April 29 2005 page 18 |
2005 BALKANS TOURBen Oostdam |
Bachkovo BULGARIA |
| At 09:30, I was picked up by the young tour guide Kamen Panayotov, who held a Master's Degree in Tourism from Varna University. |
| He drove his Citroen to the Rhodope Mountains through the pleasant village of Asenovgrad to our first destination: Asen Fortress and Church, the former dating from the 9th Century, the latter from the 12th. We climbed up to the church to see some icons and inscriptions and enjoy the marvelous scenery. |
| Next, we visited the famous Bachkovo Monastery which dates from 1083. A monk shouted something from a high window to a man near us in thew parking lot, and Kamen translated that he was praising the quality of his new cell-phone. (My first thought was: "of course, it is not just prisoners who have cells, but also monks and bees . . .") The monastery has 200 beds and rates fluctuate from 5 Levs for Bulgarians to 24 for luxury tourists. |
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 BLO fecit 20050701 |
We made a short hike to a waterfall, and picked up numerous "martenitsas",
small festive ribbons which are exchanged on March 1 (left).
We passed an ossuary, had a good local lunch at the Waterfall Restaurant, then drove back to Plovdiv. NOTE: to find out more about another ossuary elsewhere click the link below: |
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