Tuesday, May 08, 2012

The final Rila-ing

We went to Rila Monastery again.  Most likely for our last time... sigh... It's honestly one of our favorite places to go here, and we've been quite a few times.  Only 2 hours away... free... AWESOME frescoes and colors... beautiful mountain and nearby hike... fun and historic cave that Saint Ivan lived in to squish ourselves through... yummy honey to buy along the road... Anyway, we'll miss it.
This was actually in April, and I'm sure the mountain behind the monastery would be a lot greener now. It's lovely out!  
We got the trademark Rila Monastery doughnuts before we went in.  They were out of water buffalo yogurt (again).  The sheep yogurt is not as tasty.  I was trying to take a pic of the rascals on this wobby bench, and said, "Bran, don't let Maeve fall off!"  She latched on to that, and in this shot is saying, with great accusation in her voice, "Bran!! NOT let me fall off!"
She did not fall off, luckily for Bran. I'm pretty sure he would have been in big trouble with her had he "allowed" that to happen.
Until now, none of the three have ever been perturbed by the somewhat graphic depictions of souls being led away down to hell...  Finally, one of them showed a little bit of feeling! Maeve seemed slightly uncomfortable by the little demons sticking pitchforks in these poor guys' backs. Then she moved on.  Petted a cat... drank some water from the ladle that everyone else uses at the fountains... stuff like that...
Here is one of the fountains.  First she threw a mini-fit about the coins in there. She really wanted to fish out some stotinki...
Had to make do with water, poor child.
Here she is playing an awkward game of peek-a-boo with some fellow.  I don't know. Maybe neither he nor Zac found it awkward.  If I happened to catch the attention of a small child whose head then kept popping out from some stranger's backside to grin at me, I'd feel kinda weird.  Maybe that's just me.
Sittin' on the little chairs that line the outside of the monastery.  I need to lower my picture-taking expectations.  I had the cutest shot in mind, but after about 27 where one or two of the three kept NOT doing what I asked, I gave up. They're still cute. I'll keep 'em!
Maeve's  chomping a big ol' piece of Nuala gum here.  Nuala is big-time into gum.  Maeve is following in her sister's footsteps.  (In more ways than one, but this is not a post about whining.)
Bran found, and then stashed to pick up on our way back out, this huge stick on our way into the monastery.  You see, it has a little thick twig protruding from it that makes it very machine gun-like. 
It came home with us.  So did a few others.
My big, wonderful five-year olds! Also, they are exactly the same height.  Nuala tends to lean into her bro for these pics.   I can't believe the first time we came here, they were only 2-1/2. Well, okay... 2.75.  Man, time flies.   
Oh, oh, oh!! I almost forgot, and this is totally worth NOT forgetting. On the way back to the car, a teeny tiny yapper dog came running out of SOMEWHERE and totally surprised Nuala, who began screaming at the top of her lungs and took off running like a madwoman, the dog a-yappin' and a-nippin' at her heels.  Everyone in the vicinity just stopped and stared. The dog was tiny.  The girl was crazy.  Poor Nuala. It was hilarious.  We calmed her down and showed her how he was just playing, doing that, but he never did win her trust.  You had to be there. It was so funny. She is a LOUD screamer when she's playing, but add in some sheer terror for her life and, wow! Good times.

7 comments:

Bonnie said...

Oh, I'm so sad for you. I hate change. But it's good too. I was looking at this post with my kids and Michael was asking all sorts of questions about your kids, and I was telling him how he is the same age as Nuala and Bran and that Maeve is the same age as Matthew and Leah, and he asked if we could see them sometime. I sure hope so! Wouldn't that be fun?! So sad we've never been able to get our kids together. Sigh. Someday, right? After Japan aim somewhere closer, like Arizona. ;>)

Tara said...

Hehehe about poor Nuala and the dog, it sounds totally hilarious. I love the pic of Maeve giving out the Bran to not let her fall, she's so funny. I'm sad y'all are leaving Bulgaria soon, it's so fun to hear/see all about it in your blog posts. I suppose Japan will be just as interesting...

David said...

Great post. Love the one where Maeve is ensuring Bran heard what you told him! The peek-a-boo picture is great. Mom said she really enjoyed visiting Rila. Would have loved to seen a video of the dog attack!
Love, Mom and Dadxoxoxoxoxo

Megan and Greg said...

Greg and I just drool over Maeve everytime you post.

Grandma said...

LOL the dog and Nuala! I can picture it completely! Oh that was one of my favorites spots too. It is so amazing inside with all the pictures. I'm with Mauve the pitch forks stabbed into people is disturbing. I am sad I don;t get to come one last time. Bulgaria has been a great experience for me.

Ben said...

I love this place. I'll have to post my video of it sometime. Man I'm a slacker...

The Solley Six said...

Reading your blog is so funny- we have the SAME blog. I have the same picture of us in front of the blue mosque, and the kids sitting in the wooden seats at Rila and peeking through at one another...and us in front of old doors and graffiti and hikes.
Too funny! Things will look different when you're in okinawa and I'm in costa rica, but not really because you'll be on the same roller slides that we were!!