Ramadan 2013 – Day 27, Travelling

Vacation has started. I got to the airport to catch a 3:45am flight to Turkey. I was a bit surprised to see that even at the airport lounge there was no alcohol available as it was Ramadan – looks like Qatar has become strict about alcohol during the Holy Month.

After landing in Istanbul

I grabbed a bus to Bursa, which uses a ferry to cross the Sea of Marmara,

and from Bursa made my way to the seaside town of Mudanya, where my friend lives.

Because we are farther north the day is longer, iftar here doesn’t start until 8:20pm so it was a long day of fasting for my friend (I didn’t fast today because I was travelling). Unlike Qatar it is not as strict here for Ramadan, restaurants are open throughout the day and many people were eating and drinking. I guess only some Turks fast during Ramadan. We had iftar at one of my favourite places in Mudanya – a kofte restaurant called Pinar Izgara. For dinner we had some of their famous kofte and for dessert a specialty of the house, kemalpasha (literally “General Kemal”, it’s named after Ataturk).

After we took a walk along the Corniche then went home to meet with friends. It’s 2am now so we’ve decided to stay up and have sohour at 3:30am before going to bed. I hope I can get my sleep schedule back on track once Eid arrives.