Welp, yay!

Had breakfast of bizarrely good cheese and pear jam, heard two kids from Seattle were taking a bus to a monastery, and joined up with them for most of the day. We went to Bashkovo (it might not actually be that…it remember it sounding like that) Monastery, where frequent, engraved marble trough-type things with pipes spouting out groundwater are placed to, I guess, keep pilgrims hydrated and clean. Probably have collected a good amount of coins, as well. If I get worms, it might be from there, but in that case, everyone else has them too.

I can’t read Bulgarian and I don’t understand religious icons, but colorful paintings covered the ceilings of rooms. There were also lots of candles and gold trinket things. We were certainly a trio of heathens. But we took a small hike up to three mountain monasteries, one of which was built into an overhang of limestone. The doors into the place were maybe 5 feet tall and I could barely fit my shoulders in, so the monks must not only have been short, but also no more than barely chubby. Stairs cut into the outcrop force you to lean far to the side to avoid smacking your head on the rock. It was sweet.

Oh!!! Also! A bunch of the churches and chapels and monasteries here are built out of blocks of tufa. Tufa is a favorite rock of mine, it’s usually very porous and can have shells and plants and stuff in it. (Tufa!!!!) We saw active tufa-forming streams and waterfalls, too, which was just a brilliant surprise. Anyway, some churches are made of alternating layers of yellowish tufa and red brick, which gives them a cool look.