Thrashin' Through Thrace

This video pretty accurately illustrates the Constantinople-Adrianople leg of my trip.

Thrace sounds like such an awful name.  It makes me think about thrush, which is something I have always been terrified of waking up and discovering I have.  Thrace has always been a bit elusive, as it was part of the Hellenistic world and there were some references to it in Civilization II and also in some of the other books I read as a child on Ancient Greece.  But what is most interesting about it is that it is part of Turkey but it is in Europe.  It is the last remaining vestige of Turkey-in-Europe.  I don't know how they did it, but it looks more like Asia Minor than any other part of Europe or the Balkans.  My theory is that the Ottomans cut down all the trees to build their massive triremes and continue their siege against Christendom, much like the Spanish did in Iberia.  Most of what used to cover the Iberian peninsula now forms a ring around Great Britain, I believe.  

Anyway, Thrace.  I took the bus from Constantinople to Edirne, which I had forgotten was actually Adrianople.  As in, the old capital of the Ottoman Empire.  I know, it makes you wonder why they would move the court out of the most cosmopolitan city in the world, but it makes sense when you think about how it smells in the summer.  It must have smelled so bad.  Adrianople was beautiful, had a large mosque/palace, and a sign pointing towards Bulgaristan.  There were also a few soldiers who hassled me and I had NO TIME for that so I just walked away.  I was having a serious problem with authority figures at this point in my trip.

There wasn't much in the way of help in getting to the border.  I walked a good deal of the way and was passed by about a hundred minivans with "D" or "A" with a circle of stars on their license plates.  I was picked up by a city bus, paid out my last Turkish lira to the driver and walked to the front of the line because that's the type of person I am.  Besides, what I gain in time by budging they more than make up for when speeding past me and not picking me up while I'm walking from the border.  I breezed through the border, bid adieu to the Turkish Republic, and was greeted by a wholly indifferent Bulgarian border guard who could not take direction and stamped wherever he wanted to on my passport.  But with little trouble I was reunited with the EU, and it felt so good.