We woke up this morning to see that our ship is docked in Ruse, that’s a town (still) in Bulgaria but closer to the Black Sea and right across the river from Romania.
Today we visited some very old churches. The first one we went to was an Orthodox Church in the village of Arbanasi that was built in the 16th century. There were beautiful, brightly coloured fresco paintings all over the walls and ceilings depicting bible story scenes. We noticed there are not rows of benches like we usually see in churches, we were told that orthodox churches are quite different in the way they hold services.
While we were there we were asked to sit in some uncomfortable benches around the edges of the room and some priests came out and sang hymns to us a cappella (that’s without musical instruments). Their voices were amazing and filled the room with the songs. It showed us how perfectly the walls and ceilings were built to capture the spirit of the singing.
Next we walked a few blocks along the village streets to the Church of the Nativity. It was built in the 1600s and is the oldest church in the village. It looks very small and almost like a house on the outside, only the small wooden cross up at the peak of the roof let us know we were at the church. But inside it has beautiful fresco paintings all over the walls and ceilings with many depicting the holy nativity.
There was a lady there to show us the frescos and explain the meaning. Like the “wheel of life” showing the sun in the middle, zodiac signs, calendar months and the circle of life on the outside. She also explained the difference in spaces in the church: the men’s section at the front and the women’s in the back area, and the gathering room (with more comfortable seats) for after the sermon.
After the church visits we got to go to a lovely, garden restaurant for an authentic Bulgarian lunch. We had a cucumber and tomato salad with some cheese that was like feta on top, then a chicken goulash. It was so delicious!
Then we headed to Veliko Tarnova to check out their old town area and the street that has all sorts or crafty type shops.
We even made a new friend!
Well Behaved Kids Travel 