Monday

We left for Bulgaria at 8 am. It took an hour to get out of the city -- on fast highways --such a huge place. The traffic heading into Istanbul was horrendous. Horrible communate which can take several hours. Most people live in the outskirts -- in thousands and thousands of highrises. Only saw a few single family homes in the outer area. 72% own their own home (read condo) and mortgages have only been available in the past five years. Istanbul has a western life style. They shop in malls for the most part (95 in the city). A new rule for cars: when you buy a new one you must also buy a parking spot.One gallon of gas is $10 (68% taxes).

There are now new rules for building since the earthquake of 15 years ago when 17,000 were killed. Would have been more if the epicenter was in the city. All schools have been reinforced as well as gov't buildings. They are working on the homeowners to do theirs. Turkey sits on the Asian, European, African and Arabic plates so lots of movement.

All education is free including university. Out of town students also get accommodation and meals paid for. By the end of this year, every student will have their own computer.

Had a bathroom stop at Corlo where we had Turkish black tea.It's served in a funny shaped glass on a saucer.Turkish people drink the most tea in the world -- per person.Ireland is next then China.

They produce 70% of the world's hazlenuts but lost their crop this spring due to an untimely frost.We also passed fields of sunflowers which were wrecked by heavy rains in June.The area heading north is like "big sky" country. Lots of crops grown here.

I now know how to make Turkish coffee so will try it as soon as I get home. We had a typical Turkish lunch in a town just south of the border -- chicken on a stick, fried meat balls, rice and salad. Dessert was watermelon.

At the border we had to get out of the bus and hand our passports in then got them back right away. This took some time as there were 3 busloads of us. Then our driver had some problem and it was ages before he finally showed up. Must have spent more than an hour cooling our heels. We had switched to Bulgarian busses at the lunch spot. Then we had to drive a few hundred yards to the Bulgarian border and show our passports again. This was very straightforward thank goodness. We felt sorry for the transport trucks going back into Turkey -- solid line for a mile and could take two days to get through.

23 degrees and sunny. First time we've been able to walk around without jackets.

We had about 5 hours of driving so finally got to our hotel in Provdin. We then had a small walking tour of the old town. They have found really old ruins under what was supposed to be a new building. Needless to say construction stopped and the area has become a dig. Just down the street they've uncovered an old coleseum (or rather a part of it). The rest is under the town.

Dinner was a typical Bulgarian meal -- very nice -- salad, a piece of scalloped potato, then pork with mashed potato followed by dessert of unknown content but delicious.

By the way, my scarf did double duty the other day. I'd been wearing it to keep my neck warm then it turned into a head scarf for going into the mosque.