12-14 September
Hissar, Bulgaria
ranlp2011@lml.bas.bg
RANLP 2011 will be held in AUGUSTA SPA hotel ( http://www.augustaspa.com), Hissar. Hissar or Hisarya ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hisarya,_Bulgaria) is a famous resort since ancient times; it boasts 22 mineral springs with water temperatures between 37˚C and 52˚C. Archaeological research has revealed that a town existed near the springs 5000 years BC. Many years later Thracians, and after them Romans, settled around the warm springs. The Roman emperor Diocletian visited the town in 293 and built a fortified wall around it. The town was named Diocletianopol. Famous archeological monuments such as the Thracian Tomb of Kazanluk ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thracian_Tomb_of_Kazanlak) and the Tomb at Starosel ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starosel) are located within 20-50 km from Hissar. In addtion Augusta SPA Hotel offers great conference facilities and is one of the best equipped balneology centres in the country and offer more than 100 treatments.
Hissar is situated in the centre of Bulgaria, 40 km north of the city of Plovdiv and 160 km east of the Bulgarian capital Sofia. Both the International airports of Sofia and Plovdiv can be used as arrival/departure points for RANLP 2011. Ryanair is now operating flights between London Stansted and Plovdiv two times per week. Sofia Airport is connected to Plovdiv via a highway and it takes only 1 hour and 45 minutes to reach Hissar from Sofia. In addition to the regular public transport (trains and buses), the organisers will provide shuttle minibuses from/to Sofia and Plovdiv airports at an inexpensive rate.
Going from Sofia to Hissar one can pass through Plovdiv. Sofia - Plovdiv and Plovdiv - Hissar are both connected equally well with busses and trains. We reccommend you this route.
Train schedules can be found on the website of Bulgarian State Railways http://bdz.bg
Busses from Sofia to Plovdiv and back leave in each 30 min or 1 hour from Central bus station in Sofia and bus station "South" (ЮГ [yug]) in Plovdiv. Their schedule in direction Sofia-Plovdiv can be found here: http://centralnaavtogara.bg and in direction Plovdiv-Sofia here: http://guide.plovdiv24.bg/270.html?pid=18.
Busses from Plovdiv to Hissar leave from Plovdiv bus station "South" (ЮГ [yug] in Bulgarian), which is situated on 47, Hristo Botev blvd., tel: 032 / 626 937. Bus station "ЮГ" is in 5 minutes walk from the main train station, accross Hristo Botev blvd. They are running in each 30-60 min. Here is their schedule:
| Plovdiv-Hissar | Hissar-Plovdiv |
|---|---|
| 06:20 h | 06:30 h |
| 07:40 h | 07:15 h |
| 09:00 h | 08:00 h |
| 10:00 h | 11:00 h |
| 10:30 h | 11:50 h |
| 12:00 h | 13:00 h |
| 13:00 h | 15:00 h |
| 13:30 h | 15:00 h |
| 14:30 h | 16:00 h |
| 15:15 h | 17:10 h |
| 16:50 h | 18:10 h |
| 17:30 h | 18:45 h |
| 18:30 h | |
| 19:30 h |
Optionally, there is a direct line from Sofia to Hissar which stops in a number of places on the way. The minibus leaves from bus station "Poduene" in Sofia and arrives on the bus station in Hissar, and runs once a day. This minibus line is meant to connects small settlements and mountain cities and could be inconvenient for long distance trip because of the small very curved mountain road even though the scenary is really nice. If you decide this bus have in mind tht the places in the vechicle are quite limited and ticket booking is bot offerred, so you need to be there some 15-30 min before the departure time.
| Sofia - Hissar | Hissar - Sofia | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| departure | arrival | departure | arrival |
| 07:30h | 10:50h | 15:50h | 19:30h. |
Hotel Hissar - http://www.hotelhissar.com/
Sana SPA Hotel - http://www.sanaspahotels.bg/
Galery Hotel - http://www.hotelgaleri.net/
Ray Hotel (means Paradise, relatively small clean place, close to the conference site) - http://hotelrai.hit.bg/index%20en.html
Here is a map of Hissar and points of interest. You can see which hotels are close by the main conference site - Augusta SPA Hotel (No 73).