Rila monastery - a photo on Flickriver

Rila monastery

            When you are traveling through 14 countries it is impossible to show everything that I have seen. 

Not only the landscapes were fantastic, but also amazing architecture and culture (a lot to post still) like the mosques of Ashkabat and Edirne, the grand cities of Oezbekistan, the former Sovjet capitals, now transforming to modern cities, churches like in Szeged, Sofia (the nevski-church) and The trinity church (in Georgia) and in Tiblisi, the Sameba cathedral. 
And then there are the numerous monasteries like the David Garetja Monastery in Georgia, the Sümela Manastırı in Turkey, and the one shown here.

This is the Rila Monastery in Bulgaria. It is situated south from Sofia (a 90 minute drive).
 
This amazing monastery is not only beautiful because it is situated in a fantastic environment, but for instance the murals (which you can see on the right) are absolutely stunning. 

It never happened to me before, but I really wanted to cry when I saw this miraculous place.
 
A month ago I came back from my journey over a part of the Silk Road to and through Central Asia. 4 months of traveling through 14 countries (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran)  before I flew home from Teheran. An impressive  journey in countries that are extremely beautiful, with lovely and welcoming people and diverse cultures and history. 

Intense traveling with more than 20000 kilometers in our mobile home on sometimes roads that hardly could be called that way.  We saw many villages and cities (some wonderful, others very ugly), countries that are transforming from the old Soviet era into something more related to older cultures and the way people live, often funded by oil readily available around the Caspian sea. We saw the amazing mountains south of the Black Sea, the wonderful Caucasus, and the high mountains in the far east close to China with peaks over 7000 meter, and not to forget the (Bulgarian) Alps!

We crossed the great steppe of Kazakhstan. a drive of at least 5000 km, the remnants of lake Aral, once one of the biggest lakes of the world, saw a rocket launch from Baikonur (this little part is Russian owned), we crossed many high mountains passes, and drove the breathtaking canyon that comes from the Pamir, beginning at ca 4500 meter, and going down for ca. 400km to an altitude of 1300 meter, driving for 100's of kilometers along the Afghan border. 

And then the numerous lakes with all sorts of different colors from deep cobalt blue to turquoise, and one rare spectacle in Turkmenistan where a gas crater is burning already for more than 40 years. And finally and certainly not the least to mention an enormous amount of wonderful, hospitable and welcoming people. The woman often dressed in wonderful dresses, and bringing a lot of color in the streets of almost of all countries we visited.

Taken in: Bulgaria / Kyustendil / Rila Monastery (show map)

Taken on: June 15, 2019

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Rila Monastery

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Camera: Sony SLT-A65V, f/9.0, 1/50 sec, 26mm (=39mm), ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Sony SLT-A65V
Lens:	17-50mm F2.8
Aperture:	f/9.0
Exposure Time:	0.02 sec (1/50)
Focal Length:	26mm (35mm equivalent: 39mm)
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Light Source:	Cloudy
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)
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