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Advantages: Beautiful Old Town, lots of history, the ice cream Disadvantages: Limited for people with mobility problems, poor service at times
Imagine a place older than Athens, older than Carthage, older than Rome; a place brimming with archaeological and historical treasures but that hardly gets any visitors in comparison with the others. Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second city, is just such a place. In 432 Plovdiv was conquered by Philip of Macedonia and under the Roman Empire it was the capital of Thrace. The legacy of the Romans alone would make Plovdiv stick out as a place of great significance but it doesn't stop there. Old Plovdiv is essentially an open-air museum with over 150 examples of Bulgarian architecture, much of it from the National Revival period. It is especially cheering to hear that the Old Town of Plovdiv is actually a town in its own right with particular emphasis on restoring and preserving notable buildings.
A recent newspaper article gave the impression ...
fizzytom 03.11.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Plovdiv
Advantages: A very spiritual place containing thousands of years of history and rare manuscripts. Disadvantages: Short opening hours. Traders badgering you once you leave.
St. Catherine?s Monastry. Sinai, Eygpt.
St. Catharine?s Monastry is a designated UNESCO site can be found in Sinai Eygpt at the base of Mount Sinai in a tiny little gorge which appears to be in the middle of nowhere. It is reputed to be the oldest working monastery in the world. It is of significant importance not only for Greek Orthodox Christians but also Islam.
It is primarily a Greek Orthodox Christian monastry but within the walls of the monastry there is a mosque for the passing nomadic Bedouins some of whom still live within the walls helping the monks in their day to day lives.
It is here at the base of Mount Sinai that it is supposed to be where God appeared to Moses in the burning bush with the Ten Commandments and the bush is still there today in one of the little alleyways within the monastry walls ...
Advantages: Only 35km north of Bucharest Disadvantages: Not much interest for children
I have visited Romania six times and visited many different places, a very religious country with about 80% of the population Christian Orthodox.
One of my adventures was to the Snagov Monastery on a day trip in the middle of the sweltering summer; Romania can get surprisingly hot at this time of year!
The Journey;
The Monastery is 35km north of Bucharest which took us about 30-45 mins to get there due to the very poor conditions of the roads. Most of the roads on the way to Monastery are asphalt/Tarmac but don't let this fool you into thinking you are in for a leisurely drive! The roads here hardly ever get maintenance because the government auctions the road contracts off to the cheapest bidder, resulting in poorly constructed non resistant roads which inevitably leads to new holes soon reappearing and I mean big holes ...
