Turkish Wine of the Week - Pamukkale 2015 Sole and 2014 Diamond

I recently saw an Instagram post from Pamukkale showing several new wines and I had to try them. I'm a bit of a magpie and am attracted to shiny/sparkly objects so the label of Pamukkale's new Sole line attracted me right away. And for 16 TL how can you go wrong?

Normally Pamukkale is not one of my go-to producers. For one thing they're responsible for Sava which is one of the cheapest wines available here and gives a bad name to vinegar. However since I can't afford to spend 90+ TL on every bottle of wine I drink I am always looking for quality inexpensive wines. I don't promise huge quality here, but Pamukkale's white Sole, which is a dry Sultaniye, is pretty quaffable.

Brilliant gold in the glass it's very aromatic with a nose of flowers and tropical fruits. It is a little flabby, there's not a lot of acid to balance the flavor which becomes a problem as the wine warms up so serve this right out of the refrigerator and you'll still get the tropical flavors without the lack of acid making things awkward.

If you decide to give this one a try make sure you drink it within a few months of purchasing it and you store it out of the light. Clear bottles like this provide no protection for the wine inside opening the wine to major sun damage.

The Diamond is another newish line from Pamukkale and also only 16 TL a bottle (The Cave) it's actually not a horrible wine. I bought it a bit on impulse but then was reluctant to open it; I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.

  

In the glass it's a rather beautiful color: brilliant clear wheat-gold. I'm not sure what the grape in the Diamond is because I am no where near that good yet (possible another Sultaniye-Pamukkale seems to like this grape) but whatever it was has a very fruity nose. There's not a great deal of finish to this but the mouthwatering acid and dry, slightly oaky finish balanced well with the citrus, tropical, apple and floral flavors.

 

Is this even in the top 20 white wines I've tried this summer? No. But will you embarrass yourself if you take it to a party? Also no. For 16 TL it's really perfectly drinkable.

Turkish Wine of the Week - Papazın Şarabı 2012 Sauvignon Blanc Sauvignon Gris

I don't actually know where the Papazın Şarabı/Palivor Çiftliği crossover happens. I did some light Googling and couldn't find the connection but it was the Palivor Çiftliği logo that got me to buy this so whatever the partnership is Papazın Şarabı owes at least one sale to them. Truly I bought this bottle because there's a buck on the label and I thought it would amuse my Daddy who is a hunter.

This was not a light decision to pick up. Sure I got a giggle over the buck on the label but at 80TL from Carrefour this wasn't a small investment, especially considering that the last time I tangled with a Sauvignon Gris I was utterly unimpressed.

In the glass it's a clear, pale gold with a lot of citrus, white flowers, and a little oaky something in the nose. This one could definitely use a little breathing time as initially the acid was quite high, giving a bit of a fizz on the tongue like a Lambrusco. Once it opened up and the fizz died down it was actually rather creamy in the mouth but no finish to speak of. The aromas carried through to the palate with white flowers and a lemon/lime citrus but also with a little bit of orange at the tail end.

In the end what this was was a porch wine. It's an easily sipable wine for the afternoon you're out enjoying your garden in the sun and don't want a super challenging beverage. I won't say that it was worth 80TL, but I did not regret the money spent.

Turkish Wine of the Week - Visiting Edirne and the Arda Winery

Happily day two in Edirne was only about 35-36 C and not 38 because we had to bundle up several times to visit some more mosques.We started the day at the Eski Camii (Old Mosque) located just down the street from the Selimiye Mosque.

This is possibly the most uniquely decorated mosque I've ever visited. Rather than tiles or frescoes, the Old Mosque, completed in 1414, is almost stark of decoration except for the giant Arabic calligraphy inscriptions that dominate the walls and pillars.

After a morning wandering around the Old Mosque and the arasta (bazaar) we headed back to our hotel to check out. We stayed at the Ottoman Palace Hotel which is situated pretty centrally in Edirne. A perfectly decent hotel for the ridiculously low price (about $30/night for a large single) and the owners were very friendly. I'd stored a couple bottles of wine in their refrigerator which sparked a conversation with the owner about Turkish wines. As we were leaving he gave me a bottle of wine that his family makes for themselves!

From our hotel we headed down the street to the Üç Şerefeli Camii (Mosque of the Three Balconies). This stunning mosque, completed in 1447, was impressive even before we got into the courtyard. From outside the wall we could see that not only were the minarets decorated, they were all done in different styles.

Inside was equally lovely with soaring domes and lots of light and space. What I particularly liked was how no space was too small to decorate. Even the inside of the small domes are beautifully decorated. As sad as it is to see the country so devoid of tourists the selfish side of me enjoys it when I can walk into a mosque, museum, church, etc and not have a ton of people in my photos!

In an effort to cover all the major religions in one day, we left this mosque in search of Edirne's Great Synagogue-of which I have no pictures because we got there to find the tall gates closed and locked. I spoke to the group of guards and we discovered that the synagogue was closed only that day. Argh! E&M tried to convince them to let us take a sneak peek but they weren't falling for it. So if you visit Edirne and want to see the Great Synagogue, don't go on a Monday!

We tried out luck next with the Christians of Edirne and drove through some narrow, tricky streets to try to find the Bulgarian church of Sveti Georgi (and don't think there weren't jokes around a mispronunciation of sveti). We got there, after successfully parallel parking no less, only to discover another closed gate-this one topped with razor wire. This was apparently not to be our day of being inclusively religious.

 

After our disappointments at the synagogue and church we were ready for some good luck which we found at one of my favorite wineries, the Edirne-based boutique winery Arda. Easily spotted from the road, the Arda winery-recognizable from the labels-sits on a vine covered hill that rises above the road. We drove through the vineyard and were slightly taken aback to find a large backhoe digging out the earth along the back wall of the winery. Sadly Arda was having a problem with damp and while the naturally well-irrigated soils are great for the vines, they weren't doing so much for the winery and its contents.

We had a great visit there, fully making up for the day's earlier failures. We met Yavuz who told us how his family got started in the wine business and about the wins they are currently producing. While I asked all my usual wine questions (root stock, irrigation, harvest, barrel ageing etc) we sampled a wide range of the wines. Arda produces three levels of wine: 

• Sekiz Dokuz: This, their low-end wine is named after the 8/9 rhythm of Gypsy music and is usually sold in bulk for banquets and large events
• Kuşlar: This mid-priced wines cover a large number of varietals including: Narince, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, and Cabernet-Merlot blend and are among the best mid-priced wines you can get. The Cabernet is one of my go-to wines and even for a non Syrah fan like me, the Shiraz isn't bad. 
• Reserve: These higher priced wines are well worth the buck (or TL I suppose), especially if you can buy them at the winery where they're far more reasonably priced. The reserve line includes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet-Merlot blend, and Shiraz

Of course I wasn't going to waste the opportunity to buy wine at the winery price; especially since there were several wines there that I haven't seen in Istanbul. I also snagged two of their last four bottles of Narince! Arda is not widely available even in Istanbul but you can find them at Solera (Beyoglu-Yeni Carsi Cd.) and at the wine/whiskey store in Karakoy I can never remember the name of. Helpful I know but it's somewhere near the iskele and offers significantly lower prices.


Arda 2013 Narince: A brilliant, pale yellow in the glass with a very floral, plumeria, and pineapple nose. On the palate it was creamy giving evidence to time spent in oak with bursting flavors of white pineapple, citrus, and white flowers. I'm so sorry that I only bought two bottle of the Narince because it was gorgeous-easily the nicest Narince I've had. And to the sadness of everyone at my Arda tasting, the second bottle was corked. There were tears.

The Cabernet I have reviewed before (see the link referenced above) so I won't rehash that here other than to say it's a lovely medium-bodied Cabernet with a lot of red berry, particularly raspberry flavors.

Arda 2013 Reserve Cabernet-Merlot blend: This has only recently been released and, at the time of our visit, wasn't yet available in Istanbul. You should be on the look out for it though because even for a Merlot naysayer like myself this 50/50 blend was beautiful. Eighteen months in oak (and three in the bottle) and limited filtration gives this blend a beautiful dark garnet color and adds some fascinating oak characteristics without stripping the berry flavors. The nose is redolent with pine forest, forest fruits, chocolate, and clove. In the mouth the tannins are soft and silky and with the black fruit, vanilla, and mocha flavors give a luscious drinking experience.

 

Arda 2012 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon: This one is so beautiful it gets its own picture which I took ages ago when M grilled steaks the size of our heads. Cabernet Sauvignon is often a wine that wants meat and Arda's reserve is no different.

Arda took the Mondus Vini Silver with this wine in the 16th Grand International Wine Awards, and it was well deserved. In the glass it's an intense, beautiful, purple red. The 18 months it spent in oak was obvious right from nose as the tart, dark fruit aromas were accompanied by chocolate and cinnamon. In the mouth the tannins are velvety and long like the finish. A really long finish that just kept going carrying with it the flavors from the nose: bilberry, chocolate, and cinnamon.

Side note: I had to Google bilberry because I've never had one. I was tasting blueberry but not really blueberry and it turns out that the bilberry is a wild, European cousin of the blueberry more similar in flavor to the American huckleberry (which I've also never had so that wasn't all that helpful).

So Arda; beautiful wines made with care and dedication and absolutely worth the effort to track down if you're not near Edirne.

Turkish Wine of the Week - Visiting Edirne and Chamlija's Blanc de Noirs

A few weeks ago E&M, R, and I headed out of Istanbul. None of us had ever been to Edirne, the old second capitol of the Empire, and on a roll after Bozcaada, I wanted to visit a few area wineries. So we rented a car and headed out to adventure.

Adventure that was made both hilarious and painful long before we ever got to our destination thanks to Google Maps' incredibly bad Turkish pronunciation. I realize it's just a computer but come on. I mean think goodness I wasn't the navigator because I truly had no idea what she was saying.

View of the Mosque of Three Balconies from our hotel

Monument to Mimar Sinan by his greatest mosque

Once we got into Edirne it took several wrong turns, arguing with Google Maps' bad Turkish, and asking directions twice to find our hotel. But once we got there and checked in we set off on a short walk to the Selimiye Mosque. Our first priority was the museums as our guidebooks said they were closed on Monday. The Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts is in the mosque's courtyard which oddly enough made it even more difficult for us to find! We were not having good luck with Google Maps that day. Eventually find it we did and we went in to wander the air conditioned, glassed in corridors that wrap around a courtyard holding old marbles. Several of the displays included tableau of old Ottoman and Turkish life. My favorite being the section on the traditional oil wrestling where there was even a holograph showing a wrestling ceremony.

They're supposed to be wrestling but it looks cannibalistic to me!

From here we wandered across the street to the Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum where we discovered more tableau, examples of traditional painting on wood, marbles, statues, and religious bits and bobs from the various cultures that passed through Edirne (once Greek Adrianopole).

It was then time to visit the Selimiye Mosque-once of the greatest of all the Ottoman mosque complexes and a triumph for the leading Ottoman architect: Mimar Sinan. Completed in 1575, a year after his death, the dome of the mosque is six cubits wider and four deeper than that of the Haghia Sofia.

It's a truly stunning creation both architecturally and in its decoration. This is probably my second favorite mosque in Turkey after the Rustem Pasa Mosque in Istanbul. I know, I know...the Blue Mosque blah blah blah-it's nice but there are others that are better and this is definitely one of them.

On our way to Edirne we made a slight detour to visit one of my favorite wineries in Turkey-Chamlija. Not only do I rarely have a bad word to say about Chamlija wines, I almost hands down love (barring Chardonnay which I don't like in general and to be fair have never tried Chamlija's). We were greeted by owner, the charming Mustafa Camlica who runs the vineyards that are dotted around Kirklareli. We sat down to do a tasting and he brought out four wines saying with a grin that we would be "starting with your favorite" as he brandished a bottle of their Albarino. It's true, it is (at least one of!) my favorite. So much so that I've blogged about it twice. However this wasn't just the Albarino-we were treated to a tasting of Chamlija's new 2015 Alvarinho Reserve. This was followed by the 2015 Papaskarasi (I've previously reviewed the 2014), the 2015 Mavrud, and the 2015 Öküzgözü-Boğazkere. Be on the lookout for tasting notes on these at a later date!

Before leaving Chamlija we made plans to order (they deliver to Istanbul if you buy a case!) and also bought a few bottles to go. One of which was the Karıştıran Bağları. You won't find this wine on the order list as it's one of two made really just for the local market but since we were there and being locals for the afternoon we bought a bottle. After a long day of driving and exploring we retired early to our hotel with some pide and Chamlija wines.

The Karıştıran Bağları is a 2015 blend of Pinot Noirs. In the nose there were a lot of black fruits like plum and blueberry as well as nail polish and maybe some gun smoke. It was slightly effervescent when we first took out the cork but as the wine opened and warmed up (we'd put in the fridge since "room temperature" that day was 38!) it smoothed out and the fizziness dissipated. No tannins or finish to speak of this was definitely the local wine-but it was fun to try!

Several cuts above the local wine was the 2015 Blanc de Noirs. A white wine made with Papaskarası (i.e. red) grapes, this was truly gorgeous. Go out and buy this now. Like right now.

Pale clear yellow in the glass it had a delicate citrus and tropical nose with possibly some floral elements. On the palate it was clean with some lively acid, an excellent finish, and flavors of peaches, tropical fruits, and lemon. Too easy to drink; this Blanc De Noirs by Chamlija definitely gets tagged as being #dangerouslydrinkable.

Day one in Edirne was a success! During day two we'll visit more mosques, attempt to round out our religious experience with a church and a synagogue, and visit a boutique winery!

Turkish Wine of the Week - Arcadia 2012 Gri

I bought this a little hesitantly since I had bad luck with Arcadia's Sauvignon Gris but my friends at Solera promised me it would be good and they have yet to steer me wrong. And I'll give another chance to anyone who uses peacocks on all its labels. At I think only 75 TL (minus the 25% take away discount) this one isn't cheap, but it won't break the bank.

Brilliant pale gold in the glass at least this Arcadia was starting off on a pretty foot. The nose was also quite lovely with white flowers, melon, and tropical notes with an underlying sweetness (probably the flowers). On the palate it was all zesty acid and citrus with tropical notes and more flowers.

The guys at Solera are rarely wrong, I did indeed like this one. This could pair very well with food but was also quite enjoyable on its own. I'm not waxing poetic as I often do for the red wines, but more white wines like this and the Kayra Viognier and I might stop drinking white wines only in the summer.

Turkish Wine of the Week - Amadeus MMX 2015 Gelber Muskateller

What is Gelber Muskateller? you ask. It's Muscat, or technically yellow Muscat. How is that different from any of the other Muscats I've reviewed? It's not really, it's the same grape. It just happens to be one of the German names (there are unbelievably almost 300 variations on the grape name!).

German white wines like Riesling and Gewürztramiener often get a bad rap as being syrupy sweet dessert wines when really that's not the case. German and Alsace Riesling, Gewürztramiener, and Muscat wines are usually produced as dry wines, not sweet. While Austrians tend to grow more of their native Grüner Veltliner, they also produce dry Riesling, Gewürztramiene, and Muscat. I assume that Amadeus chose to name the wine after the German name for the grape since they produced it in much the same manner as would the Germans and Austrians.

To be honest I was more than a little hesitant to buy this even though it was only 45 TL. I've had a bad Amadeus experience before which made me a little gun shy and the guys at the Cave are pushing this one hard. They do annoy me a bit sometimes. If I ask for a recommendation please give me one, but if I go in an tell you that I know exactly what I'm looking for and I want only those specific wines, stop trying fob other wines off on me.

Rant aside, honestly this wasn't too bad. At 14.5% it has a rather high alcohol content for a white wine but made for some beautiful legs in the glass as I swirled the bright gold wine. The nose was very tropical with floral, possibly honeycomb tones. It also felt really good in the mouth with a nice mouthwatering acid to balance the sweetness coming from the high alcohol and a smooth, clean, medium finish that carried through the aromas from the nose.

Honestly this was a lot nicer than I was expecting considering my reluctance to purchase Amadeus wines in general and the less than suave, beat you over the head with the wine bottle sales tactic from the guys at the Cave. I think I need to give Amadeus wines another try.

First Bulgaria Disinfected Me then Infused Me with Wine

I almost don't even know where to begin with this. E and I set off on what was to be a relaxing weekend break at a winery spa in Bulgaria-it turned out to be something rather different.

We left early so we could pick up our rental car at the airport and get the four-hour drive out of the way; unfortunately the travel troubles began right away. Enterprise's system was down ("system problem" are words we often hear in Turkey) so despite arriving at their service counter before 9AM it wasn't until 11 that we were finally on the road. With no traffic barring our way the drive through Turkey went smoothly and the border was upon us long before we even thought to expect it. Three check points later we were out of Turkey and entering the no man's land between it and Bulgaria.

That's where the trouble really began.

The 'green card' "office"

Approaching the first check point our car was unexpectedly sprayed with very chlorinated smelling water. I laughed and asked if we'd just been disinfected. Surely not, said E...but true enough there was a little booth just ahead labeled "disinfection fee collection point" where we were charged the cost of 3 Euros for apparently having Turkey cleaned off our car. Really thank goodness for that because it set a tone of ludicrousness without which we may have committed murder over the next two hours. After paying for our disinfection we pulled into a scrum of vehicles all attempting to cross the border into Bulgaria. In a space of maybe a square half mile were packed so many cars we couldn't even attempt to count them. Tempers were high, horns honked on an off, cars didn't inch forward...they centimetered forward. Suddenly we had so much time on our hands so we turned to Google to discover why everything was at a stand still. Apparently the Turkey-Bulgaria crossing is the second busiest land crossing in the world! That would have been good information to have before we left.

Todoroff complex

Two hours later, TWO HOURS LATER it was finally our turn. We handed over our passports, the car insurance, and the car rental contract but were absolutely flummoxed when asked for the "green card". Apparently saying words louder and more slowly is not just something English speakers do to foreigners because apparently shouting and over enunciating GREEN CARD at us was going to make us understand the Bulgarian border guard. Eventually someone with some English came over and instructed us to drive through the check point (while they held onto our passports) to "the last car and my colleague will help". Okay then. We drove through and parked by the final check point and asked everyone we saw "green card"? until we were directed to a small shack sitting just outside the border crossing area, where a woman sold us Bulgarian car insurance for 50 Euros. The green card.

We drove back to the original check point (no cars at all on this side of things!), parked, and walked to the booth where our passports were being held hostage. Being in the thick of things as we were it was easy to see why it was taking so long for each car to cross the border. After passport (and green card) inspection, the one customs officer shared by two lanes would poke through a car's trunk, rummage through luggage, and then pop the hood for a mechanical inspection. Every. Single. Car. We were spared this process after finally being able to provide the much-desired green card, given back our passports, and sent on our way.

Wine-infused jacuzzi!

Finally free to go we drove through the final final check point, slightly afraid we were going to be stopped and asked for another color card, we drove into Bulgaria-where there was no traffic. None. All those cars that got across the border before us were nowhere to be seen; it was very odd. About 100 kilometers in we stopped for gas. We probably could have got all the way to the spa without filling up but after 2.5 hours of running the AC while sitting in the hot afternoon sun we needed to fill up. Then began the next adventure of actually finding the spa. I don't know about other countries, but Bulgaria doesn't mark streets that have names like 'route 8602'. My Russian might be crap now but thank goodness I can still read Cyrillic because I was able to recognize the name of our destination village (Brestovitsa) and guide E to the correct street. Of course actually finding the spa in Brestovitsa was a whole different story. We had to stop and ask three or four different people being slightly hindered by neither of us being able to speak Bulgarian and me trying to speak to Bulgarians in Turkish.

Finally we arrived at Todoroff Winery and Spa. Sadly it was too late to take advantage of the spa or even join their tour/wine tasting. We were both so exhausted though-it had been 10 hours since we left home that morning-that we were happy to just have dinner and a bottle of wine and sleep early.

The next morning after breakfast we booked spa treatments for the next two days and while we waited for our appointment we sat outside in the cool Bulgarian country air playing with the sweetest kitten. From there E and I luxuriated for about an hour in Todoroff's Barrique Tub-a jacuzzi infused with bath salts and wine, actual wine, while also enjoying glasses of wine. We felt kind of bad because no matter how hard we tried to prevent it, the jacuzzi bubbled away so enthusiastically that the water ended up all over the floor. After pickling in the wine we each had body scrubs with grapes seeds/must (Cabernet Sauvignon!) and massages.

Processing the grapes

Bottling room

Fully relaxed, we lazed away the afternoon with spa treatments and naps until our tour of the Todoroff winery. The original winery was established in 1945 but nationalized in 1947. It was returned to the original family in the late 90s and bought and modernized by Ivan Todoroff in 2001. The winery produces wines made mostly from the same ubiquitous grapes everyone grows but they do also produce some very nice wine from the native Bulgarian grape, Mavrud.

Unfortunately it seems that many of the native Bulgarian grapes have been lost so Todoroff specializes in Mavrud, Cabernet Sauvignon, and the dreaded Merlot. Our guide told us that there are many traditional songs in Bulgaria about red wine and only one about white-which includes a line that goes something like: "Oh white wine, why aren't you red?" Love it.

In addition to making wine, Mr. Todoroff is also dedicated to supporting local artists and for several years has been running art competitions. Winners' works are displayed in the Todoroff tasting room and used for the wines' labels. The hotel itself is something of an art gallery with each floor also displaying the work of local artists, all of which are available for purchase.

We tasted five wines during the tasting: 2015 Boutique Rainbow Silver, 2015 Boutique Mavrud, 2013 Gallery Merlot, 2013 Gallery Cabernet Sauvignon, and the 2013 Teres Merlot.

The Todoroff Boutique line is not oaked which made me very happy as the 2015 Boutique Rainbow Silver is a Chardonnay blend: Chardonnay, Viognier, and Sauvignon Blanc. In the glass it's nearly colorless, clear, and brilliant. The nose is tropical with melon, green apples, and floral notes. In the mouth it's soft with good acid and lots of that green apple. For such a light white wine I was surprised by how well it paired with a strong, salty cheese. It was really quite nice.

The 2015 Boutique Mavrud was by far my favorite of what we tasted. Brestovitsa, where Todoroff is, is located in the Plovdiv region of Bulgaria's Thracian region. Mavrud is native to this area and while it's one of the few native grapes left it accounts for only 1.5% of grapes grown. Which to me is very sad because this was very much my favorite. Also aged in stainless steel, it was a bright purple-red color with a light-medium body. On the nose it was blueberry, floral, candy and the palate was very light tannins, well-balanced acid and more berry, candy, and honey flavors.

Up next was the 2013 Gallery Merlot (the line of Todoroff wines that feature the art competition winners). The Gallery-line wines spend four to six months in oak depending on the age of the barrel and there were definitely some light oak features in the wine with some smoke and vanilla in the nose. In the glass it was a brick red with medium clarity (sediment). The palate was very jammy with dried fruits especially prunes, smoke, vanilla, and oak with some light tannins and a medium finish.

The 2013 Gallery Cabernet Sauvignon was similarly treated with four to six months of oak. Todoroff uses their barrels (French, American, and Bulgarian oak) for only three years, a surprisingly short amount of time, before the barrels are sold off. The Gallery Cabernet is a dark, ruby-red in the glass with dark fruits and black olives in the nose. On the palate it's a medium body with nice, round tannins, integrated acid, and a medium finish with flavors reflecting the nose. It was nice...but there are Turkish Cabernets that are way better.

The last wine we tasted was the 2013 Teres Merlot which Todoroff is no longer selling. They have only a few bottles of their last Teres vintage left and they're saved for tastings. Although after the tasting E sweetly asked if it weren't possible for us to finish the bottle they opened for the tasting (it was!).  E really liked this one, me not so much. The Teres line wines spend eight to 10 months in the barrels which for the Merlot resulted in a deep brownish-brick red, medium body wine. The nose was very heavy dried fruits: raisins and prunes, along with smoke, vanilla, and baking spices. So-like a fruitcake that has spent some time in a smokehouse. It was quite similar to the Gallery Merlot in that the flavors were very jammy and while unquestionably a dry wine it had some very viscous, sweet flavors.

Roman amphitheater

Old city

Our last morning at Todoroff I had my last spa treatment: the Wine Mascarpone. After getting exfoliated again with grape seeds, I was slathered with a mask made out of wine and powdered milk, wrapped up in plastic and heavy blankets, and then the bed I was on turned into some sort of hot waterbed that filled up around me wrapping me in a waterbed burrito. It was pretty fantastic.

Old city-traditional painted Bulgarian building

Roman theatre-still used for events!

After my last spa treatment we packed up the rental car and headed into Plovdiv-Bulgaria's second largest city and one of the oldest, continuously inhabited cities in the world. Plovdiv is lovely and well worth the visit. The modern city, old city, and ancient ruins are all well integrated and, throwing in bright street art, make for a charming city. The Roman theatre is still used for concerts and events and the amphitheater has been cleverly built around to incorporate it into the pedestrian area of the city.

Plovdiv is full of museums and art galleries so E was in heaven. I was in heaven because the food was amazing. We had lunch at Pavaj, a trendy, hip little restaurant that served up killer barbeque pork ribs.

Getting back to Turkey was not as complicated as getting out, but we had a few bumps. Getting out of Plovdiv was one of them! A few wrong turns though and we found the rounds we needed. As long as we were going the opposite direction of Sophia we were fine and eventually we came upon signs directing us to Istanbul.

Not only we were worried about another two-hour delay but we realized that we were driving into Turkey with 11 bottles of wine. Why we didn't think to take them out of the winery boxes and put them in our bags I don't know; because we both knew better than to try this. Sure enough, while the crossing out of Bulgaria took no time at all, we were stopped at the Turkish border. The customs officer said we were only allowed one liter per person (which can't be right-you're allowed so much more flying in!). However a little stumbling Turkish about how we were on a girls' weekend; isn't there a fee/tax we can pay (the to you implied); and a little flirting later and we, and our 11 bottles, were allowed to cross. Sometimes it's good to be female in Turkey!

While our spa weekend getaway turned out to be a little more adventurous than I had planned it was a great trip! We were disinfected, infused with wine, got to try Bulgarian wine, ate pork, looked at art, and flirted contraband into the country. All in all it was a pretty great trip!