Edirne Vacay!!!

This weekend, I took a little trip to Edirne, which is on the Thracian plain in northwest Turkey, near the border with Greece and Bulgaria.  I had been feeling a lot of pressure to travel, so I planned a little overnight excursion to this town, which is supposed to have a very Balkan feel (as it is in the Balkans).  You can learn about Edirne's history by going to the wikipedia, because I don't have the energy to type it all out right now.  Anyway, it was an early capital of the Ottoman Empire, before they took Constantinople.  I planned the excursion with the help of my handy Lonely Planet Turkey guide, which I got for free in the Superdorm.

Sarah, Zach, and Nate accompanied and we left the Superdorm around 9:30 on Saturday morning to make an early-ish bus.  Buses leave very regurlarly from the Istanbul Otogar (bus terminal) for Edirne, and to get to the Otogar, we had to take a bus, the lightrail, and the metro.  Long journey- even farther than the police station in Emniyet.  Once we got to the Otogar, we didn't really know where to go, but the whole thing is outdoors, and so I chose a dircetion, which turned out to be right, because as I walked into the bus company's stall, the guy waved us through and we hopped on a moving bus as it was backing out of the station.  We paid 10TL from our seats, sat back, and enjoyed the nice ride.  The buses in Turkey, if done correctly, are a great way to travel.  They move much faster than trains, and our buses this weekend had on-demand movies, complimentary snacks and drinks, and comfy seats.  In 2.5 hours, we arrived in the Edirne otogar.  We took a minibus the 8 km to the city, got of at Huriyet Meydani (Freedom Square, the main square) and walked a few blocks to the Hotel Tuna, where I had made a reservation.  The guy had upped the price from 100TL a night to 120, so we went to another Lonely Planet endorsed budget hotel a block away, the Aksaray Hotel.  The man there was happy to give us a nice, clean room with four beds for 100TL a night, and we moved in.  Not too shabby, and a great location for 25TL (like $17) per person (see view from our room below).

After checking in, I wanted to try the local specialty for lunch- deep fried lamb's liver with hot, whole, dried red peppers.  The supposed best place in town (though my roommate Can likes a different place) was right across the street from the Aksaray, so we walked over and got two orders of ciger (the liver).  It was amazing- on fresh, crusty white bread, with a liberal helping of pepper and onion, washed down with ayran (Turkish salted yoghurt drink) to tame the intense spice.  A delicious lunch, but one I could probably only eat once a month or so due to its richness.  After lunch, we went down a main road to the part of town with a high concentration of sightseeing attractions, clustered around the Selimiye Camii, the main attraction in town. 

First, to the Edirne Archaeology and Ethnography Museum.  It was behind the Selimiye mosque, with a large, un-landscaped (and therefore ugly) yard filled with bits and pieces of classical stuff.  It also had a similarly ugly courtyard filled with Janissary gravestones (but no graves).  The museum collection was pretty nice, though poorly labeled.  It also had an interesting mix of ethnographic material (which in Turkey, means mannequins dressed in costume) and archaeological artifacts.  After the museum, we wanted to see the Edirne Urban History Museum, which is supposed to have old photos, maps, and prints of the city, but no English labels.  We found the building: a beautiful old Ottoman, wooden mansion, but it was closed.  However, we got to wander the neighborhood behind the Selimiye Camii in the process, which was cool.

By that time, we had been skirting the mosque for a while, and we wanted to go inside.  It was the master architect Sinan's self-proclaimed favorite work and masterpiece.  It also has the tallest minarets in the Muslim World.  Anyway, to learn more about the facts, just check the above link to wiki.  The interior impressed me- a huge dome, very gracefully supported, and beautiful calligraphy and decorations (as you can see from the pic).  However, I am asucker for Iznik tiles, and this mosque didn't have much so I have to say I prefer the Blue and Yeni Mosques.  Then, we went accross the street (well, down the street, I mean Edirne is pretty small if you're just going to the major mosques and tourist sights) to the Old Mosque (pic below), or Eski Camii.  It was much smaller, and had a mostly red, white and black interior, with huge calligraphy on the walls.  It was also mostly empty, and there was no cordon separating the area around the mihrab from the back, like most touristy mosques have.

After the Eski Camii, we walked across Huriyet Meydani to another major mosque in town, the Uc Serefeli Camii, or Three-Balconied Mosque (so called because its tallest minaret has 3 balconies).  This was my favorite of the three we saw: its dome was on a hexagonal base, supported by two hexagonal columns and a wall, which dived the space very nicely.  This mosque was also deserted and we could walk all over it, which I enjoyed.  The mismatched minarets were also pretty quirky.  The 3-Balconied Mosque was only a short walk away from the Macedonian Tower, which was part of the old Byzantine Walls and was nothing special.  Nate and Sarah went back to the room for a nap, and Zach and I headed south to the two rivers (Tunca and Meric) to sit at a riverside cafe, sip beer/cay and read/write.  A very beautiful sunset was seen over the Meric river, and we crossed two very graceful Ottoman bridges.  By 7:45, I was cold and hungry, so we returned to the Aksaray and picked up Nate and Sarah for dinner.  We went to a meyhane recommended by the guidebook and man was it great.  We ordered four meze (cold eggplant and tomato, cold spinach, pureed egplant with yoghurt, and fat greenbean type things), split a bottle of raki (anise flavored liquor, which is a Turkish specialty) and order the lavish "mixed grill" which included chicked shish kepab (Tavuk Shish), spiced lamb meatballs (kofte), and lamb chops.  The whole meal was delicious and came out to a mere 34 TL each, and the traditional Turkish music and conversation made the meal very pleasant.

After dessert at nearby pastry shop, we headed to the Pena Cafe, which had a good soundtrack and cheap drinks, though we left after a while to meet up with some Americans from the CIEE program at Koc U, who Sarah knew, at their hotel.  It made me glad to be on the Duke program.

Next day:  Sunday!  We kicked off the day by visiting the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum in the medrese of the Selimiye Camii.  The museum was very well laid out, labeled, and although the collection wasn't stunning, the space was nice, as were the great banners with quotes from Sinan's autobiography.  There were also a pair of peacocks in the courtyard (see Nate, Sarah, and Zach in the courtyard, left).  Sweet!  We then grabbed some very fresh simits (sesame rings, kinda like a Turkish bagel), and tried walking to the old Edirne Palace.  Edirne is famous for an annual oil-wrestling tournament which occurs there each summer, and the palace is next to the modern stadium.  It was supposedly 1.5km outside the main town, and off out guidebook's map.  We couldn't find it and we walking through a mildly shady 'hood, so we grabbed a cab.

The area around the palace and stadium was very strange.

1. It was basically deserted
2. It was flooded, though the rivers to the south of the town were not flooding
3. There was a sunbaked and neglected Balkan war memorial there, which was strangely touching  (see pic)

So we walked past the stadium, I looked at the memorial (no one followed me) and I bought some decorative, fruit shaped soaps from a lonely guy who was happy to chat with me in my terrible Turkish.  He had a pretty bad spot to be selling his wares (the soaps are an Edirne specialty product and are supposed to make the room smell good, not to actually use for hand-washing) because the stadium/war memorial/palace was deserted, flooded, and dilapidated.  Anyway, we explored the palace ruins, and then started walking back to town through the sketchy hood.  We stopped and watched a local semi-pro soccer game, which was great fun for 1/2 hour, and then continued our walk.  No one mugged us, and it was of course not actually a dangerous neighborhood, just a normal, lower class Turkish one.

At this point, we had a lunch break at a great lokantasi near our hotel, with delicious home-style cooking.  Zach left us to head back to Istanbul, and the three of us who remained walked to the rivers and sat at a cafe and sipped beer while relaxing and enjoying the first weekend of Spring!  Overall, our trip to Edirne was a great success.  We didn't get to see all the sights, but it was invigorating to get out on our own, see some new places, and get out of Istanbul, which can be stifling (due to its immense size, and also because we can get into a monotonous routine).  Besides, traveling is a great excuse to break budget!  Thanks for sticking with me on these long posts which I've been making.  A short one on the Hamam trip from last Saturday will follow soon!