[April 2022] The taxi we ordered from the hotel in Melnik, a village in the southwest of Bulgaria, has arrived.
From here we will go to Rozhen Monastery.
That’s right, when it comes to tourist attractions in Bulgaria, it’s the monasteries.
The Rozhen Monastery is smaller than the Bachkovo Monastery, which we visited a few days before, but it is the same structure that the monks’ living space surrounds the church in the courtyard.
This monastery is made of wood and looked rather dangerous.
Its history dates back to the 13th century.
In the church, an event that seems to be a child’s baptism was underway.
The priest was wearing a gown with many crosses on it, and the child was frightened and crying.
I didn’t get a chance to look at it closely this time, but one time we happened to see an Orthodox baptism ceremony in Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula, and there was a scene where a child’s hair was cut a little.
No wonder the child was frightened.
When the family came out from the church after the ceremony, a lady in the group showed off a large loaf of bread.
I wonder what it means.
The monk’s kitchen and dining room were open to the public, so we took a peek.
A long and narrow table was placed in a plain room.
There was the feeling that it is not used any more.
We did not get the information that how many monks there are today.
Outside the premises, the people were busy mowing the lawn.
We were taking advantage of the Easter holiday in Western Europe to make this trip, but in Eastern Europe Easter was a week later, so they may have been preparing for it.
After visiting Rozhen Monastery, we headed to Sandanski where the bus to Sofia leaves.
The taxi driver who waited for us during our visit to the monastery was a young man, but we couldn’t communicate with him because of the language problem.
The same music was played over and over all the way in the car, and the music was a little like Russian folk music, and it was nice and emotional.
Will this driver participate in a singing contest with this song?
I wanted to ask, but unfortunately I couldn’t understand the language.
We said goodbye to him at Sandanski and waited for the bus for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
We were a little hungry, so we thought we would have a snack at the cafeteria here, and we ended up having a proper meal.
The level of foods was far exceeded expectations.
The man in the cafeteria explained the menu to us in homemade English, and I chose his “Beautiful Chicken”.
It turned out the roast chicken stuffed with cheese, gherkins and carrots.
The presentation was simple, but the taste was very good.
My husband chose the fried meat described as ‘schnitzel’ and was pleased with the ‘good quality of the meat’.
The wine was yellow “white wine”.
From a large plastic container, he poured into a fairly large plastic cup, just like beer.
It was a slightly sweet, light wine.
Thanks to this meal, the time for waiting for the bus passed quickly.
