Sunday 30 April - moving on to Greece

 We set off at 8 this morning to enter Greece, apparently not through the nearest one to us, but further south where the road to continue south will be better. Not knowing how long the actual crossing will take, we stopped for washrooms and an opportunity to spend any Turkish Lira we had left. When we reached the border we had to get off the Turkish bus and cross on foot. We had the formality of leaving Turkey, and then walked to the next building which was Customs to enter Greece. Everything went quite well, of course it takes a little while to check twelve people. At the last stage (where our Greek bus and driver was supposed to meet us) we were not allowed to cross on foot we had to wait until the bus came. Our tour manager couldn’t reach the driver by phone and we waited about twenty minutes. Our leader ended up using a truck drivers phone and eventually got in touch. Apparently, there had been some sort of incident earlier and they were being a bit awkward. Anyway, it sorted itself out and we crossed - stopping for WC and coffee soon after.

On the road again, we headed for the Dadia National Forest, which has old growth Balkan Oak and Pine. We stopped in a little village and walked down a narrow road to a restaurant, bigger than I expected, and had lunch. After that we continued on to the Forest information centre and watched a movie on the birds in the area - it is a breeding area for some of the rarest birds of prey in all of Europe. After that we checked into our hotel, which is located right next door. It is rustic lodge type accommodation and apart from one guy, we were the only guests. We went on a walk through the forest for about an hour, then we drove to a petrified forest and had a visit and walk there too - no problem getting my 10,000+ steps today! We had dinner at the lodge, the lady owner cooked a lovely tree course meal for us. After the fresh air and exercise we should sleep tonight.

Saturday 29 April - Edirne

 Today we explored the town of Edirne, previously known as Adrianople (after Hadrian). We visited three mosques today (this is getting to be like the Cathedral tours of Europe!). Our first stop was the Selimiye Mosque, with architect Mimas Sinan’s masterpiece design where the mosque (built 1568-1575) has a single great dome supported by eight pillars. It is a UNESCO site and the outside is currently being renovated (hence the scaffolding). As is often the case, the mosque is entered via an entrance in the bazaar, which makes it easier to do some shopping and just pop into the mosque when you hear the call to prayer.

The second mosque was the Eski Cami, now called the old mosque, and thirdly Uc Serefeli Cami with four distinctive minarets. The mosques don’t always have the same number of minarets, and we easily walked between them all.

We took the bus to visit the Medical Museum, which was a bit further out of town and originally built as a hospital where the doctors lived and trained (built in 1488) for 400 years, before being turned into a museum. Some of the methods of treatment back then were quite strange.

We then went for lunch at a very nice riverside restaurant, where I had a beautifully cooked lamb shank, bulgar, and Greek salad, followed by Kunefe for dessert mmmmmm.

We had the rest of the afternoon free, couldn’t manage any more food at dinner time so we drank beer on a patio instead.

Friday 28 April - Istanbul

 Today was the end of our visit to this huge city of 22 million. That isn’t counting the visitors! In addition to the tourists, there are people from Russia, some have left because they want to escape and some are the family members of men who are tied to the war in some way. There are also some Ukrainians, and other nationalities who all want to settle here - for some, easy to do if you have enough money to buy a house.

We did a boat ride on the Bosphorus, on one of the local ferries, for about 90 minutes. Public transport - very clean and organized boats that are used to cross between the Asian and European sides, and also along the coast line. There are lots of very expensive homes, a few old palaces (summer homes of a Sultan) and lots of hotels. The further along into the suburbs we got, the greener it became. We were in the Golden Horn for part of it, and we got off just before we would have entered the Marmara Sea. Our bus met us and we went to a restaurant for some lunch before we drove to our next stop, for two nights, the city of Edirne which took about three hours, mostly on a good highway.

 We had a chance to relax or take a walk before the group dinner at a traditional Turkish restaurant.

Thursday 27 April - Istanbul

 We awoke to a rainy day, and it continued for most of the day. We were quite wet by the time we got back to the hotel (about 3:30). The Turks were pleased it was raining as they’d only had a few days of rain all winter, the Tourists not so much ☔️.

We started our sightseeing by travelling in our bus to the Pera area and doing a walking tour. We saw some streets where the pubs and nightclubs are, (it was quiet on a rainy morning), we followed a pedestrian street with an old tram running down the middle, went around a small art gallery. We also went up the Genovesi-built Galata Tower with views of the city in all directions. It would be quite spectacular on a sunny day but we experienced the misty grey views. One part of Istanbul is in Europe and the other in Asia, part of the city is situated on the water (the Golden Horn). After that we went to one of the oldest restaurants in the city for lunch. I tried some lamb Gyros which was really good. After that we walked around the corner to the Rustem Pasha Mosque (which is on top of the bazaar) where again, there are beautiful 16 cent. tiles decorating the interior, the carpets we walked on (with our wet socks and shoeless feet) were lovely and clean and soft. We then went back downstairs and had a walk in the Grand Bazaar, first stop was a spice shop for a free sample of their fruity tutti tea which was made from strawberries, pomegranates (and more). We also sampled several different kinds of Turkish Delight - it was very nice, and nothing like that pink stuff Grandma tried to have us eat at Christmas. Of course, once amongst the spices we decided to buy some smoked paprika and some chilli (both grown in Turkey), they were weighed and then vacuum packed and labeled. We continued browsing and bought some hand-made soaps and a fridge magnet. There was no pressure from the vendors, which was nice, one even said his father lived in Oakville, Ontario, and he liked Timmy’s double-double.

We returned to the hotel about 3:30 to dry off. I dried my shoes with the hairdryer so will be ready to go out for some dinner later.

Wed 26 April - Istanbul

 We had quite a busy day today. We left the hotel at 9 a.m. and drove along the 5th cent. City Walls, which stretch for 10.5 miles. They were built when the city was called Constantinople. We stopped at Yedikule, the Gate of the 7 Towers, where the original Golden Gate of the city was built.

Next, we visited Tekfur Palace Museum where we could see large screen versions of the mosaics of the Church of St Saviour in Chora. The church was closed for renovations and keep promising to open again but apparently never does.

We also stopped at a Bulgarian Church (not sure why, but it did have lots of icons and gold work). Also we enjoyed a walk around one of the old neighborhoods.

Next stop was lunch then the Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent, built in the 16th century. We were allowed in, but again the ladies had to cover their heads and we all needed to remove our shoes. I decided I needed to buy a scarf of my own, as it will be used again on this trip, so I managed to buy one at a stall conveniently located in the area.

It just started to rain a little as we came out so we headed to our final stop of the day, our cooking class at Cooking Alaturka. They set us all to work straight away - chopping onions, herbs, and tomatoes, and then we assembled the dishes. (This probably took us 1.5 to 2 hours). We made lentil soup, stuffed eggplant, courgette fritters, dolmades (stuffed vine leaves) and walnut stuffed figs. Once we had everything cooking we were served wine and beer while the food cooked and then we enjoyed our meal - which was delicious. We were all stuffed, so we walked back to the hotel and arrived about 8:30 p.m. I didn’t take any photos here but hope to get some passed on to me.

Note: Photos 1,3 old walls. Photo 2 just outside old walls shows the way they built the old houses. Photo 4 view from near the mosque, towards the Bosphorous. Photos 5, 6 the mosque. Photo 7 Blue mosque at night (near hotel), photo 8 inside Bulgarian church.

Tuesday April 25 - Istanbul

 We had a relaxed day today, no scheduling to worry about. We were both awake at 2 a.m. but managed to drop off again until 7:30 - seven hours time difference is quite a lot to get used to. We had a slow breakfast  at the hotel, a huge omelette and lots of coffee, before heading out for some sightseeing. 

We are within an easy five minute walk to the Sultanahmet historic area which contains the famous Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and Topkapi Palace. We visited them all on our last visit to Istanbul and didn’t think they would have changed that much! We went inside the Sultan Ahmet Mosque (Blue Mosque) as it has recently reopened after a three year refurbishment. The blue tiles that dominate the interior are beautiful. It was quite busy inside, we had to remove our shoes and I had to cover my head - luckily they provided scarfs for ladies who didn’t have their own - Ian thought I looked like a Polish cleaning lady 🤣

We had a simple takeout lunch in the park - some stuffed vine leaves and a cappuccino.

We met the Tour Manager and the rest of the group for dinner tonight, it is a fairly small group - 10 total, 7 Canadians and 3 Americans. We all walked to a local restaurant for dinner and had an assortment of typical Turkish dishes.

Mon 24 April - Istanbul

 Arrived today, about 5 pm local time, after two flights. The first one departed Toronto at 9:20 pm Sunday for Frankfurt (about 8 hrs), the second from Frankfurt to Istanbul (2.5 hrs). Both were on time, so that helped as we had a bit less than 2 hours connection time. We found our way through the airport and got through Passport Control with no trouble, we’d gotten an online visa beforehand. We then went outside and called the driver we’d arranged to take us to the hotel. He was there in a few minutes and soon sped us into the city, it took around 50 minutes and was quite busy. The hotel is on a pedestrian precinct in the old historic part of town, the driver called someone from the hotel to come and meet us so we knew where it was! Maybe he thought we’d get lost. We checked in and then went out for some dinner, we didn’t go far but needed to eat as we’d only had a croissant and coffee all day - with the seven hours time difference the day just disappeared on us. We sat outside the restaurant, they put a heater on, and we tucked in. It will be an early night tonight.