We left our campsite in Bulgaria, after a goodbye from a troupe of singing ladies set up by the campsite owners, they were in traditional dress and we all took part in dancing with them. we cross the border into Turkey, which was relatively painless for us and therefore only took about an hour. As we travel towards Istanbul, the country is very similar to the UK, however there are no Churches, but plenty of Mosques and national flags of Turkey. We stop overnight bush camping, in a quarry and have our first food on an open fire. We have our first night listening to the call to prayers from the local mosque. In the morning we are woken by the same call at about 5am this is also accompanied by the many dogs howling to the call to prayers.
After a short drive we arrive in Istanbul, the weather has become very hot and very showery, I try to dry the tent in the lorry park but give up as it rains on us every time we put it up, as we are staying at the hostel in Istanbul for three days, we shall try again some other time, we also have to apply for our Iranian visas here, but that has been delayed as they have a public holiday on Monday so a rush to the embassy on Tuesday then off straight away, leaving the trip leader to pick up the passports and catch us up.