Bright and early, well early for us on holiday, we walk to the tramway, catch the next one, get off and walk another block to pick up the metro (slightly different version of the tramway) and ride that to the Otogard (bus station). Then you find a bus company (there are more than 80 of them) that has a bus leaving soon for Edirne, Nilufer in this case, buy a ticket and go get on board. This sounds less complicated than it was, but once you have done it, the next time will be very easy. The coach to Edirne is a new Mercedes-Benz and even has a steward who several times during the 2 1/2 hour trip serves drinks and snacks. Each seat has it’s own TV which is great if you speak Turkish! I cannot imagine this trip 148 years ago! That is how long ago Bahá’u’lláh and his entourage were yet again banished. This time from Constantinople to Adrianople (present day Istanbul to Edirne). It did take them 11 days and it wasn’t a pleasant time.
When we arrived in Edirne, we attempted to follow the directions we had, but came up feeling quite lost. So back to the bus company’s office to see if we could find some help. We first bought our ticket back to Istanbul and then asked for some help with directions. The fellow looked at our slip of paper with the address and the title “House of Bahá’u’lláh” and recognized the street name first, then noticed Bahá’u’lláh’s name and immediately asks if we were Baha’is! He has a quick conversation with another person in the office and then gets out of his seat and starts to the door all the while making a telephone call. A quick conversation ensues and we find ourselves following our new friend down the street next to the office. Within two minutes he is knocking at the door of the caretaker’s house! We guess the telephone call was to the caretaker as they are obviously well acquainted with each other. Sometimes it really is a good thing to ask for help!
Our visit to the House of Bahá’u’lláh in Edirne is really the last part of our pilgrimage. This is the last place he lived before being exiled to Akka in Israel. Visiting these places in reverse order may seem a little backwards, but it really isn’t an issue.
After we are finished our visit here, we trundle down the street to the Selimiye Mosque. There we take a very many photographs, find lunch, attempt to get warm, visit a grocery store and then return to the bus station for the return to Istanbul. It has been a lovely day except for the very cold temperatures. You may notice a bit of white stuff … that is snow!
I love the diversity of the people in Haifa, the fact that Russian and Arabic are spoken just as much as Hebrew and that you see tourists, Baha’i pilgrims, and Jewish Birthright youth visiting from all parts of the world. Because Haifa is on a mountain–Mount Carmel, the mountain of God–you see beautiful views of the city, the Baha’i gardens, or the vast Mediterranean Sea by simply walking down the streets and stairs. Haifa is not very big, nor is it overly touristy, so unlike Istanbul, the traffic isn’t bad and you can walk downtown without being pestered by people trying to sell you something or convince you to eat at their restaurant. Actually, shopping in Israel is quite easy I discovered. You often have to barter, but for the most part Israelis are very honest people and they would rather preserve their dignity than do anything they can to make you spend your money. As much as I enjoyed the Starbucks in Istanbul, I appreciate and admire the laws in Israel that partially protect its local economy from the threat of huge international chains and unrealistically cheap imported foods. I also love Israel’s health conscious people who have made health food stores, homeopathic pharmacies, brown bread, quinoa, and salads popular and readily available. And, of course, I love that living in Haifa means that I can walk in the Baha’i gardens and pray in the Shrines almost every day–a bounty I am so grateful for.