http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aADarxEjZ53w&refer=uk

U.K.'s XL Travel Group Crashes, Thousands Stranded (Update1)

By Tom Biesheuvel and Chris Peterson

Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- XL Leisure Group Plc, the U.K.'s third largest
tour operator, went into administration early today, leaving tens of
thousands of passengers stranded, with the company blaming rising fuel
costs and the economic slowdown.

The U.K.'s Civil Aviation Administration said as many as 89,000 people
could be stranded overseas with another 200,000 holding advanced
bookings with the privately held company and its units.

XL Leisure, XL Airways UK Ltd., Excel Aviation Ltd., Explorer House
Ltd., Aspire Holidays Ltd., Freedom Flights Ltd., Freedom Flights
(Aviation) Ltd., The Really Great Holiday Company Plc, Medlife Hotels
Ltd., Travel City Flights Ltd. and Kosmar Villa Holidays Plc are all
in administration, XL said in a statement on its Web site this
morning.

``The companies entered into administration having suffered as a
result of volatile fuel prices, the economic downturn, and were unable
to obtain further funding,'' XL said in the statement.

Hello, all: As always, thanks to everyone for their advice and input. My
trip is shaping up nicely. I have hotels booked in Vienna, Budapest and
Eger. Then I think I'll follow the advice I got in this newsgroup and take
an overnight train from Budapest to Sarajevo. From there I'll go to
Dubrovnik.

Here's the thing. I got a large map of the region and see that I have to
get from Dubrovnik to Sofia where my vacation ends. I made note of a
number of cities and towns between Dubrovnik and Sofia: Pristina, Pec, Novi
Pazar, etc. I cross-referenced that with my guide books and they don't
seem very enthusiastic about any of these places. Downtrodden, depressing,
boring, etc.

So my question would be: I need to get from Dubrovnik to Sofia. No rush.
I'll have maybe a week or so. Can anyone recommend a route that would be
interesting and not too difficult in terms of buses and trains?

From what I gather from my guidebooks, this could be a challenge!

Thanks again to everyone.

David

On Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:53:58 +0100, M............ wrote in post :
40tude.net> :

lol!