Macedonia: Grounded Ships Deal Blow to Tourism in Ohrid
BalkanTravellers.com
According to the Macedonian newspaper Spic, this year’s tourist season in Ohrid will be remembered badly – with poor weather, few tourists and now, the recent ban on ships from sailing in the lake.
As BalkanTravellers.com reported earlier this month, tourist boats were anchored in the city’s harbour, when the Ministry of Transport forbade them to sail until they undergo technical inspection and renew their registration.
All vessels have to renew their registrations with the newly selected French company Bureau Veritas, after Macedonia suspended its contracted with the Lloyd company, whose representative is indicted over the sinking of the tour boat Ilinden in the beginning of September 2009, when 15 Bulgarian tourists drowned.
In response, Ohrid’s ship owners – through respecting the ban, are challenging the high price of renewing their registration.
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Recycled Life: Bottle Collectors in Skopje, Macedonia
Like quicksand, poverty is hard to escape - the harder you fight, the worse it can get. In Skopje, some work hard scouring the city for "treasures." They are bottle collectors, spending the day in search of recyclable plastic which they can sell for a subsistence income.
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Useful Reads
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Through Another Europe (2009) | Edited by Andrew Hammond
When Henry Blount journeyed through Bosnia in the 1630s, two things struck him: the purity of the water and the great height of the Bosnians, which, he noted, “made me suppose them the offspring of those old Germans noted by Tacitus and Caesar for their huge size.”
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Music
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Macedonia: Esma Redžepova's Passion for Humanity
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Photogalleries
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A Perfect Shot
Koprivshtitsa Fair, Bulgara. Photographs by Neva Micheva
In Homo Urbanus Europeanus, exhibited May 9-24 in front of the National Theatre in Sofia, Jean-Marc Caracci presents his photographs of people in the urban environment of European capitals.
RED&WHITE SOFIA. On the 1st of March Bulgarians say goodbye to the winter. They buy each other red&white threads to carry around until they see a stork and spring can begin. Photography by Lode Desmet
BULGARIA D'OR: The Bulgarian countryside, patinated with the noble golden dust of the autumn. Photographs by Lode Desmet
360 degrees Bulgaria, an exhibition by photographer Alexandar Ivanov, is on display at the Sea Garden in Varna until August 28. It will be shown at Plovdiv’s Central Square from Sept 5.
The exhibition Photographs of a Trip Through Bulgaria by Hungarian photographer András Balla can be seen in Sofia's Hungarian Cultural Institute, at Aksakov 16 Street, until August 22
Instant Spring in Sofia | Photographs by Lode Desmet
Off-the-season Beauty of Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast | Photographs by Adelina Iliev
Bulgaria's Northern Black Sea Coast
Photographs by Albena Shkodrova
excellent smugs
