As I hosted Özlem last year in Vienna, I planed to visit her. She is a girl from Edirne in Northern Turkey in the border triangle with Greece and Bulgaria. I went there for a day by bus and did a small sightseeing tour and met some friends of Özlem
As promised, I visited my friend Özlem in Edirne. The city is about 2.5 hours away from Istanbul by bus north of Turkey. It is close to the Greek, Bulgarian and Turkish border triangle.
Me and Özlem in Edirne
I arrived there by noon and met again with Özlem and some of her friends. I went into the Selimiye mosque, which is known to be one of the most beautiful mosques of Turkey.
Selimiye Mosque
Mosque yard
Cupola
Inside a mosque
Nearby the mosque was a small bazar, where the sold those soaps looking like fruits
This is soap!
City center with wooden houses
It was a nice day, sunny and warm. People discovered quite easily that I must’ve been from a northern country - I wore my T-shirt, but everyone else, their coats. :-)
We walked through the city center and again, I got some nice shots of old houses made out of wood! We continued walking and had a nice conversation about nearly everything. We passed a bridge where the Sultan was once supposed to have watched sunsets.
Sultan's place to watch sunsets
Bridge next to a popular recreation area
We had a small snack close to that bridge. After almost an hour, we continued walking through a neighborhood that is on the border.
We went further on heading to the university.
Hugging trees
I saw the university of Edirne, which used to be a railway station. That's why they kept this old train:
Old train next to the university
Türkan on the train
Özlam, Türkan, Nurcan and I had a nice chat while playing "Okey" and drinking Caj (Tea).
Figure out what to do...
I impressed my new friends by winning the first round, but they just called it "beginner's luck". They didn't know it, but I was planning my way to victory :-D
... think about it...
... and win the game :-)
After a couple of games we had to go back to the city center. We waited at the bus station, where this shot was taken.
Who am I?
Büyük Düsün, who ever are, you rock! :-D
Conclusion
After a nice sunny afternoon in Edirne, I had to go back to Istanbul. On the bus back to city center, I head a Garfield seat :-D
My Garfield seat
Türkan and me on the way back to the city center
It was a nice day. I really enjoyed it and I hope to see them again (in Vienna?)
Galleries
You can find more pictures in my photoblog