Last night's opera was worth doing. The production was lavish - at one point 52 members of the cast were on-stage - all in elaborate costumes, plus a full orchestra. The cast changed costumes several times. Costumes, stage set and lighting were all visually striking. The singing and orchestra seemed (to my amateur ear) excellent. But The Queen of Spades is too melodramatic, and Herman the central character too unsympathetic for my taste. I slipped away in the interval after the 2nd Act (already 9.30pm - with at least 70 minutes more to come . . . .
Rode out of a quiet Sofia at 7am - the suburbs crammed with unattractive middle-rise blocks and, further on, with warehouses & light industry.
Another day of long not-too-steep (5 to 8%) hills. At km 53, I'd intended to turn off the main road to visit Chernogorsky Monastery, but baulked the prospect of 5km uphill a rough track - and continued on to Zemen.
Rural Bulgaria, or at least the parts I've cycle through - are rather depressing. The agriculture is nearly all machine arable. One sees very few farm workers except for a few driving large tractors. The villages seem almost deserted - with many in some cases most in a few cases all the houses dilapidated and abandoned. And just before getting into Zemen - another giant disused building that once housed a factory.
On to my AirBnB lodging - which turned out to be a sparse but clean one-bedrrom flat on the fourth floor of a jerry-built block in some disrepair.
The Church of John the Theologan in Zemen Monastery was a 2km walk further on. Built in the 11thC, the frescoes were painted in the 11th & 14thC. Now only fragments remain - but large worthwhile ones.