Acropolis Museum to Open in Greece This September
Balkan Travellers
The 25,000-sqaure-metre building was designed by Bernard Tschumi, a French-Swiss architect. Located just a couple of hundred metres from the Parthenon, the museum has three levels. The top level, made of glass, contains an area reserved for the Elgin Marbles.
As BalkanTravellers.com reported at the beginning of the month, since the 1980s Greece has continuously argued – to no avail, that the so-called Elgin Marbles currently owned by and displayed at the British Museum in London, should be returned to Greece as their rightful owner.
Before the return of the original marble friezes, media reported, Greece will display some of the marbles that remained in the country alongside plaster copies of those located in London.
The museum was to be completed for the 2004 Olympics in Greece, but according to The New York Times bureaucratic and technical issues delayed its completion.
Epicure
Greece
Octopus's Garden
You can't help being suspicious about the Greeks if you ever see how they treat their octopuses. The scenes of violence you can witness along the 16,000 kilometres of Greek coast are too shocking for people with a humane attitude to the animal world.
Full Story
Curiosity Chest
Greece
Ancient Greece’s Elgin Marbles Stand at the Centre of a 200-Year Long Great Ado
During his term as British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the nineteenth century, Thomas Bruce, Seventh Earl of Elgin, already knew his actions were controversial and that he might go down in history as a “vandal.” But he most likely did not anticipate that, 200 years on, the heated international dispute he caused would continue to rage with full force.
Full Story
-
Photogalleries
-
A Perfect Shot
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
Annoyances in the Balkans
Balkans
Relentless Homophobia Rages in the Balkans
Be IN-tolerant! Be normal!, appeals a poster (pictured above) that recently flooded the streets of the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.
As the first gay pride parade in Bulgaria is about to take place, amid strong opposition by nationalistic organisations and a large part of society, the high levels of persistent homophobia in the country and the Full Story
Insiders' Advice
If the relentless homophobia is already that bad, what's the attitude in general towards HIV/AIDS, given the rather worrying HIV-prevalence in Eastern Europe and Russia?
Full Story
Is it easy to drive in the Balkans? Depends. If you are looking for adrenalin, this is a cheap way to get it. Expats say the best tactics is not to get annoyed.
Full Story
How to pick the right time to go? Winter is beautiful in the high mountains, the problem is, it can be so cold! Then again, who cares how cold it is - the locals have a cheap cure: heavy red wine. Sometimes warmed up.
Full Story
You can't trust local maps. Nor some international travel guides. One of them, for instance, says, that Neretva River in Bosnia and Herzegovina flows FROM the Adriatic towards the inland of the Balkans, never reaching the sea. OK, how about the Neretva delta and channel in Croatia?
Full Story
The Big Book of Travelling
United States
The Rise of Burlesque in New York: Tassels and the City
Burlesque – the more audacious relative of commedia dell'arte, is in revival. A reality in “upside down style”, this creative, witty and softer version of striptease is back on stage, following an absence of nearly 80 years. In New York, Anjeza Bojku scoped out several burlesqee venues for BalkanTravellers.com. Full Story
Thailand
A Short Guide to the Peculiarities of Thai Food
Travel News
10 October 2008 | The visa requirement for Greek citizens going to the US will not be dropped, Greek media reported today.
Full Story
