Another year, another great trip!!! This year actually it only came 5 months after our last trip! The bad side of that is now I have a long time before another vacation. Oh' well, this one was great!
This year we flew out to Bulgaria to spend time with the Rollins (Zac, Fiona, Nuala, Bran, and baby Maeve). They are currently living in Bulgaria for about another year and we really wanted to take the opportunity to see them and to visit somewhere new! For this trip two of Zac's sisters and their families Maria, with Eldon, McKenna, Hunter, Riley, and Emma, and Heidi with Doug) also scheduled to come at the same time and we did a huge caravan together. Emma, who is about a year older than Paige was especially great to have there. Her and Paige hit it off almost immediately, and were practically inseparable for the majority of the trip. Our plan was to stay at the Rollins house for 4 nights while seeing some of Bulgaria with smaller day trips and then journey out to Turkey and Greece on a road trip. After getting back 7 nights later we would spend another night at there house, then say goodbye to his sisters and there family and head up to Romania for 3 more nights. Finally, we would spend 1 more night at the Rollins house before the long flight home. All together the trip would be 17 nights in 4 countries and technically on 2 continents (Istanbul is the only major city to span 2 continents).
Day 2 of our trip we arrived in Sofia at about 1 PM in the afternoon. No one really slept on the plane coming over, and while we were all tired, we seamed to be okay being up also. Zac met us at the airport, we picked up our rental car, and headed to their house. The rest of the day we really didn't do anything. We met everyone, unpacked a little, and just lounged around the house.
Day 3 we went to the Rila monastery. Rila is a incredible trip! Not only is the monastery itself incredible, Eastern Orthodox, so all the walls are completely covered with fresco's that you could look at for hours, but the surrounding area is beautiful also. Rila is located on the south side of the Rila mountains away from Sofia.
After visiting the monastery itself, we drove a couple of miles past it, to a trail head that leads up to the actual cave where Saint Ivan hermitaged for many years. It is now a legend that if you are able to pass through the hole at the hope of the cave, that you are free of sin; we all were able to pass through, so it obviously isn't true...
Day 4 we rested...Well at least most of the day. After half the group (and Paige) got back from church we had lunch and drove up the mountain behind the Rollins house and went for a short hike. We quickly were hiking in snow, and most of us were not totally prepared for that. I for one was wearing shorts and sandals; but that is not unique for me in the snow... It was a fun hike with one notable exception. When we got where we planned, a nice site with a great view of Sofia where a creek bed of large granite boulders have bubbled out of the earth, the kids were climbing around on the rocks and into the snow below and Jonah fell through the snow and got stuck. I had to climb down to get him and also fell through, a couple times, and hurt my ankle a little. In the end though Jonah was freed and we hiked back down happy, just a little colder. On the drive back down our car stopped to find a Geocache that was totally buried in snow last time I was there.
On the 5th day we headed into downtown Sofia. But before I go into that, you need to hear about lighting! Nuala woke up with some pretty funky hair, so I called her lightning. She didn't like it much, but the name just seamed really fitting for her; she is a totally amazing sweet little girl until she isn't (lighting strikes) and then she is, well, not. Luckly for us, she is sweeter more than not.
Anyway, Sofia is a great city! I like it a lot. The contrasts between the historical buildings, the Soviet buildings, and the EU buildings make it a fun city to drive through. After driving around for a bit; we had to go to the airport to drop off a rental car that the Rollins had while their car was being fixed for our long road trip, and to a mall where we had lunch (doner kebabs, mmmm...) we parked at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. This is a really great church!!! Much like the church at the Rila Monastery, and so many others we saw on the trip, to church is totally covered with fresco's on just about every wall surface. A lot of the church is in need of restoration, but regardless it is incredible. When we left the church we headed over to a small outdoor market. A lot of people with old Soviet era stuff; medals, knifes/swords, coins, and lots of tourist type stuff. There also was a nice little parkish area there so the kids were able to run around and climb for a few minutes before we headed on our way. After this we saw the Russian church, the Svetistopped at the Alexandar Nevsky again because Julie and I wanted to buy a icon from the church, but the right shop wasn't open when we were there earlier. It turned out really cool, because a priest actually helped us and then took the icon into the church and did a small ceremony blessing it. Something you don't see every day!!!
The next day we headed out on our 1st road trip of the vacation. We were driving to Istanbul Turkey. On the way we stopped in Plovdiv (still in Bulgaria). Plovdiv has a couple Roman empire remains still in tact and was a great stop along the way. While there we spent most of our time at a 2nd century theater that was only uncovered about 30 years ago when the hillside slid away revealing it. Apparently at some point the hillside was converted into a dumping ground and the theater was forgotten. Anyway this theater was definitely one of the highlights of the whole trip, because even though it is so old and now on the UNESCO list it is still very open to the public. We paid our ~2 dollars per person and were able to climb all over it and even enjoyed a few games of freeze tag on the stage. Looking back I am still really amazed that we were able to do so much in the theatre, compared to so many other place we visited that were all "look but don't touch." I am sure given a few more years this theatre will be the same. After the theatre we walked to see a section of old wall to guard the city and everyone bought some great hand made pottery from a small shop. We then had lunch (more doner's!) and saw the remains of a Roman stadium, which was really neat in that now the new city has been built over most of it, so you look down from above to what has been uncovered. Finally, we got back into our cars and headed to Turkey. Bye Bye Bulgaria for now.
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