There are a lot of day trips you can take from Bansko and as much as we were enjoying the sights and hikes right in town, we aren’t sure we will make it back to Bulgaria anytime soon so we wanted to venture out to get a bigger taste of Bulgaria. Don’t get me wrong, we LOVED our time in Bansko, but knowing there are still so many places we haven’t explored and experienced, it’s hard to fit re-visiting even the best places in our calendar.

We find Atlas Obscura an excellent resource for off-the-beaten-path/obscure things to see/do/experience when we are traveling. (For road trips in the US, Roadside America has given us some great memories.) That was how Jim decided on a visit to the Stob’s Pyramids, Rila Monastery, and the quaint “City” of Melnik.

ST IVAN'S GRAVE/RILA MONASTERY/STOB’S PYRAMIDS

The Stob’s Pyramids are natural rock formations, hoodoos about two hours from Bansko. It's an easy (but hot) hike to get to them and probably not worth the drive alone, but add the Rila Monastery and St Ivan's Grave to the day trip and it becomes a nice stop. There is the added benefit of driving through some small scenic Bulgarian towns too.

As much as I love erosion, the highlight of this adventure for me was Saint Ivan of Rila's Grave. If you drive around the Rila Monastery on the cobblestone road, you can continue deeper into the forest and up the mountain. About 4 km from the monastery, there’s an area to pull off the road and a well-traveled path leading into the forest with small wood signs identifying the different types of trees along the path. At this point, neither Jim nor I had cell signal and were just winging it. A couple we had met hiking a few days prior had given us the tip that if you continued past the monastery, you could hike up to the grave, but that was the extent of the info we had. Since we both like walks in the woods, what did we have to lose? What spectacular trees there were though—so tall and mighty!

St. Ivan, as the legend goes, had wild animals that freely came up to him and birds that landed in his hands. He spent his life in prayer and deprived himself of comfort by settling in the caves in the Rila mountains. He was known to have performed a multitude of miracles that brought him undesired fame as he tried to live the life of a hermit and avoid contact with others. Believers came seeking a blessing from him. 

While we were visiting the cave, we met a local man and his daughter. They (fortunately for us!) spoke English and told us that it's believed that only those pure of heart can fit through the small chimney cave opening. Surprisingly, we both fit—haha! I’ve also read that climbing the wooden stairs and passing through the small chimney opening will grant you purification of the soul. In either case, I guess our souls are pure! Today, people leave written notes of prayer to St Ivan in the cave and tuck them in the rocks surrounding the cave as well as at St Ivan’s prayer rock a bit farther up the trail. Since the only kind of paper I had with us was toilet paper, our note was short and sweet.

MELNIK

Next up on our day trips was Melnik in the foothills of the Pirin Mountains. Melnik is the smallest “city” in Bulgaria (it’s permitted to keep its legal designation of city for posterity) with only around 300 residents. It’s known for its historic buildings and wine-making. We parked at one end of town and walked up the cobblestone/dirt street to the other end of town in ten minutes, then up to the old Kordopulov House to check out how the old-timey rich lived. I took special notes and pictures for my Pinterest page in case we ever decide to own a house again: our next house will definitely need a secret room.

Then, because I can’t say no to a view, we hiked up the 300+ steps to the Monastery Virgin Bogoroditsa Spileotisa. The views of the Melnik Pyramids and the town were definitely worth the hot sweaty steep steps to the top. Added bonus was the cute tortoise we met on the trail.

We finished our little excursion with lunch at a restaurant in town: shopska salad and cornflake-coated chicken. It might have been the highlight of the roadtrip… or maybe I was just really really hungry!

Sophia

Most people would consider Bankso a day trip from Sophia, not the other way around, but most people are probably more city people than us! We ended our trip to Bulgaria with a day in Sophia before flying out.

We don’t generally do a lot of tours, but usually we find the free walking tours in a city a good starting point for our exploring. Unfortunately, this one just didn’t live up to this one we took in Medellin (I fear Julio spoiled us for any future walking tours!). It definitely hit the highlights in town, but lacked any depth or interesting stories. It definitely reminded me of the things I disliked about history class as a kid: so many dates, so many facts, so little color.

I had no idea what an archeological treasure Sophia was though. If we had more time, I would have spent it exploring the ruins exposed while the city was digging for the new metro line. The deeper they dug, the further back in time the ruins.