No idea what’s going on!
13.10.25
It was lovely and quiet in our Edirne riverside spot, I vaguely heard the mosque but went straight back to sleep.
We had hardly any electricity left this morning and made the decision to move to a place with electric hook up.
It was a 2 minute drive away. We paid 300tl for 24 hours and 200 for electric.
Before moving we took Maisy for a walk to see the other bridge nearby, which is in fact the Meriç where we thought we parked.
This was actually the Tunca and is more impressive than the Meriç.
The whole area was derelict
Next we walked to the Jewish Synagogue but it was closed.
After moving to the big car park, we left Maisy in the van and went exploring.
Edirne is very shabby, unmade pavements and roads, tumbled down houses, graffiti and a real sense of discontent.
The very central area frequented by Bulgarians, Romanians and Greeks is smarter.
There are loads of cats and almost as many street dogs,especially around the many mosques.
We particularly wanted to see the Selimiye Mosque, designed by the very famous Architect Sinan. Of course it was surrounded by hoardings, but we could go inside one very impressive dome.
The outside is incredible. It’s huge and dominates a small hill looking across the city.
I loved the Ulu mosque, it predates Selimiye.
The local delicacy of Erdirne is beef liver, tossed in seasoned flour and fried.
As is often usual, the tourist area were all selling it, like a cooperative with the same prices. We walked back up by Selimiye mosque where we had chatted with a restaurant owner and had the liver there.
We were welcomed warmly and given extra tomato as they noticed how quickly John had cleared it off the salad because I hate it.
John didn’t fancy the liver and opted for soup. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but not to the extent that I can’t leave here without having it again.
We walked a km uphill to find the St George Greek Church. The main door was open but all of the outer doors were closed. There was a bell, but no one came.
My disappointment was lessened by a group of women on the corner having a massive row.
It went on for ages until 1 woman with a child went into her house and slammed her door.
John didn’t want to walk back past them, but I wasn’t scared!
More monster trucks and chenille wool and back to the van to be ready for a 3.30pm student of John’s.
We have full batteries on the van, although somehow John managed to turn the fridge off again.
His next trick was squatting by the open fridge, opening a huge bottle of coke, which exploded everywhere.
I calmly finished making a coffee and escaped to the cab.
We haven’t finished exploring, but it was lovely to rest my feet and catch up with blogging.
After John’s lesson we ventured out again.
We took our tablets hoping to download more TV. John spotted a pizza place with 40tl coffee! A price not seen for many moons.
The WiFi was unusably slow and the coffee was so bitter I had to put 3 sweeteners in it and still couldn’t drink it all.
Once we felt like we’d seen everything that we could find signposted we headed back to Naz.
I don’t know what to make of Edirne.
There’s fabulous Ottoman mosques, bridges, a Kervansaray and covered bazaars.
It was once the Capital of the Ottoman Empire.
Very few tourists visit here. Visitors historically came from Bulgaria for shopping, but in latter years with a weak lira and inflation, there’s fewer bargains to be had.
It all feels very culturally old compared to other places we’ve visited. Horses and carts are used to transport goods, there are so many Kıraathanesi, tea cafes for men, used to play okey and backgammon.
People sit watching the world go by, and shamelessly stare at us foreigners.
Virtually everyone is smoking, many snorting and clearing their throats. We don’t hear that so much in Fethiye anymore.
I can only assume that there’s a massive road reconstruction going on, drainage, electric, who knows, but it’s a mass of dusty streets and concrete blocks which have either been dug up or are going to be laid.
Despite all of this we did enjoy our time here, it does have a nice feel.
I spent ages googling poverty and demographics in Edirne but couldn’t find anything specific.
Dinner was chicken Massuman curry, without the potatoes as I couldn’t be bothered.
Our evening entertainment was another episode of Madam (still not sure) the darts final, Luke Humphries and Luke Littler, followed by Destination X with Rob Brydon.
Really enjoying this.
Night night from a huge very noisy Edirne carpark.
