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Private Notes
Journalist Adrian Chiles, former politician Edwina Currie, Olympian Fatima Whitbread, broadcaster Mim Shaikh, TV presenter Amar Latif, comedian Dom Joly and actress Pauline McLynn set out to cover sections of the Sultans Trail - a modern-day 2,200km pilgrimage across Eastern Europe that starts in Vienna and ends in Istanbul. Each has varying religions, with Dom and Pauline confirmed atheists. Starting in Serbia's capital Belgrade, they stay in basic hostels and sleep in shared dorms, acting as simple pilgrims traversing the ancient military route by rail and foot.
In the second episode, the pilgrims are on their final day in Serbia, searching for a monastery hidden in the forests of the Sicevo gorge. After a difficult hike, the group make it to this historic building, wherethey are greeted by Sister Simeona, one of three Orthodox nuns who preserve the religious sanctuary. After exploring the church, the pilgrims are offered food and drink for the onward journey. Before they leave, Adrian leads the group in a ritual of remembrance, with each pilgrim leaving a candle for a loved one. Later that day, the group make it to a lookout point high above the gorge, where Amar scrambles to the very top for a final sunset photo in Serbia, much to Adrian’s obvious anxiety.With Serbia behind them, the group travel on to Bulgaria and the capital Sofia. They arrive on Bulgarian Independence Day, marking the moment when Ottoman rule ended here in 1878. Sofiais home to a so-called ‘square of religious tolerance', where all four major religions of the region are represented in proximity. Mim and Amar, both raised as Muslims, visit Sofia’s only mosque. Once there, Amar confides in Mim that he no longer goes to mosque to pray but wants to see how he feels now. Amar meets the imam and tells him how losing his sight made him question his faith.Meanwhile, Dom takes Edwina and Fatima to visit the museum of socialist art, a memorial to Bulgaria’s communist past. The visit triggers a discussion about the difference betweencommunism and religion with regards to faithful followers and iconography. The group reunite and follow the trail towards the Rila Mountains, the highest in the Balkans.In the small town of Samokov, Edwina and Dom visit the house of a Jewish family who fled Bulgaria as communism came into the country. Next door is a ruined synagogue, where Edwina describesher Jewish upbringing and describes what seeing the marks of the Jewish people in the region means to her. Walking back into the Rila Mountains, the pilgrims search for a hermit’s ca
The celebrities set off on the final leg of their pilgrimage and arrive in Turkey, where they head for the magnificent Suleymaniye Mosque in the historic city of Istanbul.
