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We have a rail pass that is good for 4 countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria), so we wanted to see if we could book our tickets using the rail pass for after we crossed the Turkey border. At the train station, we asked the lady at the information counter and she told us it would only be 22 Turkish Lira instead of the 61pp. This sounded good, so we decided to use one of our 10 days of rail pass for this journey. We had a minor setback, however, when she told us that the train only stopped in Veliko Tarnovo (our destination in Bulgaria) on Friday's. Since today was only Weds, we didn't want to wait 2 more days before leaving. We found out what the closest town would be and decided we'll just get off there and hope to either get another local train up to Veliko Tarnovo, take a bus, or even just stay there at the worst case. We booked the tickets (including another 20 Lira pp for the booking fee) and we'll just hope for the best. :)
After our rest, we decided to walk back into the old town for an early dinner and beer. It was another long walk, but enjoyable. We saw one restaurant that had floor seating on cushions and crepes on the menu. This sounded perfect! We both ordered the spinach crepes and a tea. We noticed there were two older women in the middle of the restaurant that were cooking the crepes. We got our meals and bit in expecting to enjoy the first bite. Instead, we both noticed there was something crunchy in there with the spinach. Not anything you could see, and it crunched with a grittiness that could only be sand or dirt. We each took one or two more bites and then just decided it wasn't worth it. We'll just go somewhere else. We told the waiter (of course, he was wondering why we were paying for the bill and not eating) and he offered to get us another one, but we didn't trust that it would be any better.
Food: Turkish food wasn't really up our alley - a lot of meats (mostly lamb, chicken and beef). I did love the yogurt though, and there were certainly a lot of salads on the menu that sounded great, but we were too worried about the unknown water safety to eat. We found mixed reports on the web about the cleanliness of the water here, and we had decided to play it safe. The Turkish seem to be big on pastries and sweets, and have a wide variety of choices. All that we sampled were excellent. Beer of Choice: Efes Memories: arriving after dark and already loving the cobblestone streets and small town feel of Old Istanbul, cats cats cats everywhere you look!!, our smelly hotel and switching to a better one, the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofia and the beautiful mosaics, sesame bagel breads sold by street vendors, Topkapi palace and the Harem, taking pictures from the rooftop of a friendly carpet shop, exploring the depths of the Grand Bazaar, carpet shopping and our biggest souvenir purchases yet!, spice and sweets bazaar, relaxing on the rooftop cafes with excellent views of the Bosphorus and sea.
Economy: Turkish economy is just now starting to recover from an economic crisis which occurred in the late 90's and early 2000's. They suffered from an extremely high inflation rate of over 100%, making the old Lira equal to over 1 million lira per $1US. Recently, Turkey has brought inflation under control (in the single digits) and introduced the New Lira at $1 million Old Lira = 1 New Lira. Not surprisingly, Turkey's major exports include oil and oil products, carpets and textiles, and fruit and nut products. Climate (June): Hot but not uncomfortable. All of our days were sunny and in the 80's, but there was always a light breeze to help cool off. Exchange Rate: 1 US dollar = 1.56 Turkish New Lira
Recommendation to friends: 9.5 out of 10 for Istanbul - Despite being a little nervous about the safety, we have fallen in love with Turkey. The variety of sights here, and the welcoming people, make this a place we will definitely try to come back to. It's easy to lose track of time in Istanbul, with all there is to see and experience. If you are headed here, try to stay on the Golden Horn. It is the old part of Istanbul, and also its most touristy section. Istanbul to us, feels like a mixture of Rome, the orient (maybe India or Egypt), and what we would picture Greece to be like. Day 162 - Istanbul < | Index | Photo Galleries | > Day 164 - Veliko Tarnovo © 2007 Blue Ocean Studios, LTD. All rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Services | About | Contact Prints | Return Policy | View Cart World Travel Galleries | World Travel Blog | Links |
Our stay at our new hotel ended up being much better than waking up to the awful smell next door. We slept in a little and then went to discover what was at the breakfast. Again just tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, cheese and coffee. Not a wide selection, but it was OK. We finished up doing a little bit of research on Bulgaria since we had a pretty good internet connection. We checked out and left our bags at the hotel, heading for the train station. Along the way we passed a pastry shop where we purchased a sesame bagel/bread and a nutty pastry - both delicious. 
With that done, we had until 10pm before we had to be on the train. We decided to check out the aqueduct that was prominently marked on our tourist map. It was a confusing, long walk - much longer than it could have been because the streets are so confusing in the old part of town! We ended up walking through the crowded market type streets where all the locals were again going about their shopping and cars were trying to squeeze down through all the people. We came out near the grand bazaar and recognized it as near where we had been yesterday. With a little help from a university student, we got pointed in the right direction. A few more wrong turns and a few more right turns and we were finally there. Before seeing the aqueduct, we ducked into a large mosque just to check it out. As soon as we had entered, a man chased after me and handed me a scarf to cover up my hair with. It is surprising that this is the first time I've actually had to do that, as many times we read in the guidebooks that you may need to. I think that because this mosque wasn't a major tourist attraction, it might have been more strict. 
Right outside the mosque, we finally got a glimpse of the aqueduct. This aqueduct remains from the Byzantines and was built back in the 4th century. Amazing! It was an interesting sight, to see this piece of the old world come together with the modern world as cars were now streaming through each of the arches in a highway heading towards the bridge to Asia. We found a park nearby and just rested for about 40 minutes, just soaking in the atmosphere. It appeared as though we were the only non-locals here. We bought a fried dough soaked in honey, a local treat. 
We had seen another rooftop restaurant the other day that looked like it had an amazing view of the Bosphorus and sea. We headed in that direction, and soon found it. The prices were a little higher than most, but not outrageous. And it had the best view, taller than any of the other cafes around it. We could see the Blue Mosque, the Aya Sofia and the water all from our table. We ordered 2 small meals and two beers and were pleased with all. :) We still had a few more hours until we needed to be at the train station, but we thought we'd go back to our hotel anyways and work on our photos and journaling. We left for the train station a little after 9pm and at least this time we knew the way. No problems on our 20 minute walk there. :) We located our train and found our sleeping cabin. We were excited to find that we had our own double cabin instead of the 4 person cabin that we had on the 2nd class trains in India. We settled in for a long night of training, since the conductor told us that we'd arrive in Stara Zagora at 8:45am. 
Final thoughts on Turkey:
People: We found the people here to be very friendly, outgoing, and happy to help us in any way they can. It was refreshing to be back in a country where people on the streets, in hotels, and in the taxi cab actually wanted to converse with someone from another country. Most people here can speak some English, making it pretty easy to get around. 
Safety Rating: 