Blogs from Edirne, Marmara, Turkey, Middle East
October 31st 2010
SATURDAY 9 OCTOBER - Part 5 Mileage 30446 - 387 miles yesterday - 1054 overall Alarm set for 0645 hours. Pat had cereal and I had boiled eggs and for breakfast and it was buffet style. I checked out of the hotel and they had missed the drinks at the bar last night, so I had a further 10 YTL to pay. 7°C on the car. We left the hotel at 0758 hours. We found our way to the Turkey/Bulgaria border in no time and went through fairly quickly, showing our Passports. At the Bulgarian side we again showed our passports and they took a quick look into the car, but no big deal. We had to purchase a Vignette (Road Tax) which cost €10 for 7 days. You display this in your car window to ... read more
October 7th 2009
I left the hotel in Thessaloniki in the dark. It was warm already. I caught the 7.18am train to Alexandroupolis, which cost less than half the previous day's bus fare. My aim for the day was to get to the Gallipoli peninsula. I had a rough idea about buses and taxis across the Greece-Turkey border, and then south to Çanakkale, but I knew that there would have to be some improvisation. A glorious sunrise streaked across the stark hills (my, how hilly this part of Europe is) and massive, almost imperceptively moving modern windmills. While there were some train stations in the small villages that we passed through, there were no platforms; the passangers walked across the rails and climbed up the side of the carriage to get on board. Alex was a lovely old city, ... read more
the best mosque I've ever Sinan... (or fighting boredom in Bodrum by being blabbering bum...)
Published: September 24th 2008Middle East » Turkey » Marmara » Edirne
September 18th 2008
America is now safe from the Azerbaijani menace, a tall, haunting hurricane of terrorism and data collection! FBI in Orlando airport saves the day... (more on that later) My approach to celebrating Ramazan has apparently been to fast from blogging. Consider this my iftar, my breaking of the fast. I can say without exaggerating that I've covered a fair bit of ground in Turkey at this point. Why it's taken me four years to visit the spectacular city of Edirne, spitting distance west of İstanbul, I'm not really sure. Matt, Farah, and I made our way to İstanbul's massive main bus terminal (it dwarfs many an international airport, I kid you not), hopped a bus and a few short hours later found ourselves gazing at one of the finest mosques on earth. We paused for tea ... read more
May 15th 2008
May 15, 2008 Edirne to Luleburgez This morning we had breakfast with our Edirne families and then boarded a bus to Luleburgez. It was only about a 45 minute ride. We were greeted by the GSE coordinator and the men of our new host families at a hotel located in the middle of the city. My host family is WONDERFUL and their house is AMAZING! Huso and Gulten are the parents of three beautiful girls: Selin, Birsu, and Seren. The high school that we visited today was for students that scored high on their exam in the 8th grade. 94% of the students that attend this school will attend and graduate from a university. Rotary sponsored an E grant which provided the school with 25 LCD projectors, computers and screens. A few facts about Luleburgez: • ... read more
May 14th 2008
Ederine Day 2: 5/14/08 I met the father of my host family, Ismet Acikoz, first thing this morning. He was held up in customs last night when coming home from Greece. I met the wives of the Rotarians in the newer part of town. Much to my surprise my host mother didn’t join us for breakfast. (This was very different from my first host family because they were with me all day every day ) My day started with breakfast in the woods at a small café. We had the norm… cheese, cucumber, tomatoes, salami, a boiled egg, and tea. From there we leisurely worked our way over to the Selimiye Mosque to have coffee. After we finished drinking coffee, we went inside the Mosque. Before entering the Mosque you must take your shoes off and ... read more
May 13th 2008
5-13-08 Corlu to Ederine Our morning started off with a trip the farm of friends of a Rotarian. The countryside was beautiful and relaxing. The main crops were sunflower (to make sunflower oil), canola, and rice. There much more farmland than in the states. People live in high-rise apartyments rather than individual houses. This allows for much more farming. The house (we would say apartment) that I stayed in was constructed by my host family’s company. I think they were the contractor/owner… I’m not sure. They said that all of them were sold except 56 units. Anyway, back to the farm. The house keeper was from Bulgaria, so she made Bulgarian coffee for us and served us watermelon. We are now on our way to Ederine. It should take about an hour and a half. On ... read more
April 12th 2008
I made my first day trip out of Istanbul today, traveling west to the city of Edirne. The trip lasted all day, and I took over 200 pictures… so this is a very quick summary of some of the highlights. Since we visited several mosques, including the one usually designated as the most impressive in Turkey (Selimiye Mosque), I took many videos in the style that you have all come to know and love. Since it is late, and I need to get some reading done for an upcoming midterm on Monday, I haven’t browsed through my videos yet, but have picked a couple of pictures to show a tiny bit of what I saw. First up in my summary, though not first on our stops, is the Old Mosque, which was very cool, as we ... read more
April 12th 2008
Videos! (Only two, they take soooo long to load, but there are more, trust me)... read more
June 20th 2007
url='/Videos/3974.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3974.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;' Turkish Babushkas heading home from work Last roads in Turkey There are 4 easy steps for paving a road in Turkey: 1. Knock down trees, villages, etc 2) Spread Tar 3) Find the biggest rocks in your regions and drop them on said tar 4) Open road to traffic As cyclists, we like to be as helpful as the next person, but we're not really into spreading out the loose rocks out for the big rigs that ride next to our heads. First, I don't think that they appreciate our work. Not to mention, we end up feeling like we''re being dragged by horses when we ride over this stuff. Still our last days riding in Turkey were beautiful. Riding through orchard-covered valley floors... looking up at roman tombs carved into cliff, looking ... read more
October 29th 2004
Hitched across rolling fields and afternoon fog through Eastern Thrace to Edirne, less than 20 miles from Bulgaria and Greece. My hitchhiking fortunes have vastly improved since my comparative inexperienced days a month ago. Being offered a ride while not hitching is no longer an uncommon experience, and I don't think I hitched for more than 15 minutes before getting picked up. It may have more to do with the drivers in Thrace than anything to do with me. Edirne was the Ottoman capital prior to the liberation of Istanbul, and home to many mosques and other historical entities. The old palace, unfortunately, was blown up by the retreating Turks before they surrendered the city to the Bulgarians during the 1st Balkan war (1913). I read somewhere that they did the same to the palace in ... read more
