A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 26 May 2026 - T for Turkey

 Hi gang,

I'm in Istanbul, Turkey but when you are reading this I will have flown back to Spain. I'm having the time of my life here in Istanbul. From a previous visit to Turkey, I remember the people were so friendly... well they still are!

This is the station in Plovdiv, a lovely town in Bulgaria. (We all liked Plovdiv more than Sofia) and we are waiting for our night train. The only time we would actually sleep on a train. I had my own cabin:

It was quite comfortable and I would have slept really well if it hadn't been for the border checks. 

At midnight we arrived at the Bulgarian border. Everyone out, passport control and the Brits among us had to have their fingerprints done and photos taken etc. There were a lot of Brits on the train as there was a football match in Istanbul between Aston Villa and a Turkish team. So it took more than an hour (Not nice standing on a cold windy platform). Then we could go back on the train. I managed to fall asleep again and at 4 am we reached the Turkish border control and this time we had to take all our luggage out with us as well. Same drill, but it didn't take as long this time. The main station in Istanbul (where the Orient Express used to finish/start), is being refurbished so the train stopped in a suburb and we were taken into town by minibus. The hotel was called the Pera Palace 

and it was the hotel that Agatha Christie stayed at when she was there.

This is the old elevator, which is not in use any more but it looks amazing.  My room was on the first floor so I used the stairs.

The view from my room was amazing:

The water you see in the distance is the Bosporus and on the other side is Asia!

This chair was outside my room:

On the last day of our stay, a few of us decided to splash out on Afternoon Tea in the Agatha Christie tea room of the hotel:

The ceilings are a sight to behold:

And the food was gorgeous, a feast for the eye. There was a pianist playing and it made me feel really special.

Although I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get any bubbly. (Only tea or coffee).

My coffee cup is my 'ticket' to the T-Party, hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard.

That morning I had been to see a museum. I always prefer to do that on my own as I like to read everything, not just walk past exhibits. 

This exhibition was about an impressionist painter Halil Pasha. It was all about his life and work. Very interesting.

In the picture below, you see a self portrait, where the artist himself removed the fez (sign of the old Turkey) to show he was a modern Turk. The image of the original painting is on the right.

Like in Lisbon they had these old trams. I remember them from my childhood. One of our group was a tram enthusiast and in every city he would ride trams and go 'tram watching'.

There is also a funicular, which I took several times as it takes you to  Galata, which is harbour level.

This bridge reminded me of the Swan bridge in Rotterdam.

My next adventure was, after having checked out of the hotel, to stay at a private address in Istanbul. Through HomeExchange I got to stay with three delightful girls in a different part of the city.

They shared a duplex apartment right at the top. 

A lot of stairs, but a lovely apartment.

I got on well with the girls and we had a lot of fun. On Saturday night they invited me along to a performance of a Brazilian stand-up comedian called Rafi Bastos. 

His performance was in English and it was a great evening.

After the performance we managed to get a selfie with him:

I had great fun with these girls. They treated me like royalty and took me out the next evening. First we went out for dinner:

Another ticket to the T-Party. The meal was slow cooked beef with baked beans (nothing like the tinned variety) and rice.

Here I am with my lovely hostess.

I found a little shop to buy some souvenirs. In true Turkish fashion, we got offered a glass of tea and then some Turkish Delight. We took some photos in the lamp department of the shop. Very pretty. 

But a lamp did not fit in my suitcase.

We walked along the water front at Galata port. There was a cruise ship moored up. I had my photo taken in front of this art work. I think it's a spiral of letters and words associated with Istanbul.

At some point, one of the girls recognised a guy in the street as somebody who posts on Instagram videos of cats in Istanbul:

His blog is called John Gokblog. You'll find him in Instagram.

He photographs street cats, which are everywhere in Istanbul.

That's it from me tonight. 

Happy T-Day all!

Lisca

A Postcard A day - Friday 22 May 2026 - Friday Smiles

 

Hello lovely peeps, How are you all? I hope you have had many occasions to smile and to count your blessings. I'm still on holiday and I'm enjoying myself no end, so smiles every day.

In my last blog post I was in Hungary (Budapest) From there we had a nine hour train journey into Transsylvania (in Romania) where we stopped in Alba Iulia. 

We visited the citadel the next day 

and saw a beautiful orthodox church:

We had a wine tasting session inside the citadel (perfect for maturing wine):

Next door to our hotel, called hotel Transylvania, there was an automated flower shop that sold beautiful bouquets:

When we enquired about this, we were told that boys give their girlfriends flowers and husbands their wives. Isn't that nice.

Next day back on the train for five hours to Brasov. The trains are modern and luxurious (we are traveling first class) and we had lunch in the buffet car which served excellent wine too.

The hotel in Brasov was the best we had so far (Called Kromwell). In the afternoon we got picked up by our private mini bus to go into the mountains to a bear hide. Brown bears are many in the mountains but when they are hungry they come into the town. To avoid this, the rangers feed them water melons (a sweet treat) to keep them from wandering into town. 

It was a bit like whale watching. No guarantee they will turn up. But we were lucky.

We waited an awful long time and nearly went home, but at the end they came to eat their water melons. What a unique situation. We were in a hide with glass but had to be mouse still and not talk.

Next day, (we're still staying in Brasov) we went to visit the citadel in Rupea:

 

The view from the top was well worth the climb. The snow topped mountains in the distance are beautiful.

Then we drove to Viscri and visited a fortified church (the population was Saxon, and their faith was Lutheran and I don't quite know why they had to fortify their churches)

Inside the church I loved all that embroidery and of course the old furniture:

Viscri is a UNESCO World heritage site and King Charles has a house there:

This is above the door:

Here is our group having a drink there:

I think I'll leave it at that. More on Tuesday.

There are some funnies at the end as per usual. 

Keep smiling,

Lisca