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IMG_7837 - The Rila Mountain Range is the highest in the Balkan Peninsula. This Rilska valley in it is narrow and twisted.
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IMG_7848 - A honey shop with lots of beehives
IMG_7853 - The Family Hotel Gorski Kut (Forest Corner). Our pit-stop just before we visited the Rila Monastery.
IMG_7855 - Up a side valley of the Manastirska river is the Rila Monastery (Monastery of Saint Ivan of Rila).
IMG_7856 - The monastery was the legacy the Bulgarian hermit Ivan Rilski, (876-946), who lived in a cave in those hills.
IMG_7861 - It was gradually built by his students who came to study with him, and continued by his devotees over the centuries.
IMG_7862 - Necrologs for the dead, like we saw in Arbanasi. They are like lighting a candle for the person.
IMG_7863 - The Dupnitsa Gate into the courtyard. The frescoes were designed to be truly Slavic.