I've arrived in Turkey!

We left Bucharest and moved through Bulgaria at quite a pace! We spent two nights in Bulgaria the first was very interesting as we stayed with monks in a Monastery! It was a very interesting experience. The monastery was set in a valley gauge with the river running outside! In the morning I walked to the local caves (one of 100 tourist attractions in Bulgaria!), which were pretty cool. Nature has a way of easily creating very beautiful things! I then walked up to the top of the gauge, which over looked the valley and the monastery. I got some good pictures that I'll update soon! We then headed across Bulgaria towards the Turkish boarder stopping for the night by a large river. I was on cook duty and am proud to say that I managed to do it without injury. We had a fantastic tea (even if I do say so) of saussages, jacket potatoes and veggies! It took ages to cook over the open fire but was well worth it! I had to get up at 4.45am to do breakfast as we wanted to leave at 6am (we don't normally get up that early but we knew that the Turkish boarder would get busy). In total we spent 8 hours trying to get into Turkey (apparently we didn't have the correct paperwork for the truck so we had to contact the consulate). No mans land was actually quite fun with plenty of card games, football and sun worshiping. We walked across the boarder at lunchtime to get our first authentic Turkish kebab! It was gorgeous! We bread was freshly baked in a stone fire and I was even aloud to help with he rolling out of the bread!! Finally at 3pm we were aloud though and were on the road to Istanbul. For some strange reason both campsites in Istanbul have closed so we are staying in a hotel! (woohoo!) This was the most exciting thing and we all rushed to wash and put some clean clothes on! I even put make up on for the first time and managed to blow dry my hair!! About 12 of us went to a local family restaurant for dinner, which was very tasty! A group of people went out into town but I wasn't sure, as Turkey is very different to everywhere else we've been. Even though I am dressed respectfully 3*4 length trousers and a T-shirt (covering by shoulders) walking along with 3 guys I could feel the eyes! I'm going to get myself a fake wedding ring which will hopefully help! Today I'm going to go to the Turkish baths and have a body scrub; I will also visit the blue mosque and enjoy a spot of retail therapy getting my Iranian gear! xxx