Day 10

~5 days left

Friday, August 27th, 2021AD

Two monasteries and traveling

We packed up our stuff and left the little monastery in the mountains. We drove north, stopping at a monastery renowned for its blue frescos. The outside of the church is painted, and the inside is very pretty. We shopped after looking at the church at a tourist market outside, though I didn’t find anything I wanted to buy.

Leaving that monastery, we got back in the van and drove to a different one, renowned for its green frescos. All of the images at this monastery were labeled in an ancient Slavic language, but with weird spelling, e.g.

Въкръсенiе Х͡сово 

I dunno why there were so many твёрдые знаков all over the place, perhaps the icons were written by Bulgarians.

It started to rain, so we got back on the road again. The rain turned into a downpour; I was grateful to be inside a van.

Arrival at the Way Monastery

Now we’re at a monastery called Way. It’s huge and beautiful. We ate a delicious dinner with some homemade moonshine and wine from the monastery. Our rooms are comfortable. I have some episodes of an anime I like on my phone, so I watched a few before bed. 5/5 would stay here again.

Nia gvidanto told the story of convincing (that is, bullying) the lady at the Capitol Airport to let us go on the trip at all. I’m not impressed Andover haven’t been impressed by him, although I don’t have much longer to be stuck with him on this trip.

I’m so ready to get out of here and go home.

Tomorrow we’re getting the blessing of the monastery’s ἡγούμενος and visiting some of the historic places within it. I’m looking forward to it, though I wish I could speak the language and that nia gvidanto would stop being so abrasive.