The Heritage of Ancient Greece

Although since the decline of what we now call Ancient Greece, it took about three millennia, this civilization left a myriad of monuments. Ruins of ancient cities are found throughout the Mediterranean, the number of them allows you to imagine the scale of the old civilization, and which, I must say, are amazing.
Despite the fact that over these three thousand years, over the territories which were once densely populated by the Hellenes, not just one wave of destructive earthquakes has swept, the climate has changed to such an extent that it has transformed fertile soils into arid semi-deserts, tourists from all over the world and today have the opportunity personally touch the ancient heritage.

Where to see it all?

Primitive logic suggests that the monuments of ancient Greek culture should be in Greece, and that's where you need to go to see it all. On the one hand, this is certainly so. And the sacred Olympus Mountain, and Athens and the ruins of ancient Sparta, are exactly there. But on the other hand, everything is much more complicated.
Greek colonies, although they cannot be Greek as then there was no such a word - Greece, they occupied vast territories all over the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Modern Greece, only a small part of its ancient ancestor, the remains of its former greatness are in the territory of modern Bulgaria and Macedonia, and in the Crimea, and somewhere else, only God knows where. But the largest number of ancient monuments is not even in Greece but in the territory of modern Turkey.
Being on vacation in Turkey, especially on the coast of the Aegean Sea, anyone will be amazed by the abundance of ancient ruins. On the territory of modern Turkey, there were two of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Unfortunately, they did not survive to the present day, but, for example, the amphitheatre of Halicarnassus, located on the territory of modern Bodrum, simply surprises with the degree of its preservation.

Here, nearby, there was so famous Troy, sung by Homer. Moreover, the ruins of the ancient city of Hierapolis are situated close to the tambourine terraces of Pamukkale, a city whose population in its high-day period exceeded one hundred thousand people.

All of the above makes travelling to these countries, not only pleasant but also fascinating. The realization of the former greatness makes history not only a paragraph in the school textbook but also a part of our own lives.

Let’s dream…

What can we dream about? The new holiday season starts very soon and we must not dream, but should closely deal with the consideration of proposals, so that later there won’t be an unpleasant feeling for a meaningless vacation. Moreover, now you can find ways to spend your vacation without leaving your work sitting at your personal computer.

Planning a vacation online

Today you can find on the Internet all that you want to know about vacations and resorts, and even what you absolutely do not need to know. Internet-offers, Internet-sales are being introduced actively into the tourist market these days. Online tour sales gradually "bite off" a larger sector of the market, pushing out of the market classic travel agencies.

Of course, you need to have some experience in order to orient yourself. But in any case, if you want, you can get much more information on the Internet than from the most experienced manager. The matter is that most of us trust people more than soulless websites. But this process is already irreversible, more and more purchases in all branches are carried out by means of the Internet.

As a result tour operators and travel agents face the fact that sales of the tourist product will go further and further into the network. This does not mean that all travel agencies will die out instantly, like dinosaurs at the time of the beginning of the Ice Age. I think it will happen rather like with mammoths, they will slowly reduce their habitat, shrink in size, move further north, and eventually quietly die among the mosses and lichens of Franz- Joseph Land, at the moment when in the south the Egyptians were already building their pyramids.

It's pointless to talk about the techniques of the online tours selling because it doesn’t differ from other online sales. When choosing an online tour, the travel agency is excluded from the chain that connects the resort directly with the tourist, which saves the tourist from having to pay for the extra services. Accordingly, the final cost of the product becomes smaller. Nowadays, when you have to save almost all the time, this fact also becomes a trump, which encourages the tourist to buy in such a way.

Of course, to compile a more or less plausible picture you need to study a lot of information. It's necessary that you can find what really interests you right away. But in any case, it will be only your choice. And the quality of your holiday will depend only on your decision.

It is difficult to predict in what direction the online sales will move in future. The only thing that I would advise you – always move up with the time. Though, as it was said one hundred and fifty years ago, "you have to run at full speed to just stay in the same place and you need to run twice as fast to get to another place".

On the eve of the new tourist season, I want to wish everyone a good holiday, new impressions. Be interested in where and how you can spend your vacation with pleasure!

Unexplored Turkey

Turkey is one of the most visited countries by our tourists thanks to the visa-free entry regime between our countries, really low-cost air travel, and of course due to the well-developed infrastructure of Turkey marine tourism, well adapted to the Russian-speaking tourists. Lots of people have visited Turkey but few of them knows anything about this country apart from Istanbul, Antalya, Ankara and maybe three or four resort cities.

No, in that case, I'm not talking about monuments of ancient history, carefully excavated, well-restored, and sometimes just invented. That is daily bread and means for subsistence for Turkey and wherever you go for vacations, you will definitely be invited to visit Troy, Ephesus or something like that. I mean Turkey itself, how it lives outside its resort area.

Non-resort zone of Turkey

I do not consider myself a great expert in non-touristic Turkey, but one of my trips to this country was a bus tour, during which, we had to drive about two thousand kilometers on Turkey's roads. Here is what I’ve seen from the window of the bus and now can tell you.

I must say that during the trip on the bus, Turkish cities and villages flash like funny pictures. All Turkish, including major cities (Izmir, Antalya, Denizli), not taking Istanbul into consideration, are very similar to each other and do not look like European cities. Medium-rise buildings, mostly five to six floors, almost no skyscrapers, fairly wide streets. There are huge factories and industrial zones on the outskirts. In general, when you are going through Turkey, you notice how intensively Turkish people work. Although it is the eastern country, there is no atmosphere of easy laziness anywhere. Turkey looks like a huge anthill.

There is a particular attitude to green plantations. In continental Turkey, the climate is really dry, and without artificial irrigation, nothing grows in fact, nothing except for stunted weeds. At the same time in the cities, you can see an abundance of well-tended greenery. Lawns, bushes, flowers, palm trees, everything pleases the eye in huge amounts. Looking at all this, you understand how much human labor it is worth.

Moreover, Turkey reminds a very big building site. Wherever you would go, you will come across building landscapes everywhere. Houses, factories, roads, and bridges are being built. Everywhere. All this grows like mushrooms after the rain. At the same time, you won’t see any construction debris anywhere. Only dust. But there is a lot of it in Turkey without any construction projects.

So, in the non-tourist part of Turkey, there are also many interesting and instructive things. I would not recommend going specifically there, but if you are already there, take with you a device to take a couple (hundreds) of pictures. You will not regret.

Starting to Explore Africa

What do we know about Egypt? Previously, most of us knew that pharaohs lived in that far-away African country, crocodiles crawled there and that there were pyramids. Well, from the course of the history of the ancient world those who were excellent pupils in the fifth grade knew that the ancient civilization was formed in Egypt at edge of the sixth and fifth millennia BC, and those who listened to political information attentively, knew that the Soviet Union built there Assuan hydroelectric power station. Actually, this knowledge was quite enough to feel oneself quite an erudite person. And now? Nowadays it is enough to know about Egypt what Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada are. Moreover, it is also desirable to visit these places.

It is already written a lot about Sharm El Sheikh. It's time to turn our attention to the other side of the Gulf of Suez, where Hurghada welcomes tourists from all over the world.

News from Hurghada

Hurghada is Africa, the real one, in the geographical sense of the word. Of course, crocodiles do not crawl along the streets and do not bite tourists’ heels, but seriously, having rest in Hurghada provides several advantages.

Firstly, the coast of the Red Sea in the Hurghada region is a series of sandy beaches, not a solid coral reef. Corals, that is, of course, beautiful, but not everyone likes coming into the water from the pontoon and bathing in rubber slippers. It is especially inconvenient for children. In Hurghada, there are no similar problems.

Secondly, Hurghada, unlike Sharm El Sheikh, is located on the mainland, which gives it an indisputable advantage, in the sense that it is possible to conduct bus tours to Luxor, Giza and other monuments of antiquity. There is no possibility to do that from Sharm El Sheikh which, in this case, is across the sea. Only by plane. And this is the completely different budget.

Thirdly, Hurghada, unlike Sharm El Sheikh, is a city in the true sense of the word. This is not only hotels on the beach and all related infrastructure, but also the usual residential areas where ordinary Egyptians live. As a result, everything is considerably cheaper in Hurghada. Souvenirs, products on the market, there is everything that can interest the tourist. In addition, Hurghada is a city where you can just walk around, go along the streets, look into local shops, and bargain from the heart. Although, there are no problems in the East for that matter.