A Dangerous Bus Trip to the World Heritage Rila Monastery - Bulgaria🇧🇬 | 40-Year-Old Woman's European Train Travel #02-4

[Day 6: Sofia → Rila Monastery]
The Rila Monastery, a World Heritage site in the mountains of Bulgaria, is a major national landmark, but the only way to get there was a packed, dilapidated minibus.

🚊 A 96-day travel essay. Read the previous story here↓

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## Another Attempt at Rila Monastery!

Continuing from yesterday, I am aiming for the World Heritage site, Rila Monastery, located in the mountains.

Since the train route seems likely to end in failure again without solving yesterday's mystery, today I am taking a tram to the bus terminal on the outskirts of town to catch the bus that supposedly runs only once a day.

## Driving on the Highway Overloaded

When I arrived at the bus terminal, a considerable number of people were already waiting, even though there was still plenty of time before departure.

There must be roughly 20 people here, right?

Most of them appear to be young Western backpackers.

I thought, 'Well, I should be able to get a seat with this many people,' but what pulled in was a very unreliable-looking

small minibus.

It was an old-fashioned type often seen as a shuttle bus in Japan.

Could this really be it!?

The line buzzed with confusion.

People at the back of the line confronted the driver, who had stepped out looking annoyed, asking what they were supposed to do if they couldn't get on!

The driver brushed off their complaints and started collecting tickets as if to say, 'Just get on, get on!'

Naturally, the seats were full in an instant.
It filled up right before my turn.

Even so, he kept ushering people on, saying 'Get on, get on,' squeezed two women into the passenger seat, and packed the remaining passengers into the narrow, narrow aisle like sardines.

When I counted, there were 19 seats including auxiliary seats, and 29 people were on board.

The small minibus, which wasn't designed for standing passengers, had no handrails, let alone straps.

Wait?
Doesn't this bus take about three and a half hours?
Like this??

I was full of questions.
As the passengers looked at each other in distress, the bus departed roughly.

Tall people held onto the ceiling, and I desperately gripped the back of a seat that didn't even have a handrail.

While rattling and shaking, the bus, which was clearly overloaded, actually entered what looked like a highway area.

As soon as it got on the highway, the bus picked up speed!

It was going much faster than what I'm used to in Japan, and the shaking inside the bus became even more intense.

Forget seatbelts; there was nothing to hold onto, so I had to rely on my own legs to brace myself.

While tensing my lower body, I decided to clear my mind to cope with the extreme heat and thin air.

## Stripes suddenly appearing in the deep forest

After about two hours of this, just as I was becoming exhausted, the bus suddenly stopped in a square that looked like a rural bus terminal.

The rough driver gestured for us to get off, and it seemed he was saying we had to transfer buses.

While confused, we were relieved to be out of that terrible environment, so everyone stretched, took deep breaths, and enjoyed the fresh air with wry smiles.

Just then, a large, luxurious-looking tour bus that seemed out of place for a rural terminal pulled in.

It seemed this was the bus we were transferring to.
Thinking, 'I wish you'd used this one from the start,' I headed to the Rila Monastery, enjoying the luxury of having two seats to myself without really knowing why.

* * *

The Rila Monastery is a huge monastery that suddenly appears in the deep forest.
Its black-and-white or red-and-white striped exterior is truly distinctive, and once you pass through the gate, you are surrounded on all sides by striped buildings.

The surrounding buildings seem to be monastery lodgings, and apparently even tourists like us can stay there.

While the exterior is striped, the ceilings of the building's outer corridors are densely covered in colorful frescoes, creating a strange feeling—I couldn't tell if it was beautiful or just too busy.

I was simply overwhelmed by a style of building I had never seen before.

Mountains with lingering snow towered nearby, and I was able to fully enjoy this mystical atmosphere until the bus back.

* * *

deli dinner back in the city of Sofia tonight.

I'm going shopping at the market that was closed over the weekend.

It seems that hot springs gush out around the market area, where rows of faucets provide water at just the right temperature.

As I warmed my hands with the water, which was a welcome relief for my slightly chilled body, local elderly men and women came one after another with tanks to collect the water.

It seems it is used as daily water, and I felt like I caught a glimpse of the simple lives of the people of Sofia.

🚊Next time, I will say goodbye to Bulgaria and head to Romania by land ↓

📘 This post is part of "A 40-Year-Old Woman's European Train Journey." See the previous part here ↓