Just a short 20 minute ride from the campsite found me at the St Archangel Michael Monastery. Located in the Rusenski Lom river valley, on either side of the river there are sheer grey cliffs which rise over a hundred metres. It was here that a Bulgarian Orthodox monk called Yoakin decided to build a monastery in early in the 13th century, around 1220.
The monastery is a series of tunnels that were hewn out of the vertical cliff. First they dug holes into the rock which logs could be fitted into, and these logs formed a staircase leading up the sheer cliff-side. Once they were near the top they started to tunnel onto the cliff-face, building several chambers. There are two main chambers with many remarkable paintings on the walls and ceiling dating from around 1330. One of the painting depicts the ‘Last Supper’, and was painted well before Da Vinci’s version.
These days there is an established path up to the tunnels with guard rails, but once you get up to the top and have finally caught your breath, its then you realise the enormity of the effort and hard work that these monks put in to make this hideaway. Once of the reasons they did what they did is that in this part of Bulgaria there was always a flux between Bulgarian Orthodoxy and Islam, as well as other threats, so if the monks felt they were threatened, all they had to do was remove the poles which made the staircase and then hide in comfort until the threat had passed.
After the monastery there is a small walk to the top of the nearby cliffs, with a great view over the valley. After finally getting back down to the riverside walk, I stopped and sat on a bench for a while. And then slowly I started to see colourful birds flitting around and then dragonfly’s or the most amazing turquoise blue. Amazing.
My plan after that was to visit a nearby fort but instead I decided to visit the city of Ruse, which wasn’t too far away. I needed some shopping plus I was interested to see the city, as it is the 6th largest city in Bulgaria. Located on the banks of the River Danube, Ruse is a stopping off point for cruise-barges. There is also a large dockyard where huge barges are also filled with grain and coal. In the city centre you can definitely see the Austro-Hungarian influence in the ornate architecture of the old buildings, and when you leave the centre you suddenly start to notice the austere Soviet influence. Wandering around the centre was pleasant and I was glad to have visited. After that I headed back to the campsite to chill out for the rest of the day and catch up on some video editing.
