Two weeks ago we went to Rila monastery in Bulgaria, which was founded in the 10th century. It was really big and inside they had real gold and silver covering the chandeliers and some of the walls. It had lots of icons too.

Icons are pictures of people in the Bible and holy people of the church.

picture from: http://sevdelin.snimka.bg/mountain/sveti-ivan-rilski-pokrovitel-na-b-lgarskiya-narod.159908.3621427

We also went to a cave that John of Rila lived in, because he was a hermit. This was on a mountain and the cave was really dark and tight, but I managed to get through the hole. There was a pretty good view toward the lower mountains.

At the end of that week we went to a cave called the Devil's throat. On the way there the road was very narrow and were humongous cliffs. In the Devil's throat was a big waterfall, the biggest underground waterfall in the Balkans. Two divers exploring the waterfall somehow died. There were bats in the cave. Also climbing up took awhile, because there was two-hundred and eighty steps. At the top there was a good view down toward the cave.