

The Statue of St Sofia

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Sofia is the capital city of Bulgaria and is our first stop in our 6 day tour of the country.

Bulgaria also represents an entirely new alphabet (Cyrillic) to learn - hooray! Adding to this joy is the inconsistencies with the Greek alphabet (on which Cyrillic is based). For example, H in Greek is "i" and "n" is represented by an upside down V - but in Cyrillic H is "n" and a backwards Н (и) is "i". Add crazy characters like д ("d"), з ("z"), and щ ("shd"), and its a recipe for фун (fun)! I'm not even going to mention that 3 of the letters look like B ("b", "v", and "u"). Ok, maybe I will.

Bulgaria has one thing that makes us happier than in any other country. Extremely cheap beer! Extremely cheap everything, in fact. Meals in restaurants tend to cost you no more than 5€ pp (including starters). On top of that, our hostel provides us with free dinner (spaghetti) and a beer each night with free breakfast to boot! Bulgaria may prove to be the saving yin to our overspending yang.

A Sofia square

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While Sofia itself is not home to any of the 7 wonders, it is filled with many old churches (including the Alexander Nevsky church, one of the largest Eastern Orthodox churches in the world) and is a delight to wander around. In our wanderings, we saw the ruins of the old communism HQ, a Russian church, the ruins of a Turkish public bath and even drank from a warm thermal spring that flowed out a public drinking fountain (and was delicious, by the way).

On our second day we went to the Rila Monastery, located up in the Rila Mountains. The monastery itself is the 'Jerusalem of Bulgaria' and the country's most visited tourist attraction. It was simply gorgeous, complete with a perfect backdrop of a leafy mountain-side and blue sky. Inside the main church, it was incredible to see the amount of detail that went into the frescoes. Speaking of detail, we were disappointed that time did not permit us to see Raphael's cross — Raphael painstakingly carved the cross with a pin over 12 years, eventually going blind.

Elena next to the mineral water fountain

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In the evening we went out for drinks with 4 others from the hostel. So what happens when 3 Australians, a Brit, an American, and a Dutchman walk into a bar? They drink really, really cheap beer. In fact Elena and I spent 10€ all night, and that included 5 (500ml) beers, a glass of wine and a cocktail (total, not each). If only they had this pricing everywhere...