Ribnovo, Dobarkso and Bansko, In The Pirin Mountains
A new day...a new hike through the Pine woods and plateaus via Osikovo Village to Ribnovo. Ribnovo has about 2,600 residents populated by Bulgarian Muslims who speak an ancient dialect. The Bulgarians were forced to convert to Islam during the 1623-1625 period and later. The Bulgarians that didn't want to accept conversion, left their homes and went elsewhere.
Ribnovo is the most biggest village in this area. There is almost no migration to other villages or towns.and the people intermarry. Most of the women wore traditional clothing here - shalvars ( multicolored trousers), aprons and headcloths. Weaving is the local specialty and that included kilims, rugs, goat's hair rugs, etc. Unfortunately, I already have enough rugs, kilims, etc., to open my own shop...difficult to resist each region's colorful output...but ex-Marine was giving me filthy looks and mouthing..."don't even think of it"...
We started directly from Kovachevitsa, up an overgrown trail with brambles all around inflicting major scratches and cuts but I'm used to bleeding my way up and down mountains.
Hiked back down to Kovachevitsa for one last night at Kapsazov's Guesthouse before moving along to the Pirin Mountains and Bansko.
A short morning hike to the chapel of St. George above Kovachevitsa, loaded up the bus and drove to Dobarkso to see Saints Theodore Tyron and Theodore Stratelates Orthodox Church. This Church was built in 1614, and declared a national monument of culture because of its exceptionally well-preserved frescoes and icons featuring scenes from the life of Christ. One is even interpreted as portraying Jesus in a rocket! Bulgarian church naves are usually separated from the sanctuary by an iconostasis - a wall of icons, sometimes illuminated. Extremely colorful and eye-catching since they have been cleaned up and partially restored.
On the way to Bansko, a fast photo op for storks. The storks migrate across Europe and really like building nests on the top of telephone or street light poles. ...View image...The entire stretch of one street had nests filled with baby storks.
We were going to spend two days in Bansko...a 15th century town, nestled beneath Mt. Vichren (9,558') and hike into Pirin National Park with its peaks, granite cirques and over 170 turquoise lakes. The Hotel Pirin was within walking distance of the old center with horse-drawn carts. Bansko became a trade center during the Bulgarian Renaissance and different crafts and traditions are preserved in a museum complex which showed typical houses, and works of artists.
Finally dinner. Almost every other house in the old Bansko has been converted into a Mehana but the group walked over to Mehana Bansko also known as The Spirit of Pirin. A lively restaurant with good food and entertainment. Actually, every meal was wonderful throughout Bulgaria. There were always different salads to choose from, meat dishes, fresh vegetables, and very good local wines and beers. Miles of hiking didn't make a dent in our weight - the food was just too good.
Somewhere in Bulgaria, we had dinner in a restaurant known for shish kabob. After the waiter brought your shish to the table and slid the chunks of lamb or chicken off the skewer, he threw the skewer into the ceiling where it hung over your head. All during dinner, I kept waiting for one of the skewers to come down and impale someone. A very unusual way to serve shish kabob!
