Ed Balls did do a series a while back, which, if I remember correctly, touched on some of the issues regarding national borders and migration.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/a...
My Bluesky posts tend to be a blow-by-blow account. When I come to write up the EuropeExplored blog, I will try to me more reflective about my impressions of where I've been.
europeexplored.travel.blog
A very pleasant (and punctual) flight back. Now on the last leg to home, but I'm not sure whether my brain is capable of playing chess tonightThis is where I've been.
I have to be back to captain a team in a chess league match this evening. Let's hope I get back in time.
Day 9. A busy morning on the the Istanbul metro, most of which is very modern. The population of Istanbul is enormous, bigger than that of most European countries. For example more people live in Istanbul than in Bulgaria and Greece combined.
Lille is much more pleasant than Brussels these days. But if you get there before they've opened up, and a cold wind is blowing, it can be a bit bleak. (I didn't have that problem last time, as I only just made it when the WW2 bomb closed lines out of Paris, and the bus was massively delayed.)
Just had time to fit in a visit to the excellent Istanbul Archeology Museum. It displays finds from all over western Anatolia, including Troy. Except of course, for the stuff that's been 'stolen' by the British or the Germans.
The Grand Bazaar is busy. It may just be my British reserve and I know that you are supposed to haggle, but I'm sure that they would do far more business if you could just browse without being harassed and if you could compare clearly marked prices.
The terraces of the Topkapi Palace provide great views over the Bosphorus.
Outside the Harem, the Topkapi Palace largely consists of a series of pavilions, some of which are now used as exhibition spaces.
Day 8. I have set aside a large part of today to explore the Topkapi Palace, the home of the imperial Ottoman Sultanate until it moved to the Dolmabahçe Palace in the mid 19th century. First off is the Harem.
The Blue Mosque (officially the Sultan Ahmed mosque) was built in 1617 and is still a working mosque. It is immaculate - which is not surprising, given that it has recently undergone a restoration.
Back to Europe via the Marmaray rail line under the Bosphorus. The Basilica Cistern is an enormous underground reservoir built in the Byzantine era.
EuropeExplored is no longer in Europe! Taken a ferry across the Bosphorus to arrive in Asia. It's been a long time since I was last in Asia.
Attached to the Selamlik was the Harem, which was less ostentatious than the main palace. Later, Kemal AtatΓΌrk used it as his private residence and the room in which he died has been left unchanged.
The main building of the Dolmabahçe Palace, known as the Selamlik, contained both the working offices and the sumptuous official reception rooms of the Sultanate.
The tram brought me to the Dolmabahçe Palace, built in the mid-19th century when the Sultanate decided to move from the old city. It lasted as the heart of government until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I.
Day 7. Time to ride on an Istanbul tram for the first time, with good views across the Bosphorus.
The Hagia Sophia was built as a church, then became a mosque. In 1935 AtatΓΌrk turned it into a museum. It has recently become a mosque again, which means non-Muslims are only allowed in the gallery. Unfortunately, it seems to undergoing major structural repairs, with much scaffolding inside and out.
My long bus journey brought me to the suburbs of Istanbul, from where a couple of metro trains have taken me to the heart of the city. Istanbul is manically busy, which has come as a bit of a shock after the relative quiet of Bulgaria.
I have left Bulgaria to enter Turkey at a chilly mountain pass, having to get off the bus to go through two lots of passport control. I nearly didn't get in, as the border guard falsely claimed that I needed a visa with my Irish (EU) passport. Producing my UK passport seemed to satisfy him.
Day 6. Another early start, but not by design. A week before I left I received a phone call to tell me that the bus I had booked was cancelled and that the new departure time was 3.5 hours earlier! Ironically, this was the day that I was due my only hotel breakfast, whichI I am now missing.
When travelling in Bulgaria it helps if you can transliterate from the Cyrillic alphabet. I am amazed that so many Bulgarian words just seem to be close transliterations from English.
The three cities that I've been to on this trip are written in Cyrillic as: ΠΠ»ΠΎΠ²Π΄ΠΈΠ², ΠΠ°ΡΠ½Π° and ΠΡΡΠ³Π°Ρ.
A few more random sights from my wandering around Burgas this afternoon and evening: the church of Saints Cyril & Methodius, a hobbit house and a Thracian grave. (At least one of these may not be real.)
As well as the usual trinity of Burgas city museums - Historical, Ethnographic and Archaeological - I also paid a visit to the Natural History museum. Not because I wanted to see the stuffed animals, but for a special exhibition about the Black Sea. It is anoxic & doesn't have fish at deep levels.
My horseshoe-shaped train journey has brought me further down the Black Sea to the port city of Burgas.
Yes - because I had blocked out until then in my diary.
Reminds me of when I blocked out all of Friday afternoon to attend a supplier's notoriously boozy summer party, only for my new Chief Executive to stick in my diary a 5:15pm slot to meet me for the first time.
... plus grafitti (being Bulgaria). The two coaches have very different interiors - the blue one seems more modern.
The train has a scheduled 25 minute wait at Karnobat while the engine swaps ends. I take the opportunity to get a coffee at the station and to ride in the other carriage of this two car train for the final leg of the journey.
