Turkey to the Balkans

We are traveling today through Thracian Turkey (Thrace) into the Balkans. Tomorrow we will be in Bulgaria, (Haskovo then Sofia) and we will try and use our blog and LP blogsherpa to keep in touch. Our bus has wireless. It turns out the 'otobus' in Turkey, which is a serious upgrade over the train (at $6 US for three hours of comfortable travel a real steal) - is luxurious. We got cakes, coffee tea, personalized TV monitors A/C etc.

But, we will go back to hitchhiking and trains ASAP. We just enjoy the experience and meeting people and going to the unexpected places between the bus stations and city urban centers. Istanbul was huge. It would have taken many rides to probably get into and out of the urban center from the Asian side where we have been couchsurfing. So, sometimes, a bus is a comfortable and certain option.

We have been having trouble finding internet in Turkey. It turns out wifi is everywhere, it is on this bus, but the networks are all secured. A certain paranoia; or, perhaps, a leftover guild feeling to the provincial use of internet. The scenery even from the highway is superb. Beautiful forests, seasides, castles, and urban cores mean that while we are leaving feeling very satisfied with our visit to Turkey, there is mucch more to come back to and recommend.

We are editing and publishing our blogs, our computer is pieced back together (thanks Brittany and youtube for the tutorial on computer operations without any tools beyond a knife!). We hope to find enough respite in the few days we will travel to publish what we have been encoutering, learning, writing etc.

Until then, we are wlell, in good spirits, excited for Europe and more of North Africa in the months ahead!