My Turkish friend, the leader of the group, noticed how awkward I looked on such a funny horse. He insisted that I “swap” horses with one of the soldiers. All the horses wore blue bead decorations on their foreheads to protect them from the “evil eye.”
The Road to Kirk Kilise
I had been told that the road to Kirk Kilise was good. There was a road, yes, but it was built from giant boulders, some as big as my head, and buried halfway in the ground. It was one of the bumpiest and most uncomfortable roads I had ever been on. The road was so rough that no one really used it, except to cross it. The tracks twisted this way and that, and when the road got too worn out, people just went around it The Vali’s Garden.
The Turkish Preference for Dirt Paths
We often complain about the poor roads in Eastern countries. However, the Turk does not like a straight road. It’s too hard for him. He prefers his ox-cart to creak along a random, uneven path of his own making. I truly believe that if the Great North Road from England were placed in Turkey, the Turks would never use it. Instead, they would destroy the nearby hedges and make a new path across the fields. It’s no use arguing with the Turk about the best way to travel. He will bow, say “The efendi always speaks wisdom!”—and then continue to avoid the main road.
A Scene of an Old Burial Ground
With the sound of swords clanking and muskets clicking on the soldiers’ backs, we made a grand appearance as we hurried eastward across the plains Vitosha Bulgaria Private Tours .
We passed a Muslim burial ground. The grass was long, rough, and dry. The graves looked abandoned, and many tombs were falling apart. The stones, some with odd turban or fez shapes to represent men, and simple stones marking the women’s graves, were crooked and broken. The wind blew dust over everything, and the place felt forgotten. Here rested the once-known people of Adrianople, but no one seemed to care about them anymore. There was no sense of remembrance or respect, just the sad sight of these decaying markers.
