Days 19 to 20: Kardzali to Istanbul

Arriving from Bulgaria

Waking with scorching hangovers in Bulgaria, driving 400km or so to Istanbul wasn't top of the agenda for either of us. Whilst Gerle nursed what must have been the mother of all hangovers, I packed up the camp. As the time dragged on and the temperature rose, standing in the open completing mundane tasks like washing dishes whilst someone slept in the car thrilled me more and more. 

By about 10am we were ready to go. Thankfully the way wasn't too difficult, and the road improved steadily toward Turkey. The Turkey border crossing was fairly straight forward, with the only difficulty experienced ensuring that I would get my tax refund on the car. It was worth sticking around until 'the computer system is working now'. Hopefully Eric will now see that I get my tax money back before being bailed up for it again in Mongolia.

After crossing the border, it was a pleasure to experience Turkish engineering and road construction technique. The road from the border to Istanbul was simply a breeze, and this was to be experienced in most other places in Turkey including those which I had though may have been a lot more underdeveloped. This was the first clue in the introduction to Turkey, a super power in the making. 

For those who have been, the parallels between Turkey and China may be easier to understand. It is a country of relatively cheap labour cost, but with high education and technology. This place is, to borrow the phase of a former Victorian premier 'On the Move'. They're good a 'getting shit done'. 

Turkey and China seem similar, however I would suggest that the average living condition is better in Turkey is a little better, and the pace of development a little slower. This may seem no surprise, but I have not been anywhere yet so similar to China in terms a culture so imbedded with growth and development. The government here is certainly stimulating growth that will provide an excellent platform for engagement with Europe, the Caucuses and Middle East that will propel Turkey forward.

Arriving into Istanbul late in the afternoon, we followed the Sat Nav as close as we could the hotel, before temporarily parking to set out on foot to find the place. Within about 50m on the main drag in the area, Australian accented Turks were helping us left and right. Normally one is suspicious in such a situation, and I was too here. It as unnecessary, however, as all voluntary assistance was genuine and we were soon at our hotel. 

The Burckin Hotel was a small mid-range hotel located within the Sultanahmet (Old Town) of Istanbul, and proved to be most comfortable and conveniently located within walking distance of most things that we wanted to visit. Kudos to the staff who were great, welcoming us enthusiastically and helping to park the car which was very out of place amongst the smaller cars more suited to the narrow streets.

It was an exciting feeling driving into Turkey and Istanbul. Things were now different. With so many mosques appearing, the people changing and upon leaving the car in Istanbul the assault of heat and humidity mixed with a unique and pleasant group of new smells, we were excited to look around. 

Wasting no time after checking in to the hotel, we dressed to go to dinner and explore the streets once it had cooled off some more. Foolishly, we sat at the first place we came too, hungry as we were - a few more metres and the increased competition provided reduced prices and higher quality. Lesson learned for the following day. 

Dinner complete, we continued to walk down the hill toward the Hagia Sophia and Sultanahmet (Blue) Mosque. There were lots of street vendors, artists and tourists mingling, which we joined, before stopping to relax by the fountains in front of the Blue Mosque. It had cooled off by now, and a pleasant breeze had piped up. Continuing to walk again, we completed a loop back to the hotel a different way to that which we had come. 

Our path home took us off the main streets and into the smaller side alleys, where there were seemingly endless cafes and restaurants plying for trade, but also 'normal' inner Istanbul life in progress. It wasn't too late, but we were keen for a big day on the foot falcon tomorrow, so we headed to bed.

Site seeing amongst the traffic on the way into town

Ready to go

A little water spray cooled the air down further

Ready for bed

Grand Turistico

With our plan to be in Ankara early morning in two days time, we had decided to forego a third night in Istanbul such that we could be closer to Ankara and ensure that our Turkmenistan Embassy appointment wasn't jeopardised. Istanbul is far too large and interesting to cover in only two nights and days, but we were going to try and see at least some of the major attractions on our only full day in town. Even only after half a day and one night, I could feel that I wanted to come back to here for a longer sticky beak... hopefully the recently commenced direct Ulaanbaatar - Istanbul flights are a success and continue in 2013.

Our day started with a sensational breakfast on the roof-top terrace of the hotel overlooking the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. A smorgasbord of cheeses, breads, meats and condiments all with a Turkish flavour. The sun was already pretty high up by 7.30am, and without shade it was hot, so we didn't linger for too long after having our fill. Leaving the hotel, we figured it would be good to check out the Grand Bazaar before the crowds descended, which proved a good move. Initially the place, whilst thrumming with activity, was still pleasant to stroll about; by the time we left it was almost shoulder to shoulder and some jostling was needed to get where one wanted. 

One of many entrances to the Grand Bazaar... not to sure what the issue with the guy in the bottom right is.

Inside the Grand Bazaar... not so busy yet.

Another shot inside one of the main halls of the Grand Bazaar

The market itself is a pretty amazing complex. The covered streets and alleys all interconnect in a maze of market shopping stalls, and it stays remarkably cool despite the heaving mass of humanity contained within. It is I guess now quite different in terms of trade to what it once was; this market is far more like the Silk Market in Beijing than say the Yashow or Xizhimen markets (i.e. it's principle trade is with tourists paying inflated prices). There were also design shops established on the main thoroughfares of the bazaar, detracting from any thought of traditional sales.

Shortly after arrival, needing to figure out exactly what we wanted and were going to do here, we stopped for a drink at a tea house. Seriously overpriced, we opted for one cool drink each before pushing on. The kid out front plying for business was good at what he did, interchanging professionalism with innocent childlike appeal. Strangely, he reminded me of the fat kid from the 'Hey Dad' television series.

Relaxing over a cool drink. The kid in right of the photo was an excellent spruiker. 

Retracing our steps to some of the stalls that we had already seen, we both bought some cotton and linen clothing (after some attempted haggling) in an effort to be prepared for the hot weather and need to dress more conservatively in some places on our itinerary. 

After walking around again, and getting lost a few more times (checking out belly dancer outfits, being entertained by children hawking toys and examining jewellery, shisha's, tea and fruit products), we figured it was time to leave the market and head toward some of the other sites.  We wanted to stop for a cold drink again, and after initially refusing refusing anything to eat at the cafe we stopped at, we relented for a snack. Throughout the meal we were requested by the adjacent shop owner to visit his shop and look at carpets, he would have asked about 30 times within 30 minutes! No chance of that after being seriously scalped by the cafe for what was supposed to be a snack. More and more food arrived, with 'condiments' being meals in themselves. Sneaky buggers. 

The initial plan was to head inside the Hagia Sophia which now serves as a museum, but we were distracted on the way by the City Bus Tours. I hadn't done this anywhere before, but it seemed like a good opportunity for us both to experience something new, and see a lot of the city briefly in the short time that we had available. One ticket was good for 24 hours of hop-on / hop-off activity, and as there was also a night tour we figured that we could complete two of the three available routes today, and the third the following morning before departure. 

That was the plan... had City Windows Travel company not been such a crappy operator, this may have been possible. We had a bad experience with them, and I would strongly discourage people from going with them (but there was a rival operator that did seem to honour their promotional material). 

In the end we only completed one of the routes, the day-time route that followed the Bosphorus coast and crossed the First Bosphorus Bridge to the Asian continent. The tour was good, though 'it's 5 minutes to departure' became over an hour as we waited for the bus to fill completely prior to leaving. The taped commentary was also ordinary, with poor sound quality.

We had wanted to get off the bus at one point and wait for the Night Tour to pick us up en route (some of the tour routes were overlapping), but the bus did not stop at any of its scheduled stop locations, and we returned almost to where we began after about two hours. With about an hour before the last Night Tour scheduled departure, we walked across one of the bridges crossing between he Sultanahmet and Galata regions of Istanbul over an inlet of the Sea of Maramara, and waited (and waited, and waited, and waited) at the bus stop for the Night Tour bus... which never came. Not impressed.

Anyway, we walked back over the bridge from whence we had came, both walks pleasant in the cool of the evening, watching hundreds of people fishing from both upper and lower decks on both sides of the bridge. Not sure what they're using the fish they're catching for, but they wouldn't class as anything except bait in Australia. After crossing back to the Sultanahmet side, we headed for the hotel to freshen up for dinner. We had seen an advertisement for a roof-top terrace restaurant that day, and wanted to check it out.

The touristinator in action aboard the (Sh)City Windows Travel bus.

A proud nation; there are Turkish flags visible in literally all directions. 

The 'Asian Side' across the Sea of Marmara

Another Turkish flag... I do like their flag, and their national pride.

The First Bosphorus Bridge... and important engineering achievement connection Europe with Asia.

Trade in the Sea of Marmara below.

Crossing the First Bosphorus Bridge (for the first time; we returned and then crossed again by car the following day)

Busy waterway, looking toward the Caspian Sea

The New Mosque (I think)

Big fishing rods... catching minnows.

On our way back to the hotel.

After a quick shower and change we were back on the streets and headed for dinner. The roof-top terrance didn't turn out to be too spectacular (similar to our hotel's breakfast terrace setup) but it was still pleasant sitting above the streets from which wafted the sounds and smells, whilst we ate in front of a panoramic view of the Istanbul skyline. We could see over the Golden Horn, Sultanahmet and Bosphorus regions which all had their various mosques and historical monuments lit up. Somewhat like Paris, it is great that the modern high rise buildings have been limited to regions outside the central and historical regions of the city. It does make a difference in aesthetic appeal.

We had similar meals, both Turkish casseroles, with lots of fresh bread and a couple of beers each. Full, and tired from a day where we must have covered at least 25 km on foot, we returned to the hotel for a sleep-in. Not wanting to partake in any more activity with City Windows Travel, we had decided that we would take the opportunity the following morning to simply relax and recharge in the nice surroundings, before leaving to travel toward Ankara.

The view over dinner

Day 18: Melnik to Kardzali

In the morning, thinking that we didn't have too far to travel to our next destination in Bulgaria, we lazed about in Melnik with a bit of a sleep in and then a long breakfast (with Wi-Fi) back at the same cafe in which we had dinner in the night before. We were just impressed with the service and efforts of the people running the place, and as the food was good thought it OK to return. 

Winding up breakfast at about 11am, we returned to the guest house where we had washing drying in the sun. It was dry, we packed, and left. It was only a short drive to the nearby Rozhen monastery, which is recognised as one of only a few well preserved medieval monasteries in Bulgaria. Within about 15 minutes we were there... and within about 15 minutes we had seen what was to be seen. The monastery is still practicing, and not really a tourist destination which is dissimilar to what the guidebooks, internet sites and road signs would suggest.

Plugging 'Kardzali' into the GPS unit, it immediately suggested what I had assumed was a service track on approach to the monastery as the route of choice. Oh well, better now than never to test that the Prado had some off road capability. Aside from the track narrowing to receive a few scratches from the encroaching shrubbery, nothing caused issue for the next 50 km or so except for the slow pace of progress. Finally we emerged back onto first gravel roads, then back to the bitumen. The major roads of Bulgaria are not highways, but narrow and winding strips of bitumen. 

GPS Shortcut...

Feeling like Russell Coight

Passing through small villages and soviet style cities, we started to climb into the mountains where it seemed that there were more horse and carts than cars on the road. Passing through pine forests on way up, the temperature dropped considerably although the altitude didn't go much higher than about 2300m. After passing by some ski resort towns, that were a little eery in their level of dereliction (somewhat akin to the some areas in Mongolia, where be it by private or government failure projects have been abandoned), we descended again into farmland. 

Continuing eastward, we were actually travelling along a river valley with Bulgaria on one side and Greece on the other. We stopped for lunch at a roadside rest stop, where we enjoyed tomato, bread and rock melon that we had purchased in Melnik. The rock melon was fantastic!

Turning northward, we headed towards Kardzali, where by Google Earth we had seen that a large lake existed and figured it would be a good place to find our first wild camping site for the trip. Along the route we had chosen, there had been numerous water fill points. I think that these were fed by either or both of springs or mountain streams. Closing on our destination, and after seeing numerous people filling up and drinking from these sources, we decided to stop and fill our water containers (obtained in Neumarkt, Germany) for the first time prior to wild camping such that we had water for cooking and washing in the morning.

Stopping at one of the fill points, we set about filling the two containers that had been thus far simply thieving oxygen in the boot of the car. A fifty percent strike rate seemed OK for these things... only one was water tight, but we filled the two hoping that a bit of moisture would soften the O-ring of the leaking one. Writing this now, some 15 days or more later, this has not proven the case.

Behind the water fill point was an interesting tree.... fresh cherries. Gerle was still marvelling that fresh fruit was still able to be obtained for free, and despite a ladder perhaps indicating private ownership it was 'up and at 'em' to get to some free sweetness. Actually, these cherries would have to be some of the nicest that I have ever tasted. I'm not sure if the variety was any different to the usual supermarket type in Australia, but these were fantastic. Picking a few dozen, the didn't last longer than about five minutes once back in the car and on the road again.

Roadside water fill point

Preparations for camping

Quite roads of country Bulgaria

Hmm.... what's that?

Closer investigation

Mmmm.... looks tasty.

Gold! Yummy cherries.

Approaching Kardzali we stopped at a small supermarket not unlike what is common in Mongolia to get some food for the evening. Before the supermarket was a roadside stall selling fresh vegetables, where stocked up with tomatoes, corn, cucumber, plums and peaches. The supermarket was a little further into the town we were in, and surrounded with cafes filled with people who could not help but stare at both us and the car. Entering the supermarket, the parallels with Mongolia were all around in terms of the food available and the way in which it was being sold. Leaving with beer, cheese, soup bases and some other more Russian style accessories and condiments than what we had come across previously we headed for what we thought was a short drive to the lake. 

The lake in fact was a good distance further, and as it was getting dark now (about 8pm) we figured it would be better to find somewhere to camp sooner rather than later. The first place we headed to off the main road appeared to be a dumping ground for the local peoples rubbish; a shame to see, but something that appeared to be becoming more common on exit from Europe proper. Gerle wasn't happy, and although I wasn't too happy to continue driving, I was glad that we did for what we found was indeed much better.

Heading from the main road on a track not suitable for 2WD vehicles, we crested a hill to find a nice little plateau overlooking a Bulgarian village that was nice and private, as well as free from rubbish. There was even a plum tree overloaded with ripe fruit.

Ready for wild camping

Local Bulgarian tea herbs

Wild plums

As we setup camp for the evening we were surprised by a visitor returning on foot to the village we war overlooking after foraging for plants that through broken Russian communication we established were for use as tea leaves. A middle aged to elderly man, he was very interested in our voyage once it was established that we were from Mongolia, and that Gerle spoke a small amount of Russian. He gifted to us the tea herbs that he was carrying, and in return we offered him some Mongolian vodka which he was pleased to accept. It did seem unfair though that he had spent time collecting the tea herbs, and that we had simply purchased the vodka. He was happy though, so all seemed good. 

Here in Bulgaria was our first wild camping, away from the Europe style camping complete with swimming pools and restaurants. There were plenty of stones around the top of the hill, carefully moved aside from the field in which a crop was planted and harvested prior to our arrival, providing good material to construct a fireplace. With the fire going, we tested our the cooking ability of the Kelly Kettle with a variety of 'Mish Mash', in the pot above the kettle flue. I think we won't try this again, as the Kettle would boil all to quickly without the stew in the pot above heating. 

In the end, we did enjoy a stew (definitely not genuine Mish Mash) of tomatoe, onion and zucchini, but the highlight of the meal was definitely the corn on the cob roasted over the coals adjacent to the Kelly Kettle. By now it was dark, and figuring that we were to exit from the European Union tomorrow, some wine and spirit obtained thus far 'needed' to be drunk. If the lax customs control were to be known earlier, we needn't have indulged. We had wine collected in Greece and Bulgaria to be had, as well as Limoncello and Grappa from Italy that couldn't go to waste. There as also the home made Raki that we had been given in Greece.

Things ended up a little messy... but it was nice to sit and relax beside the fire. A little of a shame that the customs crossing the border the next day didn't inspect our fridge, but not to worry - it just freed up some space for obtaining and trying other drinks en route.

More Russell Coight-esque action

Our neighbours for the evening

Corn on the cob, cooked on the coals

Delicious

Before too much Bulgarian vino...

Heading to bed, all was peaceful except for a last night toilet expedition by both thanks to the late night drinks. The road was distant and not busy, temperature was pleasant and with no one around to disturb we both slept well. Oh yeah... sleeping when drunk is easy too!