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No Longer Impartial

I have scarcely more than begun the investigation, and the frame of mind I had resolved to maintain at any hazard has already passed away. I fear I am no longer impartial, and I certainly am no longer cool. There are certain things that cannot be investigated in a judicial frame of mind.

There are facts which when perceived send the blood through the veins with an angry rush, and cause the muscles to contract in sudden anger. There are things too horrible to allow anything like calm inquiry ; things, the vileness of which the eye refuses to look upon, and which the mind refuses to contemplate. There are facts which repel and revolt; facts which, when you go about among them, fly in your face. Such is the nature of the facts I came to investigate. I have already investigated enough to feel convinced that, except from a purely statistical point of view, further investigation would be unnecessary City Tours Istanbul.

Atrocities admitted

Mr. Baring and Mr. Schuyler will probably give us enough statistics, and I shall be ready to accept their figures. The atrocities admitted on all hands by those friendly to the Turks, and by the Turks themselves, are enough, and more than enough. I do not care to go on heaping up the mournful count. When you are met in the outset of your investigation with the admission that 60 or 70 villages have been burned, that some 15,000 people have been slaughtered, of whom a large part were women and children, you begin to feel that it is useless to go any further.

When, in addition to this, you have the horrid details of the vilest outrages committed upon women; the hacking to pieces of helpless children and spitting them upon bayonets; and when you have these details repeated you by the hundred, not by Bulgarians, but by the different consuls at Philippopolis and the German officials on the railway, as well as Greeks, Armenians, priests, missionaries, and even Turks themselves, you begin to feel that any further investigation is superfluous.

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Partly by persuasion

Urged partly by threats, partly by persuasion, and perhaps in the generous hope that the revolt might after all be successful, she finally consented ; and it is sad to think that her skill in needlework, that most womanly of accomplishments, should have been the cause of so fearful a misfortune to her. In order to not compromise her father and mother, however, she decided to do the work in the house of one of the insurgents.

A vain precaution. It did not prevent her father from being slaughtered, with hundreds of others, in the church where he was officiating. We have seen the flag as it fell into the hands of the Turks, and is now used in evidence on the trials that are going on here. The poor rag, bespattered and torn, was prettily worked with a naive design showing a huge yellow lion, with his paw on a crescent, with which he seemed greatly displeased, and the inscription, “ Liberty or death,” in Bulgarian.

Servia had not declared war

By the first of May, the day fixed upon for the rising to take place, the banner was ready. But Servia had not declared war, and they had received almost certain information that they were betrayed to the Turkish authorities. They determined to go on, as they considered it now too late either to abandon the attempt or to postpone it Private Turkey Tours.

So having taken their arms, they formed in a body and marched to the church, sent for two priests, one of whom was Baikal father, declared their intention of rising, and asked them to bless the undertaking. This the priests did. Although several priests were killed at the time of the massacres, and several more hanged afterwards, it does not appear that any priest took a more active part in the insurrection than that of giving his blessing in one or two instances to the insurgents.

Having obtained the blessing of the Church, the insurgents next called for Raika, and informed her that as she had made the flag she must carry it through the village at the head of a procession. She refused; but they seized her, put her upon a horse, put the flag in her hand, and marched through the streets shouting and singing in the most approved French manner. Having thus declared war, they proceeded to act.

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Transition to Christianity and the Cyrillic alphabet

By the middle of the 9lh century Christianity was already wide-spread in the old continent. The Roman Curia and the Constantinople Patriarchate – representing Catholicism and Orthodoxy – were running a struggle for influence in the European South-East. Realising that the imposition of Christianity as an official religion will help to be surmounted the linguistic, cultural and religious differences between Slavs and Proto-Bulgarians Presiyan’s son Khan Boris I (852-889) made steps in that direction. In 853 Bulgaria – in alliance with France and Great Moravia – fought against the German King

dom and Croatia. Ten years later – this time in alliance with the Germans – the Bulgarians were fighting Great Moravia. Bui Byzantium took side in favour of the latter and its army invaded Bulgaria Tour Packages Bulgaria. The defeat forced Boris 1 to break the promise he had made to the German king to adopt Christianity from the Roman Church and after signing in 863 a peace treaty with the Byzantine Emperor Michail III he was compelled to receive the Christian religion from the Church in Constantinople.

Prince as the Emperor

In 864 the Khan was converted to Christianity and assumed the title Prince as the Emperor became his godfather. But it had to be done secretly to avoid the reaction of the pagan aristocracy. However a mass rebellion followed and Boris had to suppress the resistance by slaughtering a consid-erable part of his nobles along with all their clans. A Byzantine ecclesiastical mission was settled in Bulgaria and it ordained the first archbishop of the newly converted Bulgarian people – Josef. In 865 Christianity was declared the state religion.

By the same time in an aristocratic family in Thessaloniki were bom two brothers: Cyril and Methodius. The elder one, Methodius, became governor of a Slavic region, while Cyril chose the fate of a scholar and after graduating the famous Magnaur School in Constantinople under the name Constantine the Philosopher he was appointed as court librarian. In fact, Cyril was his adopted byname when he became a bishop. Later the brothers received an assignment from the Byzantine emperor for which they joined and retired to a monastery.

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Sultan Muhammad V

The Sultan. — The present Sultan, H. I. M. Sultan Muhammad V., thirty-fifth Ottoman Sultan since the foundation of the Turkish Dynasty, and twenty-fifth of his line since the taking of Constantinople, was horn on the 3rd November 1844, and ascended the throne on the 28th April 1909. He is of a generous and very kindly disposition; he is the first real constitutional Sultan Turkey ever had, and is extremely popular among the people. Before he ascended the throne he was confined by his elder brother Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid Khan II. in the small low building which adjoins his present residence, the Volmah Baghcheh Palace.

People.—The population of Constantinople is a mixed one, composed chiefly of Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Levantines, as the half-breed descendants of Europeans are styled, and Jews.

The Turks, as their name implies, were originally of Turkoman descent; the race, however, is at present a very mixed one, owing to the continual introduction, through intermarriage, of the Arab and Circassian elements.

God will provide

The average Turk is of medium stature, with dark hair and an aquiline nose, and is noted for his punctilious politeness and hospitality, which latter he inherits from his nomadic ancestors, and for his indolence and apathy. This latter quality often stands him in good stead in the event of disaster or misfortune, which, like good fortune, he attributes to the will of God, or more often to Kismet (fate); he is in fact nothing if not a fatalist, and the Kismet of the Turk has become even more proverbial than his politeness and hospitality. This apathy, for it cannot be dignified by the name of stoicism, may be accountable for the comparative absence of suicide among the Turks, who console themselves for the greatest losses or mishaps, private or national, by piously ejaculating Kismet dir (‘ it is fate ’) guided istanbul tours, or Allah kerim (‘ God will provide ’). The Turk is extremely simple in his habits, frugal and sober, and on the whole may be said to be good- natured, easy-going, fairly truthful, and charitable; but is, on the other hand, extremely superstitious, and utterly destitute of any but the crudest artistic taste, and of any liking for the fine arts.

Even in his pleasures and pastimes his indolence and apathy assert themselves. His games are all of a sedentary nature, and he will sit for hours over a succession of games of backgammon. He never dances, all his appreciation of the Terpsichorean art being confined to viewing from his cushioned divan, through the fragrant mediums of coffee and cigarettes, the lascivious posturings and contortions of gipsy girls, performed to the accompaniment of monotonous, dirge-like strains.

The Turk’s favourite pastime is what he calls Keyeffy which is somewhat akin to the dolce far niente or sweet idleness of the Italian. This ‘ enjoyment ’ is attainable by repairing to some picturesque spot, and sitting for hours in listless, thoughtless, vacant contemplation, over the soothing coffee and cigarette. This is kcyeff downright, pure, unadulterated keyejf or whatever one likes to call it, for the word baffles all translation.

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Nikita Odrinchanin

The Metropolitan Church was completed in 1856. Four years later the narthex was frescoed with scenes from the Old Testament by icon-painter Nikita Odrinchanin. Before the old church was pulled down its well-preserved, valuable and magnificently carved iconostasis was taken to pieces and put together again in the new building. It is executed in walnut by the renowned masters Kosta Kotsi and Kosta Pasiko from Metsovo.They worked for eight years to create a remarkable piece of art in the style and the spirit of the highest achievements in woodcarving in the National Revival. A big part of the old icons painted in the 40s of the 19th c. by the famous icon-painter Nikola Odrinchanin has also been preserved.

In 1860 the icons of Jesus Christ and the Holy Virgin by the prominent Revival artist Stanislav Dospevski were added to both sides of the king’s gates of the iconostasis. An imposing architectural ensemble surrounds the Metropolitan Church. A five-storey bell tower, not quite in the style of local tradition, rises over the northern gate in the wall. It was entirely built of wood in 1870 and is 17m high. Adjacent to the tower is the old Metropolitan library travel bulgaria. A fine marble fountain stands in the courtyard. East of the church is the building of the Plovdiv Orthodox Diocese erected in the 80s of the 19th century.

THE HOLY VIRGIN CATHEDRAL

A church dedicated to the Assumption has existed in Plovdiv in the course of centuries. On the site of the present Orthodox cathedral there was a mediaeval church in the 9th – 10th c. It was renovated to become the town’s cathedral in 1189, in the the time of Bishop Konstantin Pantehni. A monastery was founded next to the cathedral, which in 1371 was demolished by the Osmanli Turks after the conquest of the town.

By the Revival the mediaeval church had become rather decrepit and too small for the numerous parishioners. In 1844 it was demolished and builders from Bratsigovo erected an imposing three-aisle pseudo-basilica in its place. The names of the original donors are known, they were the brothers Vulko and Stoyan Teodorovitch Chalukovi, tax-collectors from Ko- privshtitsa who settled in Plovdiv at the beginning of the 19th c. The brothers were champions of the awakening of the Bulgarian national consciousness and of the construction of churches.

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Batak people

16 km southwest of Peshtera is another village — Batak (pop. 6,500), among oak and beech forests. During the Apnl uprising 1876 Batak people fought and finally had to surrender. Wholesale massacre followed. Over 5,000 men,women, old people and children were killed. The stone church of St. Nede- lya still has blood on its walls.

During the 2nd World War the Batak partisan detachment laid the beginnings of the legendary Anton Ivanov brigade. South of Batak, in the bosom of the mountain, dug-outs used by partisans can still be seen.

The region around the Batak dam is a mountain resort with rest houses, children’s camps and a tourist compound of the Orbita Bureau for Youth excursions.

A detour to the north of Pazardjik leads to Panagyurishte (pop. 22,000) in the Sredna Gora mountain. This town also played an important role in the April 1876 Uprising. Toutev House private tours istanbul, where the April uprising was declared is worth a visit, also Raina Knyaginya Museum, Prof Marin Drinov’s house, the Cherry-Tree Cannon monument, Lekov House, Kamenski House and the April Uprising Memorial. Thracian treasure from the 3rd century B.C. was found near the town. It is also known as the Panagy urishte gold treasure and a copy of it is kept in the Archaeology Museum in Plovdiv.

Hotels: Kamengrad, 2 stars, 4 floors, 117 beds, restaurant, night club, national tavema, Tel. 26-84, 28-77; Obori- shte, one star, accommodating 107.

Ten kilometres from Panagyurishte in the Sredna Gora mountain is the Oborishte Wood. In 1876 the First Bulgarian Grand National Assembly was held here where the decision to rise against Turks was taken. Annual celebrations are held on May 2 and 3 to commemorate the April Uprising.

Panagyurishte

The April 1876 Uprising Memorial

Along the E-80, 9 km before Plovdiv, is Maritsa tourist Compound with a motel, a restaurant, camping site, swimming pool and pavilions selling food and drinks.

‘Philippopolis is the largest and most beautiful town in the Thracian lowlands. Its beauty shines bright and a great river flows near. This is the River Hebur and the town is the work of the famous Phillip, — so the Roman writer Lucian described Plovdiv.

Plovdiv (pop. 350,000) is Bulgaria’s second largest city, si-tuated in the centre of the Upper Thracian lowlands on six hills on the River Maritsa. f ounded more than 8,000 years ago, Plovdiv has witnessed many invasions. At the end of the second millennium B.C. it was called Eumolpias, the Thracians

renamed it Poulpoudeva, while in 342 B.C. Phillip II of Macedonia seized it and called it Philippopolis. In Roman times the town was named Trimontium — the town of the three hills. I he Slavs in their turn named it Puldin. The town was incorporated into the First Bulgarian State in 815, and in 1364 it was seized by the Ottomans who called in Filibe.

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Pirgova Tower

Tourist attractions: the Pirgova Tower {15th century), the Church of St, George (12th-13th centuries). On the Hissarluk hill above the town are the rums of the majestic Asclepion and a Middle Age fortress. There is also the Vladimir Dimitrov Art Gallery with paintings by the artist, as well as works of other local artists. Hotels: Velbuzhd (three star) with 59 single rooms, 97 double rooms and 10 suites, bar, night club, banqueting hall, panoramic coffee shop, conference room and a billiards room; Pautalia — (two star) with 8 single rooms, 48 double rooms and 4 suites; Hissarluka — (one star), with 8 double rooms and one suite.

Of particular interest are the murals at Zemen Monastery, 25 km from Kyustendil. Outstanding among the frescoes are portraits of Deyan, a feudal ruler of Kyustendil and his wife Doya, the founder of the monastery. The monastery can be reached by train from Sofia or Kyustendil, or by car.

The Ethnographic Museum contains dresses, fabrics, finery and handicraft from the 19th and early 20th century.

The District History Museum was founded in 1897 and has five sections: archaeology — housed in the Ahmed-Bei mosque; National Revival Period and National Liberation Struggles — in the house of Voivode Dyado Ilyo; Ethnography and the History of Capitalism and Revolutionary Working- (lass Movement — in the Maiorova House ! he Major’s House), and Socialist Construction — in the Emfidjiev House — headquarters of the Russian troops during the 1877-1878 Russo- Turkish War of liberation.

Stanke Dimitrov

Return to the E-79 highway and continue south of Stanke Dimitrov. A road branches off to the left leading to Rila and Rila Monastery — the most important architectural and historical monument in Bulgaria from the Bulgarian National Revival- period founded by the hermit Ivan of Rila in the 10 th century. Tucked away in the mountains, away from major roads, the monastery enjoyed the rights of the Charter granted by Bulgarian kings and observed by the sultans. Towards the end of the 18th century the marauding Kurdjali bands destroyed the monastery. It was completely restored in the first half of the 19th century. Situated at an altitude of 1,147 metres, it occupies an area of 32 000 sq m and is surrounded by stone walls around two metres thick and 24 metres tall.

Hrelyo Tower, built in 1335, is the oldest suriving structure tours sofia. On the top floor is the small Chapel of the Transfiguration with 14th century mural paintings. The main church rises in the centre of the enclosure and has decoration executed by wood-carvers from the Samokov, Debur and Razlog schools. The murals are the work of Samokov, Bansko and Razlog painters and by Zahari Zograph.

Of particular note are the guest rooms of the monastery which were furnished by other towns and therefore bear iheir names: The Koprivshtitsa Room, The Pazardjik Room, The Samokov Room, The Sofia Room, etc. The Refectory is a rare piece of architecture — note the large fire place, fine arcades and vaults. The monastery library contains over 20,000 books, a large number of manuscripts, old incunabula and beautifully bound books of Gospel. The museum also holds old parchments, icons, Herelyo’s throne and the original door of the church — the work of 14th century wood-carvers. Of special interest is the miniature cross made by the monk Raphael who worked on it for 12 years. Unfortunately the work has cost him his eye sight. IV has 140 biblical scenes with more than 1,500 human figures, no bigger than a grain of rice, sculptured by a needle. In the ethnographic section of the Museum are various objects and costumes, mainly offerings by pilgrims from all over the Balkan peninsula.

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Djezhovi Lozya

Besides pottery, the inhabitants of the Slav settlement at Djezhovi Lozya were acquainted with a number of other crafts. From the ore found in the marshes they obtained iron and forged different tools: iron knives, sickles, hangers and so on. Agriculture was one of the main occupations of the inhabitants. The numerous bones of animals clearly indicate that stockbreeding was also well developed. Finally, the nearness of the Danube and the marshes around it, provided opportunities for the development of fishing, as is evidenced by the weights for fishing nets found here, together with iron fishhooks and plentiful finds of fishbones.

To supplement the distincitve features of the oldest Slav culture found in the Bulgarian lands, certain of the materials discovered in the old Slav necropolis at the village of Boukyovtsi near Oryahovo, S km. south of the Danube, should be mentioned; several clay urns were found here, the forms and ornaments of which are characteristic of 8th century Slav ceramics.

They served for burials and that is why broken and burnt human bones were found in them together with bronze ear-rings and glass beads. Individual skeletons were found together with these burial urns, which shows that the Slavs were accustomed to both these burial rituals: cremation of the body and burial of the body. The glass beads found here are of particular interest private tour istanbul, as they show a great variety of form and colour, and are in most cases multicoloured. Strung on a string like necklaces, they served as effective decoration for the costume worn by Slav women.

Razdelna station

Another necropolis, discovered 2 km. to the east of Razdelna station, Varna district, also dates back to the 8th century. Here burials were mostly done by cremation, the bones and any remnants of the dead person’s clothing being placed as a rule in the urns, and very rarely in the graves. The urns were mostly buried straight in the ground. There were cases, however, in which they were placed in a burial pit faced with square bricks or river stones, just big enough to hold the urns.

The latter were thrown on potters’ wheels and vary considerably in size and form. According to ornamentation, they fall into two groups — the one belonging to the Slav type of ceramics, the other, distinguished by its ornamentation, consisting of polished bands, which is ascribed to the proto-Bulgarians. No definite answer can be given to the question whether this necropolis is a mechanical mixture of Slav and proto-Bulgarian burials, or actually reflects the intermingling of the two cultures in the process of the creation of a united Slav-Bulgarian people.

The Slavs and proto-Bulgarians brought a culture of their own, but they also found the rich heritage of antiquity, which they not only preserved but utilized creatively in further developing their own culture. To this day the ruins of the proto-Bulgarian capitals of Pliska and Preslav are undoubted proof of the high level of culture attained by the Bulgarian state in the 9th and 10th centuries.

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VISAS AND PASSPORTS

Transit passengers through the territory of Bulgaria, who are citizens of countries with which the People’s Republic of Bulgaria has not concluded agreements for visa-free travel should have a transit visa. If they wish to remain in Bulgaria for more than 48 hours right here, at the frontier point

CUSTOMS FORMALITIES

Customs formalities have been cut down to a minimum to facilitate the travel of tourists. Duty-free are all personal effects, foodstuffs, drinks and tobacco which the traveller will need during his trip. Objects for personal use but of greater value, such as boats for water sports, caravans, tents, tape-fecorders, transistor radios, photo and film cameras, sporting guns, motorcycles, etc., are free of import duty, but are treated as temporarily imported and the visitor must take them with him when he leaves. Foreign tourists can also export duty-free objects purchased in the country to a total value of 50 leva. Objects of local origin, purchased with regularly exchanged foreign currency, may be exported duty-free even when their value exceeds 50 leva, provided they are not intended for commerce. Travellers can also export foqdstuffs, necessary for the personal needs of the traveller during his trip, as well as 1 litre of bottled spirits private tours bulgaria, 2 litres of wine, 250 cigarettes or 250 g of tobacco.

CURRENCY EXCHANGE

The import of foreign currency is free and unrestricted. No declaration is needed for its import and export. In Bulgaria foreign currency can be exchanged freely and without restrictions at the tourist, information and exchange bureaux of Balkantourist in the larger hotels and restaurants, as well as at the exchange bureaux of the Bulgarian National Bank at rates fixed by the Bulgarian National Bank. Unexchanged foreign currency may be exported freely.

Currency Rates

100 Austrian schillings leva 5,27

1 English pound sterling leva 1,75

100 Belgian francs leva 2,47

100 marks GDR leva 27,50

100 marks GFR leva 37,70

100 Danish kronen leva 15,96

100 Spanish pesetas leva 1,43

1,000 Italian lire leva 1,14

1 Canadian dollar leva 0,98

100 Polish zloti leva 4,56

100 Romanian lei leva 9,40

1 Soviet rouble leva 0,88

100 French francs leva 20,62

100 Hungarian forints leva 5,96

100 Dutch florins leva 35,62

100 Czech kronen leva 8,80

100 Swedish kronen leva 21,92

100 Swiss francs leva 38,76

1 US dollar leva 0 96

100 Yugoslav dinars leva 5,13

BULGARIAN MONEY

The basic monetary unit in Bulgaria is the lev, which consists of 100 stotinki. In circulation are banknotes of 1,2, 5, 10 and 20 leva as well as coins of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 stotinki and of 1 and 2 leva. The import and export of Bulgarian money is forbidden. Bulgarian money obtained through the exchange of foreign currency can be spent only in the country. Bulgarian money, obtained in this way and not spent in the country can be re-exchanged and the original currency exported. In this case it is necessary to present the slip certifying the origin of the Bulgarian money at the frontier check point.

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ZLATNI PYASSATSI

One of the first resort complexes built on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, it is situated 17 km north of Varna to which it is connected by a modern motorway (part of the E-95 International Highway leading from Romania to Turkey). The name of the resort was given it by its beach – an almost 4 km long strip of sand over 100 metres wide. It lies on the same latitude as the well-known French and Italian Mediterranean resorts. Its climate is mild and warm. The mean temperature in July is 22°C, and the temperature of the water from June to September never falls below 20°C.

At the complex there are more than 80 modern hotels with 20,0 beds, 500 bungalows and two well-shaded camp sites with accommodation for. about 1,800. The builders of the complex have successfully combined the mainly two-storeyed hotels of the first construction stage with the multi-storeyed modern buildings of the last few years, which have interesting architectural features: exquisite winding staircases, ceramic decorations, wood carvings and hammered metal. And all this with due account taken of the requirements for much space, air, sun and comfort.

In the centre of the resort is the administrative building of Balkantourist. There is a barber’s and hairdresser’s shop here, and some one hundred metres west of Diana Hotel and the Vodenitsata (The Mill) Restaurant is the health clinic of the resort – an excellently equipped polyclinic with a dentist’s department and specialized medical laboratories. Whenever necessary a doctor from the polyclinic gives medical assistance in the hotel rooms – for which you only need telephone guided tour ephesus6-53-52, 6-56-86 and 6-56-87. Medical care is free of charge. Only the medicines are paid for, which can be bought at the dispensing chemist’s of the polyclinic (tel. 6-56-89) or at the chemist’s shop north of the Stariya Dub (Old Oak) Restaurant.

There are volleyball and tennis courts, mini-golf links and croquet pitches in front of the hotels Morsko Oko, Lilia, Rodina and Tintyava. Open every day. Tel. 6-52-54. In front of Lilia Hotel there is a swimming pool for children, and at International Hotel there is an indoor swimming pool with warm mineral water all year round. Lovers of riding will find horses, riding outfits for hire and the services of an instructor (every day from 9.0 to 12.00 a.m. and from 3.00 to 7.00 p.m.)

International Hotel

The post office is next to the car park of International Hotel.

It is open from 7.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. without a break. Trunk calls to all parts of the world.

Opposite the post office building, near International Hotel, you will find clothes pressing shops, laundries, bootblacks, watchmakers’ shops, etc. In International Hotel and Ambassador Hotel there are hairdresser’s shops.

Every hotel has its own car park. In the Balkantourist Service Shop, where the road forks off to Balchik, Varna and Aladja Monastery, you can turn to the car mechanics for help,or obtain spare parts or use the automatic car-wash. Open from 7.0 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. Tel. 6-53-16.

The filling station of the resort is next to the Kosharata Restaurant and is open day and night.

Next to the Casino Restaurant is a Rent-a-Car service. Open from 7.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. Tel. 6-53-63.

The places of entertainment at the resort offer an original at-mosphere and varied programme:

Tsiganski Tabor (Gypsy Camp) Night Club serves delicious dishes and excellent wines in Gypsy tents to the music of a Gypsy orchestra. Exotic dances and original souvenirs. Open from 9.0 p.m. to 2.00 a.m.

Koukeri (Masked Dancers) Night Club – in original style. From the club there is a wonderful view of the whole resort complex; ‘koukeri’ dances with quaint masks. Open from 9.00 p.m. to 4.00 a.m.

Kolibite Night Club – and Indian settlement. Romantic lighting, interesting floor show and first-class orchestra. Situated in the heart of the forest above the resort. Open from 9.00 p.m. to 2.00 a.m.

Gorski Kut Night Club, next to Kolibite. Open from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.

Kosharata – an original restaurant in Bulgarian folk-style offering sheep and lamb specialities: ewe’s milk yoghourt, kour- ban chorba (mutton soup), grilled lamb, ewe’s milk cheese roll, etc. Open from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.

Karakachanski Stan. The atmosphere is typical of the nomad Karakachan (Wallachian) shepherd settlements in the Rhodopes. The wide range of dishes are prepared and served in the Karakachan way. Situated in the forest next to the Kolibite, Open from 4.00 p.m. to 2.00 a.m.

Vodenitsata – an original folk-style restaurant, serving grilled chicken, kebabs, home-made sausages and freshly baked bread. Open from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.

Astoria Bar – a modern establishment open from May to October. An interesting artistic floor show with music. Situated next to the hotel of the same name. Open from 10.00 p.m. to 4.0 a.m. Caney Night Club – exotic atmosphere, Cuban cocktails, first-class orchestra. Situated right next to Havana Hotel. Open from 4.00 p.m. to 12.00 p.m.

Trifon Zarezan Restaurant. Original restaurant with a special hall for wine-tasting. Bulgarian cuisine and a well-stocked bar. Situated on the road to Varna opposite Strandja Hotel. Open from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.

Lovna Sreshta. Situated in a woody locality close to the rock-cut Aladja Monastery. Game dishes, prepared to local recipes. Orchestra. Open from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.

Picnic – a tavern in the heart of the forest near Lovna Sreshta. Grill and excellent drinks served. Every evening folklore programme of songs and dances. Open from 5.00 p.m. to 10.00 p.m.

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Honourable example of Manchester

London, it is true, has no mind to follow the monstrous extravagance which has imposed crushing burdens on so many Italian cities. But it will not even follow the honourable example of Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Birmingham, and Nottingham. The London Council is housed in hired makeshifts, and London communications are indefinitely adjourned. This, however, is entirely a financial and political question. With the existing system of finance and in the equilibrium of political parties, it has been the fixed resolve of the Council to throw no fresh burdens on the occupying ratepayer.

Yet in spite of legislative obstacles, within five years the number of the public Parks, Open Spaces, and Play-grounds has been more than doubled, and their public usefulness immeasurably increased. The material, the stations, and the staff devoted to extinguish fires have been very largely augmented; and further increase is contemplated; so that the army required for fighting urban conflagrations may ere long be brought up to the level of modern civilisation. Great efforts are also being made to arrest infectious disease, to suppress nuisances, to prevent contamination of food, to condemn insanitary dwellings, to secure just weights and measures, and to re-house the people in comfortable and healthy homes.

The Tower Bridge

When we consider how much has been done within the last few years to increase the healthiness, the convenience, the pleasantness of London for the masses who inhabit it in permanence, there is ground to trust that the reorganisation of the great city has begun. Even in the costly and difficult problem of trans-fluvial communications the work has been taken in hand. London presents in this matter more arduous problems than any European capital. But the Tower Bridge, the Blackwall Tunnel private tour istanbul, the steam-ferry, and the rebuilding of old bridges that is projected, will do something to meet this urgent want.

The side wherein London still most visibly halts is in the street improvements and new communications so loudly demanded for years. This, however, is an operation enor-mously costly and beset with complex parliamentary diffi-culties. Until these are solved, and the conflict on the form and incidence of municipal taxation is decided, we cannot expect much to be done. But the question has already been stirred in all its forms; and many schemes have been put before the public and parliament. London has many noble features, in its great river, its fine parks, its position astride of the Thames, and its northern heights gradually sloping down to the embankment. But it has vast arrears of work to make up before it can be counted a commodious or splendid city.

There are large parts of London where crooked lanes and decayed houses remain almost as they were built after the fire of 1666. The urgent problem now is to secure better thoroughfares from north to south. Below Vauxhall Bridge not a single carriage bridge has been added for two generations, whilst the population has increased threefold. The trans-fluvial communication, including the enlargement and rebuilding of existing bridges, and the approaches to these both north and south, needs at this hour to be at least doubled in number and carrying power.

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PARIS AS AN HISTORIC CITY

But this is only one-half of the political problem, and perhaps the less difficult half. There is the Asiatic side to the problem, as well as the European side. Place the Czar in the Seraglio and what is to become of the Padishah? Is he to retire to Scutari in his barge, and to restore the palace of Selim, which we know as hospital and barracks? Is he to withdraw to Brusa or Smyrna, or retire at once to Aleppo or Damascus? How long will the Russian be content to watch across the sea the minarets in Bithynia and the mountains of Anatolia, to look upon Abydos from Sestos without a desire to pay a visit to his secular rival? Politicians talk with a light heart of hastening the departure of the Moslem from Europe. But what do they propose for him when he is withdrawn into Asia?

With the Czar at Kars, and under Ararat, at Constantinople and Gallipoli, commanding the whole northern coast of Asia Minor from Batum to Besika Bay, with the Armenians raging on the East and the Greeks and Levantine Christians on the West the Sultan will hardly rest more tranquilly in Brusa than he does to-day in Yildiz Kiosk. Are the millions of Musulmans in Asia Minor to be exterminated or driven across the Euphrates? What is to be the end of this interminable Turkish problem, and is the twentieth century to install a new crusade?

All these things are, no doubt, very distant and entirely uncertain. But they are possible enough, and would give the statesmen of the future a series of insoluble problems private guide turkey. It would be needless to enlarge on the endless complications they involve. They may serve to convince us that there is no finality in this Turkish question. The expulsion of the Turk from Europe leaves the dilemma more acute than ever. The enthronement of the Russian on the Bosphorus settles nothing, concludes nothing, and can satisfy no one. It offers, on the contrary, a new set of difficulties and contests, more ominous and bitter than those which have raged for a hundred years since Catherine II.

PARIS AS AN HISTORIC CITY

Of historic cities in Europe of the first rank we can count but four: Rome, Constantinople, Paris, London. For in the first rank of historic cities we can only place those capitals which have been, continuously and over a long succession of ages, the seats of national movements dominating the history of Europe: cities which have been conspicuous in mass, in central place, and in vast extent of time. Rome first, Constantinople next, stand far before all other European cities in fulfilling these conditions: but after them come Paris and London. Such fascinating cities as Athens, Florence, Venice, Rouen, Cologne, Treves, Prague, or Oxford — are all either far inferior in size and national importance, or else have known their epochs of glory only to die away for ages into small and local preeminence. Of all ‘great capitals in the world, London has perhaps, during twelve centuries, suffered the least from violent shocks, from war and breaks in its history; and it may be said to retain the most complete and continuous monumental record for that period.

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Raised on the Acropolis

The Greek people have raised on the Acropolis itself a national museum, where every fragment of the ancient work that once adorned it, is religiously preserved. The collection is unique, incomparable, of inestimable value, and is constantly being increased. It derives its peculiar impressiveness from the fact that these priceless relics still remain on the sacred citadel of Athene, under the shadow of the mighty temple of which they formed part. The Parthenon gains a new charm by their presence; whilst the statues gain a fresh power by being within its precinct. Pheidias, Ictinus, Pericles, acquire each a new dignity in our eyes, as we contemplate the ruin and its adornments on the ever-consecrated spot where such amazing genius laboured and thought.

We go to our own Museum, and we are wont to plume ourselves on the diplomacy and taste of the eminent per-sonage who secured these treasures. We say they are now safe, carefully preserved, and accessible to every one. Perhaps it was wrong to steal them, but now that it is done, it cannot be mended. In the meantime the British public can study High Art at its leisure. But there is something above High Art daily ephesus tours, and that is national honour, and international morality.

Sophocles and Pheidias

And when, in the enthusiasm of a first visit to the city of Plato, Sophocles, and Pheidias, we behold the empty pediments which we have wrecked, and the blank spaces out of which our national representative tore metopes and frieze, when we see the terra-cotta Caryatid, which is forced to do duty for her whom we have ravished from the temple of Erechtheus — it is not so easy to repeat the robber sophism: having plundered, it is best to keep the plunder. One day the conscience of England will revive, and she will rejoice to restore the outraged emblems of Hellenic art to the glorious sky, where only they are at home, on that immortal rock, and beneath the shadow of the sublime temple, which a supreme genius made them to ennoble. And our eloquent discourses about Art will gain by being sweetened with honesty and good manners.

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Old intellectual system was discredited

This suggests a fourfold division: the school of thought whereby the old intellectual system was discredited; that by which the old political system was destroyed; those who laboured to construct a new intellectual and moral basis of society; and those who sought to construct a new social and political system. These schools and teachers, writers and politicians, cannot be rigidly separated from each other. Each overlaps the other, and most of them combine the characteristics of all in more or less degree. The most pugnacious of the critics did something in the way of reconstructing the intellectual basis.

The most constructive spirits of the new world did much both directly and indirectly to destroy the old. Critics of the orthodox faith were really destroying the throne and the ancient rule, even when they least designed it. Orthodox supporters of radical reforms rung the knell of the mediaeval faith as much as that of the mediaeval society. The spiritual and temporal organisation of human life had grown up together; and in death it was not divided guided tours istanbul.

Revolution at hand

All through the eighteenth century the intellectual movement was gathering vitality and volume. From the opening years of the epoch the genius of Leibnitz saw the inevitable effect the movement must have upon the old society; and, in his memorable prophecy of the Revolution at hand (1704), he warned the chiefs of that society to prepare for the storm. For three generations France seemed to live only in thought. Action descended to the vilest and most petty level which her history had ever reached. From the death of Colbert, in 1683, until the ministry of Turgot, in 1774, France seemed to have lost the race of great statesmen, and to be delivered over to the intriguer and the sycophant. Well may the historian say that in passing from the politicians of the reign of Louis xv. to the thinkers of the same epoch, we seem to be passing from the world of the pigmies to that of the Titans. Into the world of ideas France flung herself with passion and with hope.

The wonderful accumulation of scientific discoveries which followed the achievements of Newton reacted powerfully on religious thought, and even on practical policy. Mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, began to assume the outlined proportion of coherent sciences; and some vague sense of their connection and real unity filled the mind of all.

Out of the physical sciences there emerged a dim conception of a crowning human science, which it was the grand achievement of the eighteenth century to found. History ceased to be a branch of literature; it began to have practical uses for mankind of to-day; and slowly it was recognised as the momentous life-story of man, the autobiography of the human race. Europe no longer absorbed the interest of cultivated thought. The unity of the planet, the community of all who dwell on it, gave a new colour to the whole range of thought; and as the old dogmas of the supernatural Church began to lose their hold on the mind, the new-born enthusiasm of humanity began to fill all hearts.

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Cried Phil with spirit

‘ Come, now,’ cried Phil with spirit, for he felt that his turn had come, ‘you may talk about the Saturday articles, which are ancient history in the bad sense of the term, but what do you say to the Quarterly articles, and the palpable blunders it exposes? What about Wace’s “palisades” at Hastings? And why didn’t Freeman cite, the Abbd Baudri? And why did he misquote the Survey over and over again? And why are we not to use the fine old English term, “ Battle of Hastings ” the only name given in the Tapestry, Guy of Amiens, and the rest — and are told we must always use, if we value truth, the term, “Battle of Senlac” — a mere mythical phrase — a piece of affectation of “dear old Orderic ” in his Norman monastery? Why, years ago a man in the Nineteenth Century pointed out that to talk nowadays of the Battle of Senlac was as absurd as if a Frenchman were now to try to rechristen the Battle of Waterloo the Battle of Hougoumont! What do you say to the Quarterly on the Norman Conquest? ’ asked Phil impetuously daily sofia tour, for he felt that he had got his knife into the Bede.

Anonymous personalities

‘ I am sure we need not mind all these anonymous personalities,’ said the Venerable one somewhat stiffly, for he felt that the last Quarterly article was rather a nasty hit; and as yet he had not the remotest idea how it ought to be answered. ‘ But here, bless me! ’ he cried, ‘comes Middleman, of the House; what brings him to Oxford just now, I wonder.’ And indeed, the tutor was not at all sorry that the conversation with his young friend should be suddenly broken off.

Dear old man, what luck for me to meet you,’ said the newcomer genially; ‘I am going to examine in the Law School, and have run up for a couple of days to consult about the papers. I am staying with Bryce,’ he explained. Jack Middleman, Q.C., was a young lawyer of much promise; he was already in Parliament and had expectations of office when Lord Salisbury returns to power. Though he had been twelve years in good practice, he kept up. his reading and his love of Oxford. The Courts were not sitting, and he had run up to see some of the residents.

‘ Our new scholar, Raleigh,’ said Wessex, introducing Phil to the Q.C.; ‘he is attending the lectures of the Regius Professor of History, and I am trying to show him the difference between the late Professor and the present. You can tell him what Freeman was, for you used to be one of his ardent admirers and closest henchmen.’

‘Yes, indeed,’ said Middleman; ‘he was a noble scholar, and I read and re-read every line he wrote. But there is a good deal to be said for the other method of work.’

‘Just so,’ said Phil, much relieved. ‘I have been sticking up for Froude’s pictures of Henry vm., Elizabeth and Mary of Scots, the Reformation and the Armada. I won’t believe that literary history is quite done yet.’

‘ Literary history! ’ laughed Wessex, who had recovered his good humour; ‘ why not say melodious science!— delicious philosophy!—-graceful law! or any other paradoxical confusion of metaphors? “ Literary history” is a contradiction in terms, is it not, Middleman? ’

Well,’ said the lawyer, who was great at Nisi priiis, ‘let us know what we mean by literary history. History in which the narrative of events is made subservient to literary effect is an impudent swindle. But the history which has no quality of literature at all, neither power of expression nor imaginative insight, is nothing but materials, the bricks and stones out of which some one one day might build a house. If “literary history” means Lamartine’s History of the Girondists, it is a sneaking form of the historical novel. But if literary history means Tacitus and Gibbon, it is the highest and the true form of history. What have you been lecturing upon this term, Wessex? ’

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Egypt and the African coast

Deeply as this story must always interest us, let us not forget that the result was due not to one man or to one people — that each race gave its share to the whole: Greece, her intellect and grace; Rome, her social instinct, her genius for discipline; Judaea, her intensity of belief and personal morality; Egypt and the African coast, their combination of Hellenic, Judaic, and Roman traditions. The task that lay before the new religion was immense. It was, upon a uniform faith, to found a system of sound and common morality; to reform the deep-rooted evils of slavery; to institute a method which should educate, teach, and guide, and bring out the tenderer, purer, and higher instincts of our nature. The powers of mind and of character had been trained, first by Greece and then by Rome. To the Christian church came the loftier mission of ruling the affections and the heart.

From henceforth the history of the world shows a new character.

Now and henceforward we see two elements in civilisation working side by side — the practical and the moral. There is now a system to rule the state and a system to act upon the mind; a body of men to educate, to guide and elevate the spirit and the character of the individual, as well as a set of rules to enforce the laws and direct the action of the nation. There is henceforward the state and the church. Hitherto all had been confused; statesmen were priests and teachers; public officers pretended to order men’s lives by law, and pretended in vain. Henceforward for the true sequence of history we must fix our view on Europe, on Western Europe alone: we leave aside the East. The half-Romanised, the half-Christian- ised East will pass to the empire of Mohammed, to the Arab, the Mongol, and the Turk guided turkey tours. For the true evolution of civilised life we must regard the heirs of time, the West, in which is centred the progress and the future of the race. Henceforward, then, for the ten centuries of the Middle Ages which succeeded in Western Europe the fall of the Roman empire, we have two movements to watch together—feudalism and Catholicism—the system of the state and the system of the church: let us turn now to the former.

Prolonged convulsions

The vast empire of Rome broke up with prolonged convulsions. Its concentration in any single hand, however necessary as a transition, became too vast as a permanent system. It wanted a rural population; it was wholly without local life. Long the awestruck barbarians stood pausing to attack. At length they broke in. Ever bolder and more numerous tribes poured onwards. In wave after wave they swept over the whole empire, sacking cities, laying waste the strongholds, at length storming Rome itself; and laws, learning, industry, art, civilisation itself, seem swallowed up in the deluge. For a moment it appeared that all that was Roman had vanished. It was submerged, but not destroyed. Slowly the waters of this overwhelming invasion abate. Slowly the old Roman towns and their institutions begin to appear above the waste like the highest points of a flooded country. Slowly the old landmarks reappear and the forms of civilised existence.

Four centuries were passed in one continual ebb and flow; but at length the restless movement subsided. One by one the conquering tribes settled, took root, and occupied the soil. Step by step they learned the arts of old Rome. At length they were transformed from the invaders into the defenders. King after king strove to give form to the heaving mass, and put an end to this long era of confusion. One, at length, the greatest of them all, succeeded, and reared the framework of modern Europe.

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Affectations of worthless men

Let us pass by untouched these memoirs of the un- memorable — these lives of those who never can be said to have lived. Pass them all: these riotings, intrigues, and affectations of worthless men and worthless ages.

Better to know nothing of the past than to know only its follies, though set forth in eloquent language and with attractive anecdote. It does not profit to know the names of all the kings that ever lived, and the catalogue of all their whims and vices, and a minute list of their particular weaknesses, with all their fools, buffoons, mistresses, and valets. Again, some odd incident becomes the subject of the labour of lives, and fills volume after volume of ingenious trifling.

Some wretched little squabble is exhumed, unimportant in itself, unimportant for the persons that were engaged in it, trivial in its results. Lives are spent in raking up old letters to show why or how some parasite like Sir T. Overbury was murdered, or to unravel some plot about a maid of honour, or a diamond necklace, or some conspiracy to turn out a minister or to detect some court impostor. There are plenty of things to find out, or, if people are afflicted with a morbid curiosity, there are Chinese puzzles or chess problems left for them to solve, without ransacking the public records and libraries to discover which out of a nameless crowd was the most unmitigated scoundrel, or who it is that must have the credit of being the author of some peculiarly venomous or filthy pamphlet. Why need we have six immense volumes to prove to the world that you have found the villain, and ask them to read all about him, and explain in brilliant language how some deed of darkness or some deed of folly really was done ?

And they call this history

And they call this history. This serving up in spiced dishes of the clean and the unclean, the wholesome and the noxious ; this plunging down into the charnel-house of the great graveyard of the past, and stirring up the decaying carcases of the outcasts and malefactors of the race. No good can come of such work : without plan, without purpose, without breadth of view, and without method; with nothing but a vague desire to amuse, and a morbid craving for novelty. If there is one common purpose running through the whole history of the past, if that history is the story of man’s growth in dignity, and power, and goodness, if the gathered knowledge and the gathered conscience of past ages does control us, support us, inspire us, then is this commemorating these parasites and offscourings of the human race worse than pedantry or folly. It is filling us with an unnatural contempt for the greatness of the past — nay, it is committing towards our spiritual forefathers the same crime which Ham committed against his father Noah. It is a kind of sacrilege to the memory of the great men to whom we owe all we prize, if we waste our lives in poring over the acts of the puny creatures who only encumbered their path walking tours ephesus.

Men on the battle-field or in their study, by the labour of their brains or of their hands, have given us what we have, and made us what we are ; a noble army who have done battle with barbarism and the powers of nature, martyrs often to their duty ; yet we are often invited to turn with indifference from the story of their long march and many victories, to find amusement amidst the very camp-followers and sutlers who hang upon their rear. If history has any lessons, any unity, any plan, let us turn to it for this. Let this be our test of what is history and what is not, that it teaches us something of the advance of human progress, that it tells us of some of those mighty spirits who have left their mark on all time, that it shows us the nations of the earth woven together in one purpose, or is lit up with those great ideas and those great purposes which have kindled the conscience of mankind.