We decided to use the services of a private driver for the move from Bansko to Sofia, not only for the convenience of a door to door transfer but also because we wanted to stop off and see the Rila Monastery which is a short detour midway between the two cities.

We had spent the previous day packing and were ready for the 9am pickup on the morning of our departure. With our ever enlarging luggage, we were easily able to fill the Renault station wagon and roof mounted cargo pod. We bid a sad farewell to the apartment that had been our home for the past month and set off. After an hour or so, we turned off the highway and made the half hour detour along a snow covered winding road through small villages and up into the Rodopi Mountains to the Rila Monastery nestled within.

According to UNESCO, the Monastery is “the oldest in the Slav world and still the largest active religious centre in Bulgaria, is first and foremost an exceptionally fine artistic complex, in which architecture and painting merge harmoniously. Apart from this, it has been for centuries the seat of the development, preservation, and diffusion of Slav religious culture in all its various manifestations, including literary and artistic, and it became the symbol of Bulgarian cultural identity that was continually threatened by Turkish domination.”

The monastery was founded after the death of the monk Saint John of Rila who spent a fair chunk of his adult life living in a cave nearby while he waited for ‘Spiritual Perfection’. For 12 years he lived in the cave without amenities, sleeping on the bare earth, eating nothing but herbs and resisting the temptations of the devil through fasting and prayers.

Getting to the Monastery was just delightful – the scenery was breathtaking with everything blanketed in snow, the buildings were stunning and the murals and artwork were amazing. We were fortunate in that there were only a handful of other visitors which was in keeping with the peaceful atmosphere. Anyway, this monastery could easily be the inspiration for the Escher picture, and the fresh snow everywhere made the experience even more picturesque.

The remainder of our journey to Sofia was uneventful and the driver was able to drop us at the door to our hostel mid-afternoon. We had booked only one night in the capital mainly because of the many reports suggesting the city didn’t have a lot to offer and some even labelling the city ‘dull’.

It certainly had no remarkable aesthetic architectural quality with quite a mismatched style present. Some Roman, Byzantine and medieval Bulgarian buildings with a bit of neoclassicism and an even bigger amount of prefabricated socialist-era apartment blocks seemed to sum it up. Post second world war, the neighbourhoods were dominated by concrete block towers and the aptly named ‘Brutalist’ architecture adding to that coldish feel.

However, as with all places, sometimes you have to give a place time to scratch beneath the surface for the no-so-obvious gems. So sorry Sofia, perhaps we didn’t give you the time you deserved but we were now on a time schedule to meet David’s parents in a week with another country to cross.

Our very simple hostel accommodation consisted of a quad room with four single beds and a shared bathroom, which was fine with us and we didn’t see any other guests during our time there. Our first order of business was to secure train tickets for the onward journey to Bucharest the next morning, so after dropping our bags we set off on the 20 minute walk to the nearest booking office. Enroute, we caved in to the girl’s demands for food with a brief stop at McDonalds. Now, I’ve always thought that McDonalds is to the traveller what the church is to the pilgrim; a safe place you can go for shelter in a foreign land and as an added bonus the food always tastes the same and the restaurant will usually have free wi-fi.  We found it very unusual to be approached by beggars inside at the table of our ‘save haven’.

We found the travel agents shop tucked into an obscure corner of the metro entrance and quickly secured the train tickets. We still had an hour or two of daylight in hand and so made our way on foot to the St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, one of the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedrals in the world (can hold up to 10 000 people) for a quick look and then back towards the hostel via the Presidential residence, pausing to pose with guards outside (who could well have been frozen as the temperature was plummeting at this time of the day), noting some other particularly un-noteworthy buildings.

Dinner at the Happy Bar & Grill rounded off our day and we made our way back to our hostel room to prepare for the early-ish departure next morning. However, despite towels (which are sometimes extra at hostels) were said to be included, they were not left out and we couldn’t find any staff, nor any guests anywhere on our return to the hostel, we were seemingly rattling around in this hostel alone – even going out to find a public phone with which to call them proved fruitless.  They did however come through on their promise to set breakfast out earlier for us due to our departure time, and thankfully there was a kind lady on duty in the early morning who called a taxi to transfer us to the train station. The Bulgarians have thoughtfully organised all the “stations” at one end of Sofia – train station, bus station, and power station. Nice…

We found our short four carriage train patiently waiting at the fare end of the assigned platform. David grabbed some snacks from the train station Billa Supermarket to keep the children’s worms at bay. We all settled in the old but comfortable cabin with two fellow passengers and departed on the estimated nine hour journey right on time.

The passing scenery was none too interesting with abandoned rail carriages and flat snow covered ground such so we persisted with some school work along the way, with Phoebe proving difficult to motivate and disinterested in anything remotely resembling school work. Ahhhhhhhh.

Along the way, we crossed the mist shrouded Danube River, and extra carriages were added and border checks completed before continuing into the next country on our journey of discovery – Romania, home of Dracula – mwahahahaha.