My name is Marion Vermazen. I am a traveler, hiker, reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, YouTuber, Spanish and French language student, knitter, weaver and genealogist.
After breakfast this morning we took a taxi to the airport and picked up a rental car. We left Sofia and drove about two hours to Rila Monastery. It is described as the cultural center of Bulgaria. It was founded over a thousand years ago. The sign at the entrance describes it as the Jerusalem of Bulgaria.
From the Monastery we drove to nearby Blogoevgrad, to the Orbita Hotel and Spa where we are tonight. We used the spa and had a great dinner in the restaurant.
The hotel we are staying at in Sofia, Art ‘Otel, is great. They have a very nice happy hour in the lounge from 6 to 8. They have delivered desert to our room every night, and our room is spacious and comfortable. At breakfast his morning the man supervising breakfast told us all about the history of Bulgaria.
Today we explored a bit of Sofia. we stopped at the Archaeological Museum. One of the exhibits explained that at the Karanova Tell the digging has gone down over 40 feet with successive settlements over 4 millennia.
We also walked by the Presidential Palace and went into the Cathedral of Saint Nedelya.
We spent last night at a very nice hotel, Hotel Ring, in Kyustendil, Bulgaria. For breakfast this morning we went out to find coffee and pastry. It was a beautiful morning and many stalls were setting up for the continuation of the Spring festival that we visited yesterday.
About eleven we checked out and walked to the bus station where we caught a bus to Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia. In Sofia we took a taxi to our hotel.
Both of us are fighting colds. It is very frustrating! We napped and rested most of the afternoon. We did make a trip to the grocery store for water and snacks.
Today we caught an 8:30 am bus out of Notth Macedonia into Bulgaria. Bulgaria is a new country for each of us
In Kyustendil we walked to our hotel. There is a spring festival going on so after a bit of a rest we went out to check it all out.
There was lots of great looking food. We chose some and had dinner.
We can’t get from Pristina directly into Bulgaria so today we took a bus from Pristina back to Skopje. Tomorrow we will take a bus from Skopje to our first stop in Bulgaria.
In Skopje we walked to our hotel.
We recently got an email saying they had canceled our flight home from Barcelona to San Francisco. After spending a lot of time on the phone Duke finally got a new flight two days earlier. He spent much of the afternoon changing hotel and travel reservations
For dinner we went to a great restaurant, (Pelister) near our hotel.
Marion's Blog 