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Published: August 8th 2011
Istanbul to Sofia
A local guide gave us an early morning tour around Istanbul to see the Blue Mosque and Turkish Baths before making a quick visit to a carpet store. It was here the salesmen explained the differences between wool, cotton and silk carpets with many of various designs available for purchase. Thinking that a rug might not be suitable for the camper trailer, and also way out of our price range we headed to the Grand Bazaar and Spice markets.
We couldn’t believe our eyes when a 10 year old boy purchased cigarettes, and we also came across a fishing/camping/weapon store where we could have easily bought a Desert Storm handgun or M16 for less than $840 Australian dollars. Don’t think we’d clear customs with an M16!
A small group of us went to dinner at a Turkish restaurant, being served a great balloon Turkish bread, with a chicken casserole that had been cooked in a terracotta pot. The waiter set alight the table before knocking the end off the terracotta pot with a flaming sword to pour our meal on our plates. Pretty cool!
We were sad to leave our hotel in Istanbul, but we
were lucky to have another luxurious night of accommodation in Sofia.
To get there we traversed the Bulgarian plains, spending some time at the border checkpoint of Macedonia and finally arrived in the city of Sofia where we spent some free time exploring the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral as well as some time-out in the beautiful gardens.
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Rhonda
non-member comment
Hi from Jerilderie
Hi Sheree and Lach, Had a nice rain the last couple of days so the farmers are happy. Oscar is well, had a trim up and a bath on the weekend and is still enjoying bossing the dumb blondes around. I competed on jerilderie master chef on Saturday night ,alas did not win but it was great fun and we cooked well. The judges were pretty harsh though,LOL.Emma and Nik are home and by all accounts had a great time and Shaun has had a couple of games with uni blues firsts. The organisation for the 21st is well underway for the 24th Sept. Time is flying and we are looking forward to seeing you both.I am off to Sydney on school excursion next week and working full time at the moment as the boss has had another baby. The blog and pictures are great, love Rhonda