Hello everyone. I would like to share with you the Seven Rila Lakes region that we visited last fall. We set off to visit the nearby lakes. This place is quite popular and is located in the northwestern part of the Rila mountains in Bulgaria. The parking lot was quite crowded. However if you can leave the car 15 meters away, you can save some money. We got our tickets. It’s important to keep in mind that this place operates until 4:30 PM and it takes about an hour and a half to walk up. When we arrived it was around 3:00 PM. Therefore we realized that we wouldn’t make it back to the cable car in time.
The lakes here are located at an altitude of 2.100 meters above sea level for the lower lakes and 2.500 meters for the upper lakes. Each lake has a unique name that highlights its distinctive feature. For example, the highest altitude lake is called Salzata, meaning "tear" named for its clear waters. There are also lakes named after an eye, a clover and a fish. Bliznaka, meaning "the twins" is the largest lake. The lowest lake in terms of altitude is Dolnoto, which means the lower lakes. It collects water from the other lakes and forms a river.
We arrived at the official viewing platform of Dolnoto Lake. The view was stunning. From a distance I thought the blue part was the lake, but it was actually a mountain reflection and the lake was much larger. Btw I had read that there are sometimes fish in the lakes, but they are generally desolate due to the temperature. Therefore the lake waters should be the cleanest. We noticed another lake, named Fish Lake, probably indicating that there are fish here. It seems to me that they are named according to their shapes, as there is a lake resembling a kidney, called Kidney lake. Maybe this one looks like a fish, we thought.
We stopped at a certain point because the sun was setting. The temperature wasn’t very high. There is a wooden bridge here, probably built because everything overflows when the water rises.
The lakes are of course, magnificent, but we remembered that we hadn’t bought tickets for the return cable car. So, after admiring the beauty, we had a steep two-hour descent over large rocks ahead of us. We went down in the dark.
The hotel's spa center was a great relief after such intense exercise. There was snow here because people were doing snow baths and other activities. There was also a Finnish sauna with very hot, 5% humidity. It was a hot and dry environment.
Then we went for a massage, but it wasn’t a human massage; it was an atomic massage. You can relax with an amazing control panel, adjusting to the position you prefer.
There is a station here where you can squeeze your own fruit juices, making orange and grapefruit juice. Various tea options are also available and you can brew the tea directly in a teapot instead of using tea bags. There is also a very cute cat at the hotel that loves to come inside. If you want to have alcohol for breakfast, there are wine options available. We prepared orange and grapefruit juice.
We had a lot of delicious things and I was especially impressed by the bread. It looked like a type of cake. I particularly love honeycomb honey. There were also various croissants and sweets. And we got classic-style eggs from the egg station.
We had a wonderful weekend getaway. If you happen to be in the area, I recommend visiting the Seven Rila Lakes.