Edirne, Turkey

Of all the places in Turkey we visited during out travels around the Black Sea, my very favourite was the city of Edirne. It's in 'Turkish Thrace', that part of north western Turkey between Istanbul and the Bulgarian border; Edirne is also just a couple of kilometres from the border with Greece.

We had begun our three month trip in Turkey and once we had crossed the border into Georgia and beyond, we started to fully appreciate the ...
...into Turkey near the end of the trip was like coming home after a long time away. Edirne not only reinforced those things we liked, it had them in abundance and it did not take long at all for us to feel very much at home there.

While Edirne is not an obvious tourist destination we managed to spend five days there (admittedly two of those days were spent swimming in a river in Greece), browsing the bazaars, visiting the various mosques ... more

Of all the places in Turkey we visited during out travels around the Black Sea, my very favourite was the city of Edirne. It's in 'Turkish Thrace', that part of north western Turkey between Istanbul and the Bulgarian border; Edirne is also just a couple of kilometres from the border with Greece.

We had begun our three month trip in Turkey and once we had crossed the border into Georgia and beyond, we started to fully appreciate the kindness, warmth and general efficiency of the Turks. Coming back into Turkey near the end of the trip was like coming home after a long time away. Edirne not only reinforced those things we liked, it had them in abundance and it did not take long at all for us to feel very much at home there.

While Edirne is not an obvious tourist destination we managed to spend five days there (admittedly two of those days were spent swimming in a river in Greece), browsing the bazaars, visiting the various mosques and sipping tea in the gardens attached to the mosques.

Generally speaking the centre of town is fairly modern though there remains the former caravanserai and a collection of attractive old wooden Ottoman houses. The grandest of the mosques are sited around what is now the commercial centre, perched on small hills so that they can be seen from all over town. Edirne was the capital of the Ottoman Empire from 1416 until 1453 when Mehemt II took Istanbul and made it the capital. Originally, though, the city was named after Emperor Hadrian who refounded it and it was known until the First World War as Adrianople. The Greeks still calll it Hadrianopolis

Moving away from the centre towards the outskirts of town everything becomes more modern as you approach the otogar (bus station) on the very edge of the city. A couple of minutes walk from the centre of town is a large and somewhat garish monument comprising a giant ceramic dish of fruits, in honour of one of Edirne's most famous industries - the manufacture of scented fruit and vegetable-shaped soaps.

Our bus from the border took us as far as the otogar and from there we took a shuttle bus into town which dropped us off outside the tourist information office. The street that runs parallel with the main street is lined with small hotels and within seconds hotel managers were on the doorsteps calling out to us. We smiled and said hello but pointed down the street. Thanks to our Lonely Planet we were heading for the cheapest option on the street. We had also read that one of the rooms had a rather kitsch mural of a tiger so it was not just penny pinching that drove us onwards. As if he knew we were coming, the manager of the Aksaray was waiting on the doorstep; perhaps he had been alerted by the general commotion on the street surrounding our arrival.

Fir roughly £12 a night we got ourselves a twin-bedded cell with en suite broom cupboard. The Aksaray does not have anything as modern or useful as air-conditioning but our room did have a standing electric fan which, two evenings later, caused a blackout across the floor and sent himself flying across the room.

Like all Turkish towns the streets if Edirne are alive with the hustle and bustle of commerce from early in the morning until late at night. Teenage boys carried trays of tea glasses from business to business, an elderly man heaved a handcart of deliciously scented peaches up and down the awkward kerbs and waiters touted for business from the doorways of their kebab cafes.

Our favourite place to explore was the Ali Pasha bazaar, one of the only places that could provide relief from the intense heat outside. With the end of our trip in sight we could finally shop knowing that we didn't have much further to carry our belongings. We bought worry beads in a rainbow of colours, baskets of the traditional Edirne soaps and I bought handfuls of quirky handmade beads bearing the traditional design used to ward off the evil eye to use to make my own jewellery at home.

We visited several mosques but the best was the Selimiye mosque; built in the 16th century it was the work of the great Turkish architect Sinan whose name is synonymous with some of the most impressive Islamic architecture. Although there were lots of other visitors there, visiting the mosque was a much more enjoyable experience than visiting the Aya Sofya in Istanbul which is in contrast noisy and rushed. Inside the mosque there were ornate tiles, beautiful paintings and a wonderful hand-knotted carpet.

Under the mosque we visited the arasta; in most mosques the arasta is on the street level and is a row of shops the rental from which help towards the upkeep of the mosque. In this mosque they were underground and these days sell souvenirs, most quite refined but we did manage to leave with a clock bearing a picture of the the mosque at Mecca which flashes with multicoloured lights at the flick of a switch.

Outside we sat in the tea garden attached to the mosque and watched the peacocks in the grounds as we sipped tea. Peacocks are often found in the gardens of mosques because it is from the distinctive pattern on peacocks' feathers that the design used to ward off the evil eye originates. This was a place where we would often go to rest our aching feet and to rehydrate.

Alcoholic rehydration is not so simple in Edirne. However there are two obvious pubs. The first is the London Pub, a place with almost blacked out windows and very dim lighting. We had seen young women going in so we knew it would be OK for me to drink in there. It was clearly the haunt of Edirne's less conventional youth because there were not only women drinking alcohol in there but one working behind the bar too!

The other place was on the first floor of a building further down the main street. There was a cartoon drawing of a foaming pint of beer over the doorway. Inside there were a handful of middle-aged men drinking beer and watching the television news, none of them shared a table. Himself pointed at me and raised his eyebrows at the barman who nodded towards the corner of the room and we took a table there. I was not convinced of how welcome we were so, in spite of my raging thirst, I asked for a small beer as if this might somehow diminish the shame of a woman drinking in a man's bar. After a while the barman left the room (it could hardly be called a bar) carrying two beers and when he returned he gestured for us to follow him. We climbed two flights of stairs and followed him into a room where there was a young Turkish man and a decidedly Celtic looking young woman. He was Turkish - from Edirne - and she was Scottish; they were married and in a few days were due to leave to go to live in Glasgow. She told us that while the barman would never have refused to serve us, he was probably relieved when they arrived so that he didn't have to worry about us. She said she just accepted that she couldn't have a beer in the main room and would always be sent upstairs to drink. What was even more interesting was that the bar had until a few days earlier been owned by her husband and even then she had to drink upstairs.

Even the riverside tea gardens did not serve alcohol and I really can't think of a better place in Edirne to enjoy a cold beer. Near the river we found a meyhane (a restaurant that serves mezze - the Turkish equivalent of tapas) where we ordered a selection (too many if truth be told) of dishes and ate on the verandah. It was good but not as good as restaurant on the main street where we were ushered upstairs to the 'family salon' (this happens in all but the most touristy of places in Turkey where women always eat in the family salon even when they have no children with them). Again we ordered a selection of mezze dishes which was augmented by the chef sending extra dishes he wanted us to try. It was the kind of place where the staff would bend over backwards for the customers. We saw one of the waiters go into the grocery store opposite and speak to the shopkeeper and leave empty handed. Then he jumped on a motorbike, sped off and returned in a few minutes later with a carton of pineapple juice which he brought to a family at another table. Now that's service!

On other occasions we would eat pide (boat-shaped Turkish pizza) and lahmacun (a very thin pizza topped with minced lamb) in tiny cafes and for breakfast we went to a small outdoor café where a young boy - perhaps seven or eight years old - managed to provide us with coffee and buttered toast in spite of the language barrier.

After two days of exploring we decided it was time to get another stamp in our passports. With another border so close it seemed wrong not to cross it so we went to the tourist information office for advice: we wanted to know whether there was another town or village on the Greek side of the border and/or whether there was any public transport there. The very camp assistant feigned outrage "But this is a TURKISH tourist information office. You cannot ask questions about Greece in this office!" I explained that I wasn't asking what there was to do, merely whether there existed a settlement of some kind. Suddenly catching on he said "I can't tell you whether" and here he started nodding vigorously and winking "there is a town over the border". We smiled and thanked him and as we were leaving he called after us "If you want to go to LOOK AT the border crossing you should take the bus from in front of the bazaar".

So we did - but that's another story. But it is certainly worth mentioning that the border is very close to Edirne and that there are some very pretty villages on the Turkish side of the border between Edirne and the border crossing ….and a brilliant chilli farm where you can feel the sting of the chilli peppers in the air.

Edirne is a great city to visit because it has some interesting sights but it's not uncomfortably crowded like Istanbul, not do you get hassled by the traders. Even in the bazaars we found that traders were happy enough to wait for us to approach them rather than chasing us for a sale. We found the people of Edirne to be very courteous and friendly; some would even just stop us in the street and ask where we were from and what we were doing there - always with a genuine interest, never hostility. One elderly gentleman even insisted on meeting us after dinner to talk in a tea garden.

Finally, if you are interested in visiting Edirne you should try to arrange your visit to coincide with the annual oil wrestling tournament (as seen on Michael Palin's New Europe BBC television series I am told). The tournament is held in the summer but the dates change slightly each year, alas we had missed the games by just a couple of weeks though all the local businesses were still proudly displaying posters for the event.

Edirne is a great destination for visitors who are happy to wander and take things easy. I wouldn't recommend it for families with very young children but I do think it would make an interesting two day trip from Istanbul or the beach resorts of Bulgaria if you travel by hire car or express coach ( a two and a half hour journey). 

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