RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL TOUR OF BULGARIA

AND NORTHERN MACEDONIA

AUGUST 29 – SEPTEMBER 12, 2020

Day 1. Saturday, August 29, 2020 Meals: Dinner Our guide will meet you at the airport and assist for a transfer to your downtown hotel. Time at leisure to overcome the jet lag. Overnight: Sofia

Day 2. Sunday, August 30, 2020 Meals: Breakfast and Lunch Start your full day of Liturgy and sightseeing in Sofia. We will attend the Sunday Liturgy at the Alexander Nevski Cathedral, followed by a walking tour along the “Yellow Brick Road” viewing some of the city’s landmarks: St. Sophia Church and the Monument to the Unknown Soldier, the crypt of the Russian church with the sarcophagus of St. Serafim of Sofia, St. George Rotunda, St.Nedelya Square and St. Nedelya Church,

where the holy relics of St. Stefan Urosh Milutin were kept, Alexander Battenberg Square, the National Theatre, the former Royal Palace. Stop for a coffee break, and then visit the Archeological Museum. Drive to Boyana and visit the 900 years old Boyana Church (UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site). Enjoy the remarkable murals, painted by an unknown artist in the 13th century. Next we will enjoy panoramic sightseeing of the National Library, Sofia University, Borisova Garden, and the National Palace of Culture. Overnight: Sofia

Day 3. Monday, August 31, 2020 Meals: Breakfast and Dinner After an early breakfast, we will drive to the Rose Valley and Kazanlak, stopping enroute for a visit to Starosel. Here we begin to explore the ancient Thracian cultural heritage of Bulgaria and visit the oldest ever found royal Thracian complex with a mausoleum, which dates back to the end of 5th and the beginning of 4th century BC. Then we will proceed to Hisarya, or the ancient Diocletianopolis. Hisarya is a local SPA resorts, popular for its curative hot mineral springs. The Romans conquered the Ancient Thrace in 46 A.D. Attracted by the hot mineral springs in the area; the Roman troops founded a large settlement here. In 293 A.D., the Emperor Diocletian gave it the status of a town. Enjoy a leisurely walk in the beautiful local park to see the Roman ruins, the mineral water springs and hundred-year old trees – Fraxinus Excelsior (160-year-old), Sofora japonica (100-year-old) etc. Later, en route to Kazanlak, the main city in the Rose Valley, we will stop for a visit to the oldest rose-oil distillery, which includes a presentation on rose water and rose oil distillation. Overnight: Kazanlak

Day 4. Tuesday, September 1, 2020 Meals: Breakfast and Dinner The Rose Valley is also popular as the Valley of the Thracian Kings. Enjoy a sightseeing tour in Kazanlak including: the Thracian Tomb (replica), the Tyulbe (small Islamic mausoleum, 15th century). The Kazanlak Tomb is a Thracian Tomb from the late 4th - early 3rd century B.C. and is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The funeral objects and frescoes depicting hunting scenes and the funeral suggest that a Thracian king was probably buried here. The frescoes are the finest masterpiece of Thracian art. Next stop is in Shipka - the peak where the most decisive battles were held in 1877-1878 for the liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman domination. There is a monument on the top and a wonderful panorama of the Central Balkan Range. Continue on to Etara to visit the Ethnographic Open-air Village Museum. Everything surrounding the visitor brings him/her back to the period of Bulgarian Revival with numerous workshops where even today the craftsmen work, using the same instruments and techniques. We will drive onward to Veliko Tarnovo. The capital of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom (XII-XIV c) is situated on three hills, mirrored in the waters of the Yantra River winding down below. Tzarevets Hill is a genuine

outdoor museum with its royal buildings, churches, fortress walls, towers, and the restored Ascension patriarchal church. Overnight: Veliko Tarnovo

Day 5. Wednesday, September 2, 2020 Meals: Breakfast and Dinner After breakfast, we will enjoy a tour of the Old City, including visits to Tzarevets Royal Hill and Samovodene marketplace, brought back to life by artists and craftsmen, who create and sell exquisite items in their small workshops. We will also visit the neighboring Arbanassi museum village and walk through this beautiful museum village, admiring its

fortress-like houses and extremely interesting churches. We will visit the 15th century church of the Nativity and the Konstantsaliev’s house, an 18th century architectural masterpiece. After lunch, we proceed to Varna, the largest Bulgarian Black-sea port and summer capital of Bulgaria. (3, 5 hrs.). The city was founded as a Miletian colony in the place of an old Thracian settlement already during the 6th c. B.C. Time permitting, stop over to visit the Petrified Forest natural phenomena, located 15 km away from Varna. Overnight: Varna

Day 6: Thursday, September 3, 2020 Meals: Breakfast and Dinner After breakfast you will tour the ancient sites of Varna and the Museum of History, which displays the oldest man-made gold (45000-42000 B.C.) The tour then proceeds to the museum town of Nesebar, which is another UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage site, picturesquely situated on a small rocky peninsula. We will be able to enjoy a slow pace walk in the cobbled streets accompanied by beautiful sea-view panoramas. Different civilizations have left their marks jealously guarded today on the tiny peninsula. According to legends, Nesebar had about 40 churches. At present, scientific information is available for 23 of them. Overnight: Nesebar/Burgas area

Day 7. Friday, September 4, 2020 Meals: Breakfast and Dinner Following breakfast, we depart to Plovdiv, the 2019 European Capital of Culture. It is Bulgaria’s second ranking town, a worthy rival to Sofia. Its location is astride the river Maritsa, and its six hills, which are prominent features on the Thracian plane, indicates the strategic significance of the city. It is one of the oldest and most colourful towns in Bulgaria. No one can tell exactly when the foundation stone was laid here, although it must have been over 5000 years ago. Old Plovdiv on Trimontium hill is the centre of Bulgarian national revival architecture at its height.

En route, we will visit Bachkovo Monastery, valuable primarily for its ossuary and its church, in which 11th to 14th century frescoes are preserved. We will spend the whole afternoon exploring Ancient and Byzantine heritage of Plovdiv, visiting it the Archaeological museum, the Small and Large Basilicas, and walking along the narrow cobbled streets to enjoy the silence and tranquility of this historic town. Overnight: Plovdiv

Day 8. Saturday, September 5, 2020 Meals: Breakfast and Dinner After breakfast, we will have a walking tour, which includes: a visit to the Old Town, the 2000yrs old Roman Theatre; the Byzantine and medieval fortifications, Roman Stadium, Roman Forum. After late lunch, we head to Bansko and enjoy the beautiful scenery, crossing the Rhodope Mountains to reach Bansko and the Pirin Mountains. We will have dinner in a local restaurant, famous for the home-made food, located just 5 min drive from downtown Bansko. After check-in, enjoy a walking tour of this museum village. Overnight: Bansko

Day 9. Sunday, September 6, 2020 Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Early check out at 06:15 (boxed breakfast). We will depart to Rila Monastery to attend the morning Liturgy in the monastery church “Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary”. After the Liturgy, we will visit the original monastery kitchens from the 19th century and the museum. Here you can see the famous wood carved Raphael’s cross. It took monk Raphael 12 years to finish the cross with its 140 biblical scenes and 1500 human figures, not larger than a grain of rice. After Lunch, we cross the border and enter Northern Macedonia, travelling to the capital city of Skopje. In existence for 2,500 years, Skopje is the city of many

cultures and civilizations, from ancient to Byzantine, from Ottoman to modern. It is a place where one can find modern hotels above cobbled Ottoman streets, red-bricked churches beside rounded Turkish mosques, neoclassical homes right around the corner from old Yugoslav-era buildings. Overnight: Skopje

Day 10. Monday, September 7, 2020 Meals: Breakfast and Lunch When Macedonia became a Roman province, its location as the crossroad on three important Roman roads allowed the cities of this region to develop and enjoy the highest privileges of the Roman Empire. After the declaration of the Christianity as a state religion of the Roman Empire, many of the cities in Macedonia became Episcopal centers, opening the doors for new Christian culture. The main square of Skopje is the promenade of the city that connects the new and the historical part of the city. It is the biggest in Macedonia and the place where independence

from Yugoslavia was declared. Today after the reconstruction of some of the old buildings destroyed in the 1963 earthquake and the newly erected avenue of the national heroes tells the story of the city and the history of the country. With its medieval and Ottoman architecture and numerous little craftsman shops, it remains one of the biggest and the most colorful centers of its kind. This area is rich with sacral and profane buildings that rich Turkish feudalists left as a bequest. After lunch, we visit St. Panteleimon Church in Nerezi. Built by the peer Aleksey Komnen in 1164 on an ancient Roman cult site with

impressive fresco-paintings, by which the unknown Nerezi master has given life to the walls of the church. Some art historians consider that the fresco “Lamentation of Christ” announces Renaissance I c. before Giotto di Bondone. Optional dinner at Old City House restaurant

Day 11. Tuesday, September 8, 2020 Meals: Breakfast and Dinner There are four edifices included in this property, listed as one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Kosovo and Serbia. These churches and monasteries, a tribute to the Byzantine-Romanesque ecclesiastical culture, offer unique wall paintings harking back to the 13th and 17th centuries where the murals and frescoes feature breathtaking ornamentation with colors that are still vibrant today. In 1990 Serbia designated it a Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance, and on 13 July 2006, it was placed on UNESCO's World Heritage List as an extension of the Visoki Dečani site (named Medieval Monuments in Kosovo), which, as a whole, was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger. The Church was guarded by KFOR after 1999, however, it was heavily damaged by arson during the 2004 unrest in Kosovo. Visoki Decani monastery was established in a chestnut grove by Serbian King Stefan Uroš III Dečanski in 1327. Its original founding charter is dated to 1330. The following year the king died and was buried

at the monastery, which thenceforth became his popular shrine. Indeed, the epithet Dečanski refers to the king's foundation of the monastery. The construction was continued by his son Emperor Stefan Uroš IV Dušan until 1335, but the wall-painting was not completed until 1350. The precise date of the foundation of the Patriarchate is unknown. It is thought that while Saint Sava (d. 1235) was still alive that the site became a metochion (land owned and governed by a monastery) of Žiča monastery, then the seat of the Serbian archbishopric. Archbishop Arsenije I (d. 1266) built the Church of the Holy Apostles, as he wanted the seat of the Serbian Church to be at a more secure location and closer to the center of the country. Soon, around 1250, he ordered it decoration. Overnight: Prishtina

Day 12. Wednesday, September 9, 2020 Meals: Breakfast and Dinner (Ethno Dinner/National Night) The Gračanica Monastery was constructed on the ruins of an older 13th-century church of the Holy Virgin, which was built on the ruins of a 6th-century early Christian three-naved basilica. On the southern wall of the chapel is written the king's charter, which includes the following words: "I have seen the ruins and the decay of the Holy Virgin's temple of Gračanica, the bishopric of Lipljan, so I have built it from the ground and painted and decorated it both from inside and outside". Of the former monastic compound, only the church has survived. The Matka or “The womb”, canyon is one of the most magnificent regions in Macedonia, a mystical place with vertical rocks concealing numerous caves, ancient temples, medieval churches and monasteries, sacred healing waters, beautiful nature, 200 species of butterflies, around 1.000 plant species of which 20% endemic or very rare, jade green waters. We will take a boat trip along the Canyon to the Vrelo cave. The Matka Canyon is equally interesting for both nature and culture

lovers, adventurers and ordinary people. Among the mysterious and yet undiscovered beauties of the canyon are the dozen caves filled with numerous stalagmites, stalactites, and dripstone pillars - you’ll also get acquainted with all the inhabitants living in the cave! The Vrelo cave is one the deepest in Europe and the biggest one in the Canyon. After lunch, we transfer to Ohrid, situated on the lake of the same name. We will have dinner at a traditional restaurant - National Night: The specialties of Macedonian national cuisine, special Macedonian wines and the sounds of the traditional Macedonian music. You will have the opportunity to enjoy Macedonian dishes accompanied by presentation of our traditional dances, folk instruments and costumes, performed by a professional folklore group. Overnight: Ohrid

Day 13. Thursday, September 10, 2020 Meals: Breakfast and Lunch From the moment you set your foot in Ohrid and stand in front of its natural beauties, monuments and temples you will found out why the smartest, the wisest and the most powerful people throughout the centuries had only one goal – to leave their mark in the beautiful city. Location of the city, old city architecture, cultural-historical monuments and natural beauties distinguish Ohrid as a pride of Macedonia. In 1980, Lake Ohrid and the city of Ohrid were declared as world’s cultural heritage under protection of UNESCO. We will start a day with a walking tour through the old city which will include: The church of St. Sofia, is one of the largest medieval churches on this territory. For a long time

it was the cathedral church ("Great Church") of the Ohrid Archiepiscopate whose ecclesiastical authority covered the territories up to the river Danube to the north, the Albanian coast to the west, and the Bay of Thessalonica to the east. St. Clement Monastery Plaoshnik was built 893 A.D. near the remains of an old Christian basilica, on the location from which Christianity was preached in the III c. AD. Clement is one of two famous disciples of Cyril and Methodius whose mission was to spread the Christianity and literacy among the Slavs. It is one of the oldest Slavic monuments of culture and one of the first Universities in Europe. Lunch at St. Sophia restaurant. Free time in Ohrid. Overnight: Ohrid

Day 14. Friday, September 11, 2020 Meals: Breakfast and Dinner. After breakfast in the hotel we will drive to St. Naum monastery. The monastic complex and church of St. Naum were built originally at the turn of the X century by the Macedonian saint Naum. The monastery has been renewed and enlarged several times over the centuries. While most of its iconostases and frescoes date from the 16th and 17th centuries, earlier etchings in the Byzantine vernacular also remain. After a coffee break by the colorful springs, we will depart for the last stop of the day will be at Stobi Archeological site. Located in the heart of Macedonia, on the crossroads between the Aegean World and the Central Balkan, during the whole period of its existence it was a place where cultural achievements of the ancient world gathered in a unique way. The ancient city of Stobi, capital city of the Roman province Macedonia Secunda was an important urban, military, administrative, trade and religious center of the East Roman Empire. Overnight: Town of Kavadarci/vicinity

Day 15. Thursday,

September 12, 2020 Meals: Breakfast Transfer to the airport. Departure back home.

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE TOUR:

PRICING AND INCLUSIONS: Price include: • Accommodations in "****" hotels along the way* • All breakfast, some lunches and most dinners [three courses] (total of 29 meals) • Private bus transportation whenever required • Group transfers from the airport and from the hotel to the hotel in. • All admissions, according to the schedule • Individual audio system aka “Whisper sets” • Professional English speaking [local] tour guides • English speaking guide/escort during the entire tour Price does not include: • Personal health/accident insurance • International airfare tickets • Transportation to and from the airport in Bulgaria and Northern Macedonia if traveling separately from the group • Private transfers, additional (optional) tours and tickets to unscheduled show/concerts or museums. • Some newly introduced fees that may occur in certain places (monasteries or churches) • Tips to bus drivers and tour guides (Minimal suggested amount per person is $2 per day for bus

drivers and $3 for local tour guides. Your generosity will be always greatly appreciated) • Anything that is not specifically mentioned in “Price includes” Financial arrangements: $ 2600 per person, in double occupancy in a group of 25 participants; Single supplement: $400 extra and subject to availability. Please factor that the final price may fluctuate due to the actual number of participants or due to significant difference in exchange rate of EURO vs. the US dollar at the time of the final payment. In case of need for financial adjustment you'll be informed right away. All payments should be made by check to: "Palomnik, LLC" and mailed to 53 Baxter Street, Binghamton, NY 13905. Any returned checks are subject to $25 fee. For payment with a Credit Card; domestic or international bank wires, please contact Fr. Ilya directly. A deposit of $700 is required when you sign up for the trip. The deposit is non-refundable, unless pilgrimage is cancelled by the organizers due to lack of participation or for some other valid or unforeseen circumstance. To avoid any money loss, emergency/travel cancellation insurance strongly recommended.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS REGISTRATION DEADLINE: The deadline for signing up for the trip is May 1, 2020. The entire amount is due 91 days prior to departure, May 28, 2020. Failure to pay in full by May 28, 2020 without written notice of explanation may lead to the cancellation of your participation, with no refund of any previously committed funds. CANCELLATION POLICY: If you need to cancel after you signed up, please note the schedule of charges in addition to the amount of non-refundable deposit: • the amount of the deposit, up to 91 days prior to the departure • 50% of the tour cost, 91 to 60 days prior to the departure • 100% of the tour cost 60 days or fewer days prior to the departure All cancellations must be in writing and sent directly to coordinator of the tour - Fr. llya Gotlinsky and must be received for reimbursement by the dates shown in the cancellation schedule. We also have to add that should cancellation or alteration of the program occur due to civil disturbances, acts of terrorism, war, natural disaster, and other events of force majeur or acts of God (including threat or fear of same), refunds will be made only to the extent that they are recoverable, and that such cancellation or alteration may result in the total loss of funds paid by participants. It is assumed each participant has reviewed the same with respect to their own comfort level of risk and personal safety. A decision to withdraw from the trip for these reasons or any others will be bound by the same terms of cancellation. ALTERATIONS TO ITINERARY: Fr. Ilya Gotlinsky reserves the right to alter, modify or withdraw the itinerary if air schedules and/or events beyond his control deem it necessary. In the event it becomes necessary for the comfort or well-being of the travelers to alter or modify the itinerary or arrangements, such alterations may be made without penalty to the tour operator and are not grounds for cancellation with refund. Fr. Ilya Gotlinsky assumes no responsibility over any consequences as a result of any participant deviating from the group tour. Because of the difference in language and customs, it is expected that the traveler will follow the directions of the Tour Director at all times. Tour Director reserves the right to restrict a person’s participation in the group’s activities, including exclusion from the group, when, in the opinion of the Director, such action is necessary.

REQUIRED TRAVEL DOCUMENTS: A passport with validity for at least six months beyond end of stay, along with any visas required by host countries. It is strongly suggested that you: - Obtain insurance covering medical needs and coverage of personal property - Be aware that financial coverage for all emergency medical and other emergency needs will be your sole responsibility. We will provide all possible logistical and personal assistance, but the financial aspect is your responsibility. - Act in a manner consistent with the surrounding environment - Make arrangements to have access to sufficient funds to cover personal needs and unexpected events - Be aware that the places that we will be visiting may not have the same amenities that you are accustomed to. Medical facilities in some areas may be limited. This agreement becomes effective upon acceptance into the tour by Fr. Ilya Gotlinsky Copyright © 2001 - 2019 Palomnik, LLC dba Orthodox Tours. All Rights Reserved. 53 Baxter Street, Binghamton, NY 13905. Telephone: 001-607-797-1058 Member of the International Association of Travel Agents Network (IATAN)

REGISTRATION FORM:

PILGRIMAGE AND CULTURAL TOUR OF THE BALKANS

Dates: August 29 – September 5, 2020

To register please complete this registration form and return it to along with your deposit check

($700.00) made to "Palomnik, LLC" and mailed/delivered to Att: VRev. Ilya Gotlinsky, 1613

Campus Drive, Vestal, NY 13850. Please write: “BALKAN TRIP” on memo line.

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