From Istanbul to Burgas

FROM ISTANBUL TO BURGAS

October 14:  For anyone who has flown overnight in Economy you don’t need an elaborate description of cramped seats, long line-ups for the toilet, but very healthy food (meaning it’s too tasteless to ingest the  unnecessary calories.)  Nonetheless after 10 hours in steerage on a flight from Toronto to Istanbul we arrived tired, but optimistic.

Our hotel had sent a driver to the airport and after he had finished fighting heavy traffic we arrived at our lovely little hotel in the heart of the old part of the city.   We dropped off our luggage and had a very nice lunch at some sidewalk place before heading to the Topkapi Palace.  We were not in the mood to stand in the ½ kilometre line for tickets so we made our way to the spice market.  Many wrong turns made a 15 minute walk last 30 minutes but we were rewarded with exotic smells and beautiful displays.  Then back to the hotel for check-in and a shower and a shave (2 of the 3 essential “s” words that make life much more pleasant).  Then we walked to the grand bizarre where Betty unbelievably found the same jewelry store where she had purchased earrings two years ago.  She then cleaned me out of my Turkish Lire by matching the earrings with a pendant.

Our feet screamed “sit” so we returned to the hotel and proceeded to the roof top bar for complementary sandwiches and beer.  By this point the Hanlon’s had joined us and we switched to surprisingly drinkable Turkish wine.  Betty insisted I stay awake and we walked around the corner to one of seemingly thousands of restaurants where we chose one that distinguished between Turkish and Ottoman cuisine (don’t ask me the difference).  We were joined by Tori Anderson (a charming young Antigonish woman who was sent to Istanbul on business by her London investment firm.)

The meal was very, very good (my sea bass in particular) but we wished we had ordered the Testi Kebap.  This is dish of lamb, chicken and beef sealed in an earthen crock.   The crock is heated at your table over open flames and when ready the top of the crock is smashed off revealing the meal.  Again the Turkish wine (a Cab/Petit Verdot blend) was nicer than I would have guessed. 

We stumbled back to our hotel and slept so soundly that we didn’t hear any of the calls to prayer that normally jumpstart the tourists five times per day.

BULGARIA (Day 1).  We docked in Burgas (4^th largest city in Bulgaria) a little late because of fog.   However, our guide was waiting and treated us to a very pleasant day. 

Bulgaria is a small agricultural country of 7 million people.  However, in recent years 500,000 Russians have immigrated and bought up many beachfront properties.  Now, the Bulgarians are very worried that there may be a repeat of the Ukrainian crisis, particularly if Putin decides to protect the Russian minority.   A large part of the Bulgarian economy is based on tourism (traditionally Russian), but since Russia has taken over Crimea her citizens are discouraged from going to Bulgaria.

We skipped Burgas in favor of a 30-minute drive to the UNESCO city of Nessevar.  Needlesstosay we visited more churches than enough but the town was very pretty and the people in the stores were extremely pleasant.  Later we drove through the countryside to a Chateau where we tasted 3 Bulgarian wines along with local cheese, sausage and bread.  All three wines were extremely good, but I’ll save more detailed comments for my next wine blog.  We also did some early Christmas shopping in the village by the Chateau.   Our final stop was at a 2500 year old tomb of a Tracian king.  The tomb was architecturally interesting but perhaps not more so than the 6-foot snake that wriggled by the entrance on our way in.