This morning was a bit of a struggle. I got up at 8:30 but felt like I could've slept more. My body was tired and weak feeling. I had a shower and tried eating some plain biscuits to see what would happen with my stomach. It went ok so then I decided to take a walk down to the supermarket that Karen, Steve and I had found yesterday. I had the intention of doing some shopping around however, didn't have the energy in the end so I just went straight back to the hotel and ate my yogurt and banana. I could tell my body was working hard to take that food in and didn't really want it so I tried taking a nap until I had to get up.
At 12:45 I woke up and packed my bags to meet everyone downstairs for 1:15. We went and caught the public bus to the bus station, which was 3 stops away. We got there for around 1:40 but the bus didn't come until maybe 2:20. It was late.
We were on the bus for about 3 hours total. I was hoping to sleep, but I just couldn't seem to fall asleep. I began feeling really nauseous and my tummy wasn't so happy again. We stopped for a bathroom break before the border crossing into Turkey. The border was really really busy. Apparently it was because it's the last weekend of Ramadan.
It wasn't long after we crossed the border that we got dropped off at what was apparently a bus stop, but in the middle of nowhere really. Andy then waved down a littler bus that takes you into town from there, and we were on our way! It all went quite smoothly.
When we got off the bus we had about a 10 minute walk to our hotel. We went past shops and cafés where men were sitting outside drinking little glasses of tea. Baklava is seen everywhere again. The streets are all cobblestone and there's a lot of little (and some big) fountains where the streets meet. The hotel is right across from one of many mosques that can be seen around Edirne.
Once in my room I decided to try and eat a snack to see how my stomach was doing. I hadn't eaten much all day. It seemed to be ok. At 8 the group met downstairs to go for dinner. We walked to the restaurant and took our seats. It was a Ramadan dinner so all the food was placed in front of us but we weren't able to eat it until after the call to prayer had been done over the speakers by the Imam at dusk. No alcohol is available in restaurants during this time either. The tables all around us began to fill up full of people coming to 'break bread'. The meal consisted of tomatoes, olives, dates, pea soup, kofta, and bread. It was really good. They also provided us with bug spray and hand wipes, which I thought was a nice touch!
After dinner some of us went for a walk and checked out the stores that were open. Steve ended up finding a shirt that he liked. The streets and fountains were all nicely lit up at night.
Then it was off to bed with hopes of feeling 100% tomorrow!
Ramadan Dinner:
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