From Sofia to Skopje

We left the apartment around 9am, had breakfast at the hostel as it was included, then set the GPS to find Lalo Jewellery – an Israeli artist who specialises in Resin, who puts them all together in Bulgaria and has several shops in Sofia. Beth, my sister in law works for a company that imports them into NZ so I was interested  in seeing the range in Sofia.

We ended up in a the Mall of Sofia, found Lalo, and ended up  buying quite a few of these as presents for people back hone as they were different and reasonably priced.  After shopping for a while, we headed back to the car and started our drive to Skopje, Macedonia.

On our way to Skopje, we found a sign on the road pointing us to a monastery called Zemen, so we sidetracked and popped in there to have a look.  It was a beautiful day, sun was shining, and it was very warm. the entrance to Zemen Monastery...

Just inside were little knitted dolls hanging on the trees.  I'm not sure of their significance and would love to know.

Instead of typing everything out about the Monastery, I went for the easy way and photographed the sign...

Very peaceful around the monk's quarters...

The church was quite simple and he grounds were lovely..

Inside was very old - no photographers were allowed to be taken, but I took some sneakily with the flash off to have a memory of what I was seeing.

The floor was beautiful despite being broken, but it was also very smooth from years of wear..

Above the door at the entrance...

After spending about an hour at the monastery poking around, we headed back to the car and got on our way again.  We noticed this huge church with gold domes from the road, so detoured to find it. Along the detour we found an abandoned building...

Flat farmlands..

Little country roads...

And finally the church - which looked new, and still not quite finished.  No one was around, and there were no signs, so we didn't go in.  The gold domes certainly got our attention from the road though - glinting in the sun.

Our next stop was Kyustendil - a town in the far west of Bulgaria, and the capital of the Kyuestendil Provnice. The town is situated in the southern part of the Kyustendil Valley, near the borders of Servia and the Republic of Macedonia 90 km southwest of Sofia, and 130 km northeast of Skopje. The total population counts 44,532 people, with a Bulgarian majority and Roma minority. During the Iron Age, a Thracian settlement was located within the town, later known as Roman Pautalia in the 1st century AD. In the Middle Ages, the town switched hands between the Byzantine Empire, Bulgaria and Serbia, prior to Ottoman annexation in 1395. The town was liberated in 1878 from the Ottoman empire. It is named after Konsgtantin Dragas, a 14th-century regional lord.

Kyustendil is a national balneological resort at an altitude of 600 metres. There are more than 40 mineral springs in the town. The waters have a high content of sulfite compounds. These are used for the treatment of the locomotory system, gynecological and other kinds of diseases. The resort region includes several baths, balneological complexes and others.

Kyustendil is located at the foot of the Osogovo mountain and a well-known centre of blaneology and fruit growing. The fortress was built by the Romans. Thermae, basilicas, floor mosaics have been uncovered, and it is home of the oldest working thermal spas today.

We parked next to the Pirkova Tower, a medieval defense tower built in the 14th Century.  It looked veyr much like the one we visted in Trencin, in Eastern Europe, and I also saw a similar one in Zagreb. This one is four stories high and is a cultural monument of national significance.

This is a mosque next to the thermal baths complex...

Part of excavations of the roman spa...

The baths are still going, but have been modernised here.  It was way to hot to swim today so we didn't go in, but they looked a little slimy, and still very old fashioned.  All hte gardens/parks were totally overgrown and there were a few people about but not many.

Anne enjoying the sun as we walked around...

The back of the baths...

From Kyustendil it was only 20 minutes to the border of Macedonia and I still had some Bulgarian money to use up., so we stopped at a small shop just inside Macedonia who took Bulgarian money, and we used it up buying icecreams, beer, chocolate, and anything else we could.  We only had six euro worth, but it bought HEAPS.  The beer is cheaper than water in Macedonia!!

From here these are shots I took out of the window as we drove to Skopje.  It was a beautiful drive. Macedonia is lovely...  We stopped a couple of times to get the photos of the Red Poppies growing wild everywhere.

Nearing Skopja now, and the first time I've seen an overloaded motorbike myself. I've only seen other people's photographs of this kind of thing so I snapped this from the car as we were driving.

We got to our apartment at about 8pm, still light and sunny and beautiful. The apartment was on the top floor and was superb. Not bad for 40 euros a night for the three of us.

We then sat out on the deck, poured ourselves a beer and rested a bit...  This is the view from the balcony.

Beer was superb... and cheaper than water!!

After the beer was gone - we headed into Skopje to explore while the light was still good!