Another cold, rainy day yesterday. The weather report indicated it was supposed to clear up, but that has not happened. The weather has just been miserable. I have come to the horrible conclusion that maybe my days of wearing shorts on this trip are over.
I signed up for a trip from the hostel to the Rila Monastery, which is about two hours away from Sofia. So I took a van with 6 other people from the hostel; A Canadian couple, a French couple, and a guy from Japan and a girl from Australia.
After 2 hours we arrived made a short 10 minute hike to a cave up the hill. Although it was raining, sort of similar to the last hike I did in Macedonia, I made it trough this hike just fine (except falling once on the slippery trail). It involved going to a cave, and seeing where the founder of the monastery, St Ivan Rilsky-lived alone around the year 900. There was a shrine in the cave, with candles, prayer books, etc.
After visiting the cave, we went to the Monastery itself, which was beautiful And actually the cloudy rainy weather seemed to match the architecture, setting of the monastery, right by the mountains.. I walked around for 2 hours, seeing the varying museums-which included a small museum with showing the old furnace from the monastery, old pots, etc, which was one admission fee. I went to another museum, showing the history of the monastery, which included the first printing press, first school on the monastery, guns used for protection from robbers, etc, which was another admission fee. Finally I went to another museum, which featured frescos of various monks/saints, which was another admission fee. It seems like there was a lot of fees for a monastery, although admission to the monastery itself was free. It was interesting but a little tiring. After 2 hours I walked back the meeting place, and started to panic when the van wasn't there, and thought I was mistaken for the meeting time, and the van left earlier. But actually I was too early; after 1/2 and hour the van showed up to take us back to Sofia.
We returned to Sofia about 2 hours later, and I took a walk to a photography store to buy a replacement filter for my camera. I returned for dinner at the hostel again of pasta.
After about 2 hours of hanging out in the common area of the hostel-where I was sort of tired of hanging out, I went back to the same mall I did a few days before, to see if any movies we're playing. I saw one called American Ultra, which I have never heard of before. It was a weird movie with Jesse Eisenberg with lots of shooting, explosives, etc. I never quite understood the movie, but I stayed for the whole thing.
I then walked back to the hostel and went to bed.
