40 37.166N 028 57.241E Esenkoy, Turkey

Pipedream
Thu 16 Jun 2011 06:16
We are all safe and sound back on Pipedream. I can only describe the successful completion of a very complicated travel plan as amazing... Katie from Sweden, Mary from the US, and me from Sofia, Bulgaria all meeting in Istanbul more or less on the same day.

I did the week plus trip carrying only a small ruck sack and didn't have space for a computer. The computers in the hotels in Turkey have a very different keyboard i.e. about 5 or 6 extra characters and a pretty hard to find the @ sign which makes doing e-mail a challenge.

We were able to explore Istanbul for over a week and are ready to leave the 'big' city. When I was on the bus to Sophia a guy from Istanbul told me Bulgaria has a population of about 7 million and Istanbul is currently someplace between 15 and 20 million? I really enjoyed Sophia. The land lady at my hostel is a mathematics professor in the local university and spoke pretty good English. I got a great lecture on life in Bulgaria after the 'revolution' (10 years ago). I will back track in a day or two and write about the actual trip when we get settled.

Today is my birthday and we will celebrate with a cake and the trimmings. (I know we don't have that many candles on board!) Mary, the best present a guy could get, brought 49.999 pounds of spare parts, coffee, and brown sugar with her and we will spend the next day or two reprovisioning and getting ready to start a very leisurely voyage back toward Florida. More later...