SERDICA

                                                               
After extensive excavation work in connection with the tunnels for a metro line, parts of Decumanus Maximus and Cardo Maximus, at their intersection, are once again exposed to the elements, just a few metres beneath the street level, showing us the open heart of Roman Serdica.

Cardo Maximus (the main north-south thoroughfare of the Roman city), which was the main shopping street

Decumanus Maximus (the east-west orientated thoroughfare)

Roman remains

Roman remains

Roman remains

The Eastern city gate

Serdica (present day Sofia) was founded at the dawn of time around thermal mineral springs at the foothills of a mountain. It had quite a chequered history and has been part of three empires during its life.

Find out more in The City That Does Not Age:

https://www.amazon.com/City-That-Does-Not-Age/dp/0955687535/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1487589437&sr=1-1&keywords=%22the+city+that+does+not+age%22

MOTHER'S DAY

What to do when you forget to send a Mother’s Day card to your Mum?

Imagine this scenario:

London, England. It’s 8:00 pm on a Saturday and you see somewhere – Internet, TV, a newspaper or a magazine that the following day is Mothering Sunday; a day that falls on a different date each year (just like Easter with which it is connected) but for the English it usually happens sometime in March. A busy and sometimes scatterbrained male like me can easily overlook such an important date and find himself in the dog house. You see, I say “male”, because the female part of the population has the rather annoying habit to watch out for such things like birthdays and stuff. Anyway! To someone like me, an English male who has had a stressful week at work, who has had to do overtime on Saturday and who then finds himself in the above stated awkward situation, I’ll give the following piece of advice: just follow the steps below:

·         Don’t panic!

·         Take a few deep breaths!

·         Get out your credit card!

·         Go on the online florist site!

·         Order a bunch of flowers and send them to Mum!

Job done.

New York New York

A visit to the great city – a few very intense and overwhelming days - too much to see, too much to do, but it’s worth it! It’s big, it’s majestic, it’s on a different scale; high-rise towers soaring to the skies, busy arteries cutting across the city in a perpendicular fashion and one large oasis in the middle of it – Central Park, my favourite place!

View from above

The Statue of Liberty

Central Park

Manhattan - View from One World Observatory

Manhattan - View from the Empire State Building 

Rockefeller Center

Exploring the past of a city is a bit like a criminal investigation

Read the whole article on Radio Bulgaria

Azure window, Island of Gozo, Malta

The Azure Window collapsed. A few weeks ago, on 8^th March, the International women’s day, a heavy storm destroyed this natural wonder, the pride of Malta. Yet the media did not make much of it; no big headlines, no lead stories, no spectacular video footage.

Here are a couple of photos of it, seen on a glorious sunny day in October 2016.

 

Nice, FRANCE, wintertime

Forget the snow, the fog and the cold, it is the citrus season here and the clementine trees look beautiful

 

 

LA DEFENSE, FRANCE

 

An Open-Air Museum

Sculpture

 

 

One might argue that this is not the most suitable place for this impressive piece of modern art, but there you have it – after a lengthy restoration, Caro’s “After Olympia” is back at La Defense.
 



You can just make out Calder’s Big Red Spider in the background

Cesar’s 40-feet Thumb has also undergone a major clean-up

 



Before

Only Barrias' “La Defense de Paris”, the most iconic statue of Paris’ business district, still awaits to be placed on its pedestal, its cleaning long since finished.








After