Belogradchik

Today I went on another day trip, this time northwards to the Belogradchik fortress. It was a fortress built on a hill that had natural rock formations. The fortifications from the ancient times were built upon in the middle ages and the 19th century, so that there are three separate eras of construction.

The Belogradchik day trips are all advertised with images of the newest part of the fortress, a beautiful picture of a gate with the rocks behind it. Unfortunately, there are summer plays going on outside of many Bulgarian monuments, and I was unable to get the picturesque photo I had been planning on. Still, I managed to get a few pictures without most of the equipment.

However, once we entered into the old fortress and saw the landscape, I was immediately alleviated. The rocks, similar to those at Meteora, were absolutely stunning.

We stayed at the fortress for over an hour before heading back to our car. Next, we headed over the mountain and ended up at a cave at the foot of the mountain. There was some confusion between our tour guide and the people running the cave, as they did not want to take a group of less than 15, and we were 4 total. But the tour guide convinced them to let us in, and two more English speakers joined us. We had to put on hard hats, as some of the stairs were very close to stalactites and other rock formations within the cave. The cave was found in the late 20th century and only opened to the public in 2015, so the natural rock formations are still very well preserved. They had added walkways, stairs, and changing-colored lights, and it was absolutely beautiful.