Working For The Weekend

Weekends are great. But, what should one do with this freedom?

Relax at home? Take a hike? Catch a movie?

Nope.

We decided to take a Sunday drive to Edirne, Turkey-- the city once known as Hadrianapolis and Adrianople-- named after Roman Emperor Hadrian. We didn't manage to hit the road until 9am. It took us a little under 4 hours to reach the Turkish border.

After passing a 10km line of lorries (semitrucks to we Americans) and a 40 mi

nute wait we cleared the multiple steps necessary to cross the border and were off to Edirne-- which is just a few kilometers into Turkey. The approach to the city was fairly mundane until we crossed the river and made our way toward the center, where it quickly became obvious that we hadn't just crossed a border into a another country, but we had entered an entirely different culture. Up ahead, through the haze

, we saw half a dozen minarets-- heralding our arrival in Muslim Turkey.

We started our visit in Edirne with some chai in an outdoor cafe just outside a beautiful Mosque.

Given that it was November, the weather was amazing-- sunny and around 70 degrees. You couldn't ask for a better sight-seeing temperature. Once we finished our chai we visited another Mosque-- which was completely free of tourists, much unlike Istanbul. This made it significantly easier to enjoy.

After the Mosque we took some time to explore Roman ruins and a Byzantine tower from the old city defenses that were just around the block. We made our way to a couple of other mosques, including one designed by the same architect that built the famous Blue Mosque in Istanbul. The kids enjoyed visiting the mosques and working on their drawing skills and after several drawings and some more wandering it was off to find some dinner before our drive home.

After a brief search we found on outdoor cafe on a pedestrian street in the center of Edirne where we enjoyed our dinner in the last hour or so of the autumn sun. After that it was off to the car and back to Bulgaria. Although it was a long day, it was well worth the effort.