A Final Drive through Rural Turkey

With school over and Greg's wedding over a week away, Evie and Jesse took off with our friend Bill in his little green Hyundai for a tour of Turkey's Black Sea region. We did a lot of driving in six days which allowed us to see lots of unpopulated, undeveloped Anatolian countryside. The highlights were the Sumela monastery near Trabzon and the unspoiled towns of Amasya and Safranbolu, great stops along the way.

A rough-drawn route map of our drive. Trabzon was our furthest East point. We leave Turkey having explored most of the regions in Turkey except the far East and Southeast. Hopefully another day!

This picture of Bill and Evie was taken as we headed over the mountains that separate the Black Sea coast from the drier inland valleys near Amasya. The Anatolian countryside was fertile and full of rustic beauty. Modernity hadn't encroached much.

Our route took us through the endless, dry central plateau which includes Ankara, and then through large beautiful farming valleys further east near Amasya. We had some nice long countryside drives, with tiny farming villages, lots of tractors on the roads, and head-scarved women working in the hot fields or taking a break in the shade. When we finally crossed the mountains that line the Black Sea coast, we noticed a dramatic change when we started coming down: the country on the sea side of the mountains was more green than we could imagine, and more green than we'd ever seen in Turkey. The picture at the top of the page is from that drive.

Amasya

Not many tourists make it to Amasya, a pleasant central-Anatolian town in a dramatic setting.

The old Ottoman houses along the river were beautiful, with a citadel and 2000-year-old rock tombs behind.

The building with the tower is the Teacher House

The great unexpected discovery of our trip was Amasya, a small town on a river about two hours south of Samsun and the coast. We were just looking for a place to stay after the first day of driving, but we found a gem. We liked it so much we stopped there on our way back as well! Amasya is built on a river which cuts through a dramatic rocky gorge. The city has a long interesting history, including: conquered by Alexander the Great, ruled by Persians, the Pontic Kings, the Romans, the Seljuks, the Mongols and finally the Ottomans. It was also important in the War of Independence, the site of the an important meeting in which Mustafa Kemal established the principles of the new revolution. The riverbank is lined with beautiful old Ottoman houses, and above them are 14 huge rock tombs carved into the rock walls by the Pontic Kings as early as the 4th century BC! There were also a number of beautiful Seljuk and Ottoman mosques and other buildings along the river.

Rather than this history, what we most appreciated about Amasya was its pleasant and lively small-town feel. There were no foreign tourists, but the townspeople really enjoyed their town, strolling up and down the riverbanks with ice cream and eating outside in a main square. On our visit on the way out, we stayed in a restored Ottoman house with tall carved-wood ceilings and lots of carpets and woodwork. On our way back through the second time we stayed in the most beautiful and noticeable building in the town, which we found out is an Ogretmen Evi or teacher house, a sort of teacher-hostel found all over Turkey where teachers can stay for less than five dollars. As far as I know, the US has nothing as civilized and wonderful as that for its teachers!

Trabzon

Trabzon sits on a dramatic slope on the Black Sea, but the town was disappointing.

The Ayasofya Church, finished in 1263 and now a museum, offered beautiful architecture and frescoes, as well as a dramatic view of the Black Sea.

Trabzon was the main goal and the farthest East point of our journey. We had read in the Lonely Planet that "Modern Trabzon is thoroughly cosmopolitan," with many traders (as well as prostitutes called "Natashas") from the former Soviet republics, etc. However, we were completely disappointed with this city. The entire visit it struck us as dirty, sketchy, unwelcoming, unhappy and depressing. In the entire town we couldn't find a nice restaurant, and even more baffling: not one nice fish restaurant anywhere, meters from the Black Sea! The Byzantine Ayasofya Church was the one thing worth seeing in the city itself.

The Sumela Monastery is literally built into a mountainside amidst lush green alpine-like scenery

Once you've climbed up, you find the entrance to the monastery is through a single door at the top of stairs. Also you can see the aqueduct that brought mountain stream water to the monastery.

The chapel is beautifully frescoed on every surface, inside and out. The monks, who lived here up to 1923, had a very nice home.

All our effort to get out to Trabzon was made worth it by the Sumela Monastery. The drive to get there took us way up into a lush green valley along a rushing mountain stream. The scenery was almost Alpine, so green and mountainous. When we got to the base, we climbed about 40 minutes up to the monastery, which is built into a cliff-side with an amazing view of the valley below. The entrance is by a single door, and inside there is a beautiful multi-level courtyard with a painted chapel sitting in the center. The setting was so natural, so beautiful, so pure!

Safranbolu

Safranbolu's valley of Ottoman houses was definitely worth a second visit!	These women were picking grape leaves.
There were lots of beautiful rural handicrafts on sale in Safranbolu. Here Bill has some new tablecloths, heading to Canada as gifts!	We stayed in one of the many Ottoman house pensions, with lots of carpets and woodwork.

On our way back from Trabzon, we decided to stop and stay in Safranbolu. Evie and I had visited here for one day in October, and we had really loved it. It is an unspoiled Ottoman town, with no modern construction, just a valley filled with grand, lovely Ottoman houses. Despite scorching hot weather, we had some wonderful experiences in this beautiful town, including meeting a Turkish family who welcomed us into their Ottoman house to drink ayran (a salty yogurt drink perfect for hot days) and to meet their 1-year-old baby girl. Safranbolu has a friendly bazaar area, and many traditional craftspeople. We bought some nice things such as a hand-engraved metal tray, turkish delight made with safran, and linen shirts to try to stay cool!

Our final trip was great because we saw lots of very authentically Turkish places: scenic rural countryside, the less-touristed Black Sea coast, and the very Turkish towns of Amasya and Safranbolu. We'd eaten so much Turkish food (it was all we could get, anywhere out there!) and seen so much of pure Turkey that we felt fine stopping at Burger King as we cruised back into Istanbul! And then the packing to return to the States began...