Iztochni Rodopi Things to Do

A natural phenomenon , result to the geological past of the region.The Mountains were believed to be an ocean ground once.
The legend about the "stone wedding "says that the gods petrified the bride, the groom and the whole wedding procession, because of the groom father's sin , who fell in love with the bride and wished to have her for himself.
What I find amazing is that all the surrounding stones are white,and only the bride and the groom are in a soft pink tone.

http://moiteplanini.com/legends/legenda_za_kyrdjaliiskite_piramidi.html

"Според легендата левент момък от Зимзелен залюбил девойка от съседното село. Прекрасните и очи, сини като небето, го преследвали навсякъде. Той искал да си представи лицето и, но според тогавашните обичаи девойките били забулени, само очите им се виждали. Залинял от мъка момъкът. Старият му баща отишъл при родителите на девойката и успял да я откупи. Вдигнали тежка сватба и тържествено тръгнали към Зимзелен. Изведнъж духнал силен вятър и отвял булото на младоженката. Всички занемели пред ненагледната и хубост. Свекърът неволно завидял на сина си и тутакси всички се вкаменили. Само младоженецът останал жив. Заплакал той с горчиви сълзи и помолил вятъра да вкамени и него. Вятърът изпълнил молбата му. Вкаменените сватбари и до днес стоят до една локва - незасъхналите сълзи на злочестия младоженец."

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What I found on top of the hill was enormous....Not a temple, but a whole city....
here's what you can read on the sign at the bottom of the hill at the start of the trail leading you to Perperikon -"Traveler from distant lands, Welcome to Perperikon!
Once upon a time here was the temple of Dionissius, that was not less famous than the temple of Apollo in Delphi. Here Alexander the Great knew that he will conquer the world, and it was taught to the romans that they will become an empire.
Bow your head before the memory of the people, that have inhabited 8000 years ago the hill in front of you."....
It's always great to be the only visitor of such a site. Even the sun looked through the clouds , jumping from stone to stone with its playful rays ...
Visit the official Perperikon site and choose the flash version for a mystic trip in our ancient lands , mythology and history and music.

"Po Jitsata" - Jordan Yovkov. My mind makes sometimes the most unexpected associations , go figure where he comes up with all this...
But this is one of the most famous books from the Bulgarian Revival period writer Jordan Yovkov.

After filling myself with impressions and energy from Perperikon I jumped on my bike and headed on the road with my thoughts as company.....Even tho I was on my own there were always people from the group that you will catch up, or others that will pass by arriving from the back.So you are actually never alone.
You can see here the Village sign on both languages , very useful indeed

This strange mosque was in the village of Kanjak and it's a Tin box with a cone roof and a loudspeaker. A ladder takes the Hodja to the top.
It reminds me of a bird's house somehow...
Population in the Rhodopa Mountains is muslim. That's why you will see a mosque , sometimes two in every village. The bulgarian book of history says that these Bulgarian people were forced under Turkish Occupation times to convert to Islam under threat of being murdered if refused. Alot of bulgarians and their families were assasinated for not accepting to change their religion.

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There you go , my weird mind popped with this association of a petrified city, inhabited by strange stone creatures.....
There were stone arches, stone houses, stone streets,stone mushrooms with mysterious niches....everything you need for a city of the Flinstones....hahahhahaha
There is a hypothesis that this was once a sea port....

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I left the campsite before everyone, because I didn't want to be the last one like yesrurday.
Following the instructions I passed through the village and some abandonned house in the way to the valley and it's where I got lost... I took the right trail instead of the left one and after awhile I realised I was going back to the village. So I followed my steps to the crossing point and took the left trail this time...

The entrance of the cave was nothing I had expected. You need to climb in a crack and hang on a tree ,some 2-3 meters above the ground in order to enter the cave, plus there are no signs to direct your way....If I wasn't with people that knew where they were going, I would walk by without notice it.
hehehehe...cool socks I have ,what do u say?