Christ is Risen! This weekend Saturday my dear brother in Christ Cvetomir with his family (Dimitrina and their 3.5 years old boy Boris) invited me to go together for a drive tour to a nearby town near Sofia called Godech. The landmark near the village is quite beautiful and in the region there are plenty of monasteries part of the Sofia’s “Mount Athos” spiritual region. We passed by an active monk monastery called Holy Spirit and then we went nearby a Dracula river’s tiny waterfalls (located very near Serbian border). Nearby the waterfalls is Bukorovsky monastery Saint George. The monastery had only 1 inhabitant Baba Ceca (in illiterate granny but with very strong faith) who lived there for many years but she passed just recently after a period of severe sickness.
http://www.pc-freak.net/images/bukorovski_monastery_baba_Ceca.jpg
The Church of the monastery as almost all Churches in Bulgaria looks ancient and present outlook is somewhere from the beginning of the 19th century, though the monastery itself is known to first exist in 11-th, 12th century during Second Bulgarian Empire. We had the chance so even though the monastery was closed a priest Lychezar opened the Church so we can pray and venerate the Lord Jesus Christ Holy Theotkos and the saints and light up a candle. Near Bukovski monastery is said to be a healing water “Kupalnija” but we did not know the exact place so maybe we see that next time. Near the monastery there is a sort of abyss and a frequency of tiny beautiful waterfalls, the place is quite stony and wild. On our way back we went through Tuden village (the nearest living place to the monastery). In monastery there were special crosses dedicated to saints which were venerated by a family (a common Serbian tradition), not a strange since the village is just less than 5 km from the Serbian border. In Tuden there was a sort of small pub / coffee “Krychma” and we even drinked a coffee, we travelled back passing by Prekraste village and near Dragoman ending up back in Sofia. We had a nice chat and nice time in nature since we had to walk to a monastery about 700 meters (currently there is no road to monastery, so one can go there by car only when time is not too rainy). On our way to monastery we saw some workers with a big bulldozer preparing to make an asphaltous road to the monastery, because surprisinly due to its beautiful nature the Monastery and the waterfalls become recently an interesting tourist location for Bulgarians. A monastery is being made famous for its 5 churches one near another, something unique but unfortunately uselessly made near the main old Church St. George dating somewhere from 14th century. We learned from father Lychezar that the other 4 Churches were made during the Church Schism in Bulgaria in 1996-1999. On our way back there was a heavy traffic and we had to wait on a car queue about 1.5 hour until we can enter Sofia passing by Sofia’s end suburb Lulin. We were also in a dangerous situation one time because a lot of drivers here in Bulgaria are riding very careless and doesn’t follow the speed regulations. Thanks God we entered home Safe. On Sunday we went to Dyrvenica Church St. George for the Service which was in momoriam of wonderful event of Doubting Thomas who tested the fact of Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ by putting his hands in the wounds left from the Cross sufferings. After the Church service a brother in Christ from Church invited us to his home to have a dinner and dine us with home made traditional (flat Sausage) Lukanka, home brew youghurt (Kiselo Mlijako), Cheese, Liutenica and other goodies. After having a nice chat we had also a wonderful walk in Loven Park which is a natural wood park right near the city blocks and city civillization, I honestly was amazed that such a big wood park with a beatiful river could be located in the heart of a city with 1,5 million people.
After the walk we had to sent the kid from the Church Ivaylo who came for a walk with me Stanislav and Angel and we had spend 10 minutes in a Turkish caffeteria for a quick tea and Baklava 🙂 Thanks God it was a wonderful and relaxing Saturday and Sunday!