Travelogue… with Bob
Nicolaides.
Skeletal remains found in Thessaly field
Skeletal material and artifacts ostensibly dating to the Byzantine period
were found by a farmer in the greater Kalambaka area, Trikkala district, over
the weekend as he was plowing his field. According to the Thessaly prefecture
police in Larissa, bones, four bronze bracelets, five earrings and four rings
of unknown material were found at a depth of 30-50 cm.
According to an archaeologist of the 19th Ephorate of Byzantine
Antiquities, the objects are dated to between the 11th and 12th centuries AD
and are considered antiquities. Following an on-site examination, the
archaeologist identified a pit grave that contained a ring and two sections of
earrings, all made of bronze, along with three fragments of a ceramic vase. The
objects will be sent for examination at the Ephorate, while the bones will be
sent to the University of Athens Forensic Lab. The Trikkala police are also
investigating the find.
Worst tourists of the globe list updated
Australian news publication IB Traveler, recently identified the 4 worst tourists in recent
history. Here they are:
1. The Colombian
Annoying a British Guardsman
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| Most Annoying Tourists |
Stone-faced British
Guardsmen are known for not reacting to anything. These trained soldiers, aside
from having served in the British military, can keep their cool even in front
of giggling tourists. But one guardsman lost his cool as a Colombian tourist
started mimicking him. It did not occur to the Colombian that Guardsmen deserve
respect.
2. British Tourists
Stealing a Penguin
The British are very
polite most of the time but three tourists from the UK broke into Sea World
Australia and decided to steal a penguin. They stole Dirk, a fairy penguin.
According to sources, they also swam with dolphins. Their escapades were posted
on Facebook. What happened to Dirk? He was found in a beach nearby and was returned to Sea World the
next day.
3. 15-Year-Old
Chinese Who Scratched His Name on a Hieroglyph
Ding Jinhao and his
parents went to Egypt to see temples and hieroglyphics including a
3,000-year-old ancient carving. The carving that survived 3,000 years of the
elements, earthquakes, and wars took a bit of damage courtesy of Ding Jinhao's
idea of scratching his name on it. Written in Chinese, Ding Jinhao etched
"Ding Jinhao was here." Ding's mother told a paper in Nanjing, China
that she would like to "apologize to the Egyptian people."
4. The Drunk
Norwegian in Rome
A drunken Norwegian
was on his way back to Oslo when he passed out at the Fiumicino Airport. The
36-year-old tourist reportedly passed out right on the luggage belt and slept
for a bit. He did not stir even when he passed through an X-ray scan, according
to Thrillist.
Restoration of Sparta’s Ancient Theatre
The biggest ancient theatre and a great technological achievement of
Sparta, which was designed to fit 17,000 spectators, will be restored according
to an announcement. The project will be funded by the Stavros Niarchos
Foundation, which also paid for the initial study for the restoration work.
Despite its importance in antiquity, the Ancient Theatre of Sparta cannot be
viewed currently because of its disrepair. A big part was destroyed by
scavengers for the building of Byzantine and post-Byzantine buildings and many
of its marbles were removed for the construction of the modern city.
After an initiative by the "DIAZOMA" association and former
President Ioannis Varvitsiotis, the Ancient Theatre of Sparta will be restored,
now that the study has been completed. The study, conducted by architect
Wilhelm Orestides and a multidisciplinary team of architects and
archaeologists, antiquities conservators, surveyors and civil engineers, cost
110,000 euros. It started in July 2012, was completed by July 2013 and approved
on October 15th 2013 by the Central Arcaeological Council.
The Ancient Theatre of Sparta is located to the north of the modern city
and on the south slope of the Acropolis. It was a benchmark for ancient Sparta
and was constructed in about 30-20 BC, during the early Roman era.
The theatre stands out for its size, quality and construction using
domestic white marble. The slope's diameter measures 141 meters and it was probably the biggest theatre in Greece.
It is often compared with the Dodoni Ancient Theatre, with a slope diameter of
136 meters and Megaloupoli's Theatre with a diameter of 131 meters. The
theatre's capacity surpasses the Great Theatre of Epidaurus
Five secrets only good travelers know
The best travel experiences are always the ones that
almost didn't happen. That bar you found around the corner, down the alley and up the lane, or
the city you got stuck in because you missed your flight. Well, now you can
cultivate a serendipitous experience with these hidden gem-finding tools. Here
are five tech tools to help you put the ‘plan’ in your ‘unplanned’ travel
moments.
NearMe
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| Near Me! |
NearMe is a mobile
app guide to help you get the most out of ending up in an unplanned city.
Featuring location services, NearMe can find out where you are, give you a
run-down of the bars, events, gigs and restaurants in your vicinity and then
help you get there – all with handy map functionality. With global support
ticked off, it’s perfect for when you miss your flight and end up in Hong Kong
for an extra day. Just add Wi-Fi.
TripGems
Every would-be
traveller should have an oft-tripped friends who can drop restaurant
recommendations for London at the same time as they give you the best hotel for
a New York stay. TripGems takes travel recommendations up a notch by giving you
access to a database of the personal recommendations of well-travelled folk the
world over. That café that took Anita from Auckland three years to find? You
can hit that in a weekend trip and live to tweet to about it!
TravelMate
Here’s one for the
domestic traveller. TravelMate is online trip planning tool that helps you get
you from start to destination. Want to drive from Sydney to Broome? Add in your
details and TravelMate will generate a list of alternate routes and schedules
for you. And if you want to take a detour, just update your trip to get an
updated itinerary. With New Zealand supported and Asian destinations on their
way, it’s never been easier to get off the beaten path.
Tourcaster
There’s nothing
quite like a local guide to help you navigate the tourist traps to find the
authentic gem in a foreign city. Tourcaster gives you access to the local
perspective with a database of podcasts and downloadable audio guides split out
by destination and interest. There’s a guide to suit all tastes – everything
from a driving tour of Cape Cod, through to a walking tour of Barcelona’s Gothic
Quarter.
Pintrip
More of a best
ticket gem finder, Pintrip is a Google Chrome extension that takes the pain out
of finding the best price for your next overseas trip. Enter a proposed
itinerary; your destination and Pintrip will search the web’s best travel
aggregator sites for you. Best of all you can set up a travel alert for your
departure date and destination and Pintrip will send an email alert when a sale
pops up. Safari and Firefox support are on their way.
On The Heels
of Something Big
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| Kalliope Papakosta with Alexabder's statue |
Calliope Limneou Papakosta who conducts the
research for The Hellenic Research Institute for Alexandrian Civilization may have
something big to report soon, after the ground on which her crew was conducting
studies collapsed, a sure sign that something is buried underneath. The ground
where Ms Papakosta was conducting studies is located at the park with the falls
in the center of the city of Alexandria. It must be noted that Ms Papapakosta, the head
of the Hellenic Research Institute is the one who unearthed such as the
Hellenistic period statue of Alexander the Great, dating from the 3rd
century BC, which already is on view at the Alexandria National Museum.
Roman Tomb Found During Road Works
A
well-preserved and ornately decorated underground Roman tomb, complete with
vaults and wall paintings, was found in Corinth during during works to extend
the Corinth-Patras national road, archaeologists said. Calling the find an
extremely important one, the Central Archaeological Council said it belongs to
the same Roman cemetery overlying an Archaic one that had yielded a similar
ornately decorated tomb in 2012. The tomb has been initially dated to between
the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, but may be earlier.
The monument,
3.30m by 2.63m, was entered from the south through a staircase decorated on
either side with two ceramic tiles in deep relief, one showing a quadriga
(four-horse chariot), and the other depicting a chariot pulled by dolphins next
to a sea creature. Inside, there were vaults over niches where ash urns were
placed, and three larnaces (terracotta coffins) containing bones, oil lamps,
bronze coins and pottery shards. One of the coffins was painted to depict bed
covers. The interior of the tomb also contained very well-preserved wall
paintings, depicting garlands, fruit and three figures, two men and a woman.
Archaeologist Anna Karapanagiotou, Council member, said that the tomb "may
possibly be that of a Roman citizen, possibly an official or Romanized Greek,
who had a close relationship to Rome."
The ancient
cemetery has yielded other artifacts of importance, such as troughs for
offerings between burials, which have so far only been found at the Kerameikos
ancient cemetery in Athens. The richness of the finds at the site prompted the
Central Archaeological Council to set up a seven-member committee to conduct an
on-site inspection, which will also help in the decision to keep the monument
in place or remove it.
Egypt tour Operators Back in Business
Egypt operators are busy reinstating their full programs
after the Foreign and Commonwealth Office decided to lift its ban on Cairo,
Great Cairo, Giza and the Giza Pyramids. Philip Breckner at Discover Egypt says it already has
customers lined up wanting to go back. "It will take time to rebuild
consumer confidence and yet we've already finalized travel arrangements for
those who had been impatiently waiting for the FCO advisory to be lifted,"
he said.
Recently, Breckner
met with Tarek Saaad El din, the new Governor of Luxor, who outlined some
immediate initiatives, including rebuilding pavements and installing 150
additional security cameras to safeguard artifacts and visitors. Luxor is also
looking to attract more investment in tourist infrastructure longer term and is
to set up study and research groups with workshops and forum to look at ways of
improving it.
Red Sea Holidays
will be resuming excursions and multi-centre tours from January 2014, which
include Cairo and the Nile. Sales director Jason Hilton said: ""Over
the last four weeks we have sent more than 50 agents on resort visits to the
Red Sea with a further 40 departing in January, to see for themselves that it's
business as usual in this guaranteed winter sun destination. "We have
received nothing but positive feedback from visiting agents and have seen a
dramatic uplift in sales volumes of late. We are very optimistic about forward
sales in the New Year, when we also hope to recommence our Nile Cruise and
Cruise & Stay operations."
Back in July Egypt
operators had been forced to cancel trips and suspend operations in most parts
of Egypt, except for the Red Sea resorts,
after weeks of political protests and violent clashes in Cairo and in other
parts of the country.
Excavations inThessaloniki yield 104,000 objects
The results of seven years' worth of excavations for a Metro in Greece's
largest northern city include over 104,000 artefacts of various materials
including glass and silver, according to a lecture by the director of the 9th
Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities of Thessaloniki, Despina Makropoulou, at the
city's Archaeological Museum on Monday night.
Makropoulou gave an overview of the finds from four future station
locations of the Thessaloniki Metro that include objects dated to Roman and
Byzantine times, and she described the unearthed parts of a major Roman
roadway, which preserve the grooves of carriage wheels on its much-travelled
route.
