on the subject of days off…
I’d promised my friend Stefka that I would have a few days tripping around Bulgaria with her while she was on summer holidays. Stefka is a teacher and works hard and long and doesn’t really get a lot of time for herself. I heard about a village north of here called Etara and asked Colin if he wanted to see it and if we went, could I take Stefka along as well. ‘Not a problem’, he said. It gave him a chance to see more of the country and gave me a chance to spend some time with Stefka.
It turned into a BIG day out.
Stefka’s daughter, Ina, came along as well and as we set off I suggested that as we were going past it, perhaps Colin might like to see the Russian Church in Shipka. The Shipka Pass was where the Russian army, with a band of Bulgarian freedom fighters, eventually defeated the Turks and drove them out of Bulgaria after a 500 year occupation. Russia donated the church to Bulgaria in honour of the battle at Shipka Pass. This whole area is very important to the Bulgarians. I’ve been to both the church and the Shipka Pass before but on the two or three occasions I have been there, either the church wasn’t open or the monument on top of the Shipka Pass wasn’t open…this time I got to see it all.
It’s summer, the Bulgarians are holidaying and seeing the Russian Church in all it’s summer glory was wonderful.
It’s a beautiful monument set in peaceful and tranquil gardens and even though there were a lot of people wandering around, the place was still very calm…made you want to whisper.
I got to photograph the inside this time and it really is spectacular
and the outside of the building still took my breath away with it’s intricate beauty
Soon it was time to press on and we wound our way up the mountain towards the Shipkas Pass. We made the decision on the way up to also spend time at the Shipka Pass monument.
Given his love of history, I figured it was something Colin really shouldn’t miss and I’m glad we did stop and spend time there…nearly two hours in fact…but it was just so interesting to see everything this time and to get inside the monument and read what happened and why.
We climbed the five stories of the monument and the views were amazing…standing on top of the world
Clearly I’m not very good at joining pictures, but this will give you some idea of what we were looking down over from the top of the monument …it was breathtaking.
Inside the monument was so interesting. At last I got some information about what transpired on that mountain. I had the time to have a good look around outside as well and there are smaller monuments dotting the landscape, all constructed for a different participating country, including Poland, & for various Bulgarian and Russian heroes of the day.
and all through the hills, cannons are dotted around
and though the site of horrific battles and terrible bloodshed and loss of lives, there’s a certain air of reverence and peace about the place
Certainly my best visit to both sites to date…
And as if we hadn’t squeezed in enough, we headed even further into the mountains to the lovely village of Etara.
It’s not just any village. It’s a living, breathing museum to artisans and craftsmen. Every building has someone in it working away at their craft or specialty.
And how much do I want a ride in this ?
This is a terrific place. It obviously ran on water and there were operating water wheels and other water driven facilities all around the village
and what better way to wash your rugs than to skoosh them around in here
and then let the water run away naturally down here
and one of my favourites was the Bulgarian bagpipes made from a very natural fibre, an entire goat skin
and be damned if later on in the day, I got to see the bagpipe maker starting a new set from scratch
a little value adding going on here…
There was a lot to see and something else that caught our attention was the roofs on the buildings
They are great slabs of granite interlayed all over the roof. They must weigh a tonne and yet everything looked very sound.
Sadly, time was by now agin us. We hadn’t quite planned on such a big day and Colin and I both have animals that need attention, so just slightly reluctantly we started out journey back to Yambol and Miladinovtsi.
A terrific day in terrific company