My last day in Sofia today – and a more peaceful adventure. We crossed the city by metro towards the mountain in the south, Vitosha, that looms over Sofia like a snow-clad giant. From there we got the bus into the foothills, and climbed by way of steep woodland trails to the Dragalevtsi monastery.
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| Stream in the woods near Dragalevtsi |
It’s not a long trek to the monastery, but it’s a tremendously tranquil place. Some visitors were lighting candles by the church; others were content to sit and enjoy the quiet and the various cats that roam the place. On the church’s exterior are fifteenth-century frescoes, including one of my namesake saint.
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| Frescoes |
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| Sleepy cat |
On our way back down the hill we stopped to enjoy an authentically Bulgarian meal at a lovely restaurant, together with this lemonade, which I’m told is also authentically Bulgarian, though in a different way.
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| Very yellow lemonade |
Since there was still some daylight left, we headed across town to Boyana in the hope of seeing its tiny but exceptionally well-preserved church. The opening hours and the bus timetable were both on our side but, alas, the place was overrun by tour bus visitors with prebooked tickets, so we weren’t able to get in.
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| Boyana church exterior |
After exploring the setting of the church for a little while, we hopped on another bus, which, after a winding tour of some of the city’s suburbs, took us back to the metro and home. Join me next time for another instalment of “George tries and fails to get into places of worship”!
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