Edirne

I made it to Turkey! Merhaba!

And its another rest day so I have time to drink tea, coffee, and more tea, and update this blog fully caffeinated. And I had baklava, obviously.

Some cultural background: edirne was the third capital of the ottoman empire and houses one of the masterpieces of one of the greatest ottoman-era architects: Mimar Sinan. And that mosque, Selimiye Mosque, is massive. But they are doing restoration work, which apparently entails checking every single brick of the facade, the carrier structure of the dome, removing coatings,… what do I know, it’s going to take while. Nothing to see inside, sadly. And there are two other big mosques immediately next to it, triangulated.

The cool thing about this mosque is that it has a huge dome, which is resting on pillars which supposedly do not block the view of the dome. You know what does impede view of the dome? Construction work.

So I just walk around, try to do like the locals do (drink tea and coffee), and most importantly only touch the bike to check everything.

And I had to eat liver because that’s what the city is famous for, ciger kafta.Read more