Driving out of Istanbul was definitely sweet sorrow because it meant we had left behind one of our best experiences on our entire trip – and that’s saying something! – and it also meant our time in Türkiye was near it’s end.  But there were a few more surprises left for us before we crossed any borders and in Türkiye that can only be good.

Our plan was to head west toward the ancient capital of Edirne but we only made it about 100 kilometres, barely out of the greater Istanbul area, before we camped for the night along a dry creek bed in a rural setting with ample shade and a cool breeze.  Pity the trademark rubbish that had been left by locals camping here in the past.

We followed the highway through extensive rolling hills of hay and sunflowers, the temperature climbing again as we arrived in Edirne to check out their famous Selimiye Mosque dating from the 16^th century.  By this stage you might think we are all mosqued-out but we’ve saved ourselves for the good ones and come to appreciate what an engineering and aesthetic marvel they are.  How those guys built these huge structures with massive domes and big serious arches I can’t imagine.  Unfortunately the Selimiye Mosque was under major renovation and covered in scaffolding but we were able to go inside and get an idea of it’s grandeur.

We knew the border with Bulgaria was only a couple of kilometres away and we had our last Türkiye lunch in a local restaurant, another round of great pitas and kebabs, and we wanted the experience to last forever so we ordered a desert, rare for us, and accepted the friendly owner’s offer of chai to finish off the meal.  We knew we were going to miss Türkiye, that’s for sure.

And then we hit the border.  At 3pm we hit the queue of cars trying to pass from Türkiye into Bulgaria. Thousands of cars hardly moved in this melting 36°C (97°F) heat as the queue stretched further than we could see.  Hours went by as we inched along, cars running out of fuel or breaking down, the strain on everyone. 

Finally we made it through Türkiye’s border and into the queue for Bulgaria, whose Customs officials wouldn’t accept our German-issued car insurance for EU countries even though Bulgaria is part of the EU.  And so began another multi-hour process for me to buy expensive insurance for Tramp, battling bureaucracy and indifference all the way.  We finally left the border at 9pm, a grueling six hour border crossing, one of our worst ever.  Luckily there was a campsite only 30 kilometres into Bulgaria and we followed our nose there before crumbling into a heap of sweaty blob.

The border experience notwithstanding, I can’t express how much we loved our five weeks in Türkiye, it was truly one of the best travel experiences we have ever had.  If we were to identify which places on our long Follow the Sun journey we loved the most I think three come to mind.  Alaska for sure with it’s wild and beautiful frontier; Norway with it’s fjords and remote beauty north of the Arctic Circle, and Türkiye with it’s beautiful coastlines, complex culture and wonderful friendly people.

We will miss starting every sentence with Merhaba, we will miss the chai, we will miss the lovable and loving people who will do anything for you, we will miss the stunning coastlines, the expansive history, the mosques, the conflicting cultural lifestyle, the gozlemes, pides, kebabs, baclava, kofte, the daily taze ekmek, the Türkish delights and a hundred other yummy treats.  We won’t miss the rubbish they leave behind them or their maniac drivers but even those pieces are part of the complex puzzle in what makes Türkiye a very special place. 

We spent almost five weeks in Türkiye and drove just over 6,000 kilometres.  Despite the crazy drivers we didn’t hit anybody and miraculously nobody hit us.  We didn’t have any problems with the police, nor at any time did we feel threatened or at risk.  Quite the contrary, the Türkish people are just too nice.  So here’s my advice – drop what you’re doing and get on a plane to Türkiye.  You won’t regret it.

Bulgaria.  Part of the EU and NATO but on the edge of Europe, almost an afterthought, a deeply communist country most of the last century which began travelling the bumpy road to democracy in the early 1990’s.  Bulgaria has seen a little bit of everything, starting with Christianity in the 9^th century, byzantine influence, part of the Ottomans, then heavily shrouded in communism, now trying to find a new path with mixed success. 

Julie and I spent two nights at a campsite run by a good-natured British ex-pat near the little village of Bizer not far from the Türkish border.  We did chores, washing, repairs and that sort of thing, venturing into the local town of Harmanli to hit an ATM and get SIM cards.  Bulgaria has their own language but still uses the Russian Cyrillic alphabet (one of only eight countries to do so) so everything is totally unreadable.  In first impressions of Bulgaria we compared it more to Armenia, lacking any strong prosperity or investment, everything a bit tired and rundown.

But Bulgaria was also intriguing because it was the unknown and a combination of our curiosity and Tramp drove us northwest across sunflower fields to the 11^th century monastery at Bachkovo.  Now we’re talkin’, back to the good ole days of Armenia and Georgia where a day without a monastery doesn’t count.  We were thinking it would be like one of those countries, a few dozen or at most a hundred people taking in the site, maybe having a picnic.  How wrong we were!

We suspected we were near the site when cars were parked on the side of the road, then came the two huge carparks, the first one already full.  And the people, OMG, they’re everywhere, families, groups, young people, old people, absolutely out of control.  And the shops selling everything Bulgarian, restaurants, cafes, ice cream stands, souvenirs, music playing, kids crying, what have we done?

It turns out Bulgarians are in for a good time on a hot Sunday and we walked right into it.  We had lunch at a little restaurant then walked up to the hill to explore the monastery.  The complex was very cool, mostly rebuilt a number of times over the last 1,000 years and still highly functional.  A long queue formed of Bulgarians with their little candles waiting to pay homage to an icon of Mary.  It turns out Bulgarians are also quite religious. 

So our first tourist experience in Bulgaria was an absolute ripper – a bit of history and culture and absolutely fantastic people watching stuff. 

We then drove into the town of Plovdiv, a town with an awkward name but a fascinating history.  It turns out that this spot was first inhabited 8,000 years ago and has had people living here ever since, making it the longest permanently inhabited town in all of Europe.  That’s pretty cool. 

We wandered around the rough cobblestone streets of the Old Town and admired the Roman amphitheatre and Roman stadium, the former still used for concerts and the latter partly sticking out in various spots from the downtown main pedestrian streets.  We got a very good vibe from Plovdiv, it was named the European Cultural Capital for 2019, had some cool history, buildings and a good mix of old and new.  Plovdiv felt very livable.

We headed out of Plovdiv, across the fields, up into the mountains and camped near a reservoir in the middle of a small cow paddock, as you do.  We knew by this stage we were going to really enjoy Bulgaria.