Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Exploring Bulgaria

By David Francis


Being among the most beautiful European destinations, Bulgaria is a relatively small country, located on the Balkan Peninsula. It attracts tourists with a big variety of sights and interesting places, with its beaches and summer resorts, spa and balneo centers, breathtaking scenery of high mountain ranges, rivers, lakes, vast lowlands and Black Sea coast.

Thousands of tourists are attracted each year by the great Bulgarian sights, most popular of which is the Black Sea coast. Sunny Beach resort is the most famous and biggest one, located close to the city of Bourgas, followed by Golden Sands resort, which is close to the Sea capital of Bulgaria, Varna. Some tourists prefer these and other Bulgarian sandy beach resorts even to the famous Spain and Greece resorts, which are much more expensive. The nightlife here is active and dynamic and young people can visit any of the restaurants and night bars available.

If you would like to plunge yourself in the past, you need to visit the small and beautiful ancient towns of Sozopol, Nesebar and Balchik that will reveal valuable relics of the past and other archaeological finds.

The beauty and attraction of this country is not limited to the coast and the beach resorts, which are actually only a small part of Bulgarian treasures. It offers a lot more sights in other parts of the country, where tourists can meet with local people's culture, traditions and significant landmarks.

The most visited monastery in Bulgaria is the famous Rila Monastery, located in beautiful Rila Mountain in southwestern part of the country. Being a breathtaking place, this is a sight that should be visited at least once by every tourist. St. John of Rila is its founder, who started the construction in the 10th century. Many reconstructions are made over the years, but the last one is made in 19th century.

There is at least one more attraction that beautiful Rila Mountain offers to all nature lovers and this is the Seven Rila Lakes that form a cirque. The highest of them called "The Tear" is found at 2535 meters in height, but the second, "The Eye" is considered the most popular and the deepest one. "The Kidney" is the third one, which makes a strange form that reminds a giant kidney. The fourth one is also interesting, as the lake is as if split into two parts that is why it is called "The Twins" and is the longest one among the lakes. The irregular form of the fifth lake called "Three-Lobed Lake" is not less attracting. The shallowest one is the sixth one called "The Fish Lake". And the seventh one called "The Low Lake" is located at 2095 meters in height.

A medieval stronghold Tsarevets is another amazing place to visit. It is located in the former Bulgarian capital Veliko Turnovo, in the area of its old town. The beauty of the city itself is unsurpassed being a natural fortress against enemies.

The gorgeous city of Gabrovo located in the central Bulgaria offers tourists another ancient sight, called Etara, an open ethnographic museum that reveals authentic architecture, ethnography and folklore of Bulgarian people. All tourists can buy here ancient handicrafts, traditional dishes and other souvenirs and even watch how the craftsmen make them.




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