VIAJE A BULGARIA, MONASTERIO DE RILA | BULGARIA #1

Well, a new trip starts, I'm here at the Madrid airport, it's going to be a very, very short trip and in fact it's one of those weekend escapes that I usually do from time to time to get out of the routine of the whole week. So this time I'm going to go to a country that I don't know, a new country for me, which is Bulgaria. And I'm going to be there only on weekends so I'm not going to have time to visit a lot but the flight leaves in half an hour so I'm going now to Sofia, which is the capital where the plane lands and from there I'm going to tell you. I'm here in the car that I've rented for these two days and well, very quickly. The flight has been three hours, well, I've had a bit of a headache but the flight has been pretty quiet. If you've seen in the video, I've touched the first seat, I mean, the 1A, I mean, I've been almost a little more and I'm shaking the commander's hand, but nothing, very good because he appreciates the extra space for the legs and nothing, that's very good, on top of that, then when it's time to get off the plane, I got out first, although I had to take the bus, but then I came like a shot because my luggage, I don't know if you can see it, but it's this, this backpack is my luggage because I'm only going to be here for a weekend and now Ryanair has gone a bit crazy with the fact that you can't put luggage in or you have to pay for everything, so well, I'm going with this more than enough. I've rented a car, as you can see here, I'm in the parking lot, in my case it's Enterprise, they're open all night, I mean, look because not all companies open all night, I say Enterprise because now at one in the morning it's open. This is my car for these two days, nothing, something very simple because I'm the only one going, and since I'm only going to do an excursion and a little more, I don't need an all-terrain car to go to Iceland. In fact, the rent for two days has been 20 euros or something like that, very, very cheap. So nothing, I won't talk anymore, we're going to the hotel and I'll tell you. The hotel room, the truth is that it's pretty good, which is the room, as you can see, it's quite spacious. It has a chair here, here the bed, the desk, it also has a minibar over there, and over here is the bathroom. The truth is that it's pretty good, I'm curious to know at what price the minibar things are here. By the way, I've parked the car, this is the Magic Castle Hotel, this is open, I don't know why it's open, but I've parked the car here in the boulevard, and the guy who drives here like crazy told me not to park it there. In fact, I've given up because they go down and up at full speed, I mean, it's a boulevard, where is this? I don't know if it's a general or what, but this road here, the cars pass, come on, at an impressive speed. So they have a valet service here, so I've given them the keys and I'm going to park in the parking lot. They have breakfast included, so tomorrow I'm really hungry, and I wanted to show you the... For example, Twix 0.75 euros, beers 1.75, juices 1.50, Coca-Cola 1.25, well, I've seen more expensive minibars. So I'm going to leave this, I'm so sleepy, it's almost 2 o'clock, and tomorrow I'm going to show you Bulgaria, see you tomorrow. Well, a new day begins, so I've just woken up, I've just showered, we're going to have breakfast and start the day. Well, we're already here at the first destination of the day, which is the Rila Monastery, it's about 100 km to the south of Sofia, and the road up to here has been interesting, because as you've seen in the images, I've had to go through a lot of goat paths, through the mountains, and there was the typical shepherdess with the cows and such, that I had to put them aside, very, very filmy, but well, something that I more or less expected in this part of Europe, and well, we're here at Rila, at the Rila Monastery, which is one of the most important monuments in all of Bulgaria, and in fact one of the most visited in all of Eastern Europe, and without a doubt, the most important Orthodox Christian place in all of this European area. So, well, let's go in, we're here in the middle of the mountains, this monastery is in the middle of the mountains, here at about 1,100 meters, more or less, of altitude, and it's from the 10th century, so this monastery has a long history, although it has been renovated during all these years, and as you can see, it's almost newly painted, it's very, very beautiful. By the way, the entrance here is free, although you have to pay about 4 levas, that is, 2 euros, to park the car here, in the parking lot, but if you don't want to pay, there's a parking lot about 100-200 meters further back, before the official parking lot, where they don't charge anything, so well, in case you want to save that money, and so here we are inside what is the monastery's enclosure, here live about 300 monks, if I'm not mistaken, I don't know if there's... I don't know if they do Airbnb here, or monk couchsurfing, but the truth is that it's an impressive place, look at the madness of the place, I mean, it's stuck here in the mountains, so that's the enclosure, I guess these were the houses, and this is the central area where all the prayers are done, but this is super, super beautiful, and on top of that, it's all snowy, of course, we're in mid-February, so it's all full of snow, and from there, you can see the peaks of the mountain, also all full of snow. You can't film in here, but it's really worth coming in, because it's not that big, it's small, the building, but it's super beautiful, it's all overloaded with... it looks like gold, I don't know if it's gold, but, I don't know, on top of that, it's full of frescoes, like the whole outside, and the truth is that it's super, super beautiful. Everything you need to visit the complex doesn't take too much time, because you can only visit that, which is the part that surrounds the central area, because all the upper areas, all the upper floors, is where the monks live, and in fact, there are signs and ropes and such that say that it's forbidden, because they are their homes, so it's better not to go up. If you want really fresh and pure water, drink from here, from these springs that go down here, because this is water that comes directly from all the snow that is here in the mountain, so it's super pure water. I'm not going to drink, because we're like minus three degrees, and the truth is, I don't feel like it, but if you come in summer, which is usually quite hot in this area of Bulgaria, here is a much fresher area, apart from the altitude, that we are at 1,100 meters, it is also appreciated to have water that comes down directly from the snow that accumulates in the peaks. Okay, here is a way to go up there, to the mountain, but what is the problem? I don't know if you can go up or not, because all the signs are in Cyrillic, I don't know what this is, here there are many prohibitions, not to hunt and things like that, but what they tell us is that you can go up, I don't know what this means, difficulty level or what, you don't understand anything, you don't understand anything, and there is a sign of exclamation, it is not usually good, like, be careful, it is a beautiful place, keep going, I don't know. Well, I think I already know more or less what the exclamation of before can mean, and it is that you can see that here the trees fall at will, this is full of trees here lying on the road, come on, there are so many lying down that I would not be surprised if one fell right now, because come on, it's like very random or very fragile, I don't know, they don't have good foundations.