Dear Family and Friends,
This year we decided to travel to northeastern Turkey for Mike’s spring break. It is definitely low season over there. If you want to see festivals and flowers, go in the summer. If you want to see fog, go any other time. Nonetheless, we did see flowers- the fruit trees were blooming, and the woods were full of strawberries and primroses, and occasionally, an azalea in full bloom. The mountains seem to rise right out of the sea. They are steep, but people build on impossible slopes and run winch lines to the nearest road so that their supplies can be easily delivered. This is also the center of Turkey’s tea and hazelnut businesses.
Our original plan had been to fly to Trabzon, rent a car, travel to a few places, and return to Trabzon. Everything began according to plan, but the airport in Trabzon was closed because of fog. So, the plane turned around and landed in Samsun. Once there, the only thing the airline offered was a trip back to Istanbul, or to find our own way at our own expense to Trabzon. The passengers were furious. Fortunately one guy – big and loud – convinced the airline that they had to deliver us, at their expense, to Trabzon. While these negotiations were going on, about half the passengers left to rent cars or to find the bus station. Finally, they agreed to send us via an airport shuttle bus to Trabzon, a four or five hour bus ride.
The next day, Sunday, the sun came out, and we saw both the Aya Sofia and the Sumela Monastery. The joke here is that no one has ever actually seen Sumela because of the fog and clouds, so we were pretty lucky. It was a nice hike and not very crowded once we arrived.
From Trabzon, we went to Gümüşhane. There are two Gümüşhanes, the modern city along the river and the old city up in the hills that was the center of the silver mining and production during the days of the Empire. There were many ruins of monasteries and castles, some of which we tried to find, but usually we would see one sign, followed by a fork in the road, and no further indication of where to go.
From Gümüşhane we had planned to go over the mountain to Rize, but we discovered that the mountain passes were closed because of snow and avalanches, so we ended up driving around the mountain back through Trabzon and on to Rize. Rize is the tea growing center of Turkey, and the hills are covered with tea plants. We visited the Botanical Garden at Tea Institute, and then headed east to Hopa and up into the mountains. Again, we rain into weather problems, so we changed our itinerary, returned to the coast, and made our way to Ayder where we spend two nights instead of one. Ayder is a trekking and outdoor adventure place up in the mountains, but not so high. Here we had one day of fog and one day of sun. Our hosts at the hotel were friendly and helpful, but they probably wondered what we were doing there at that time of year. There were no tourists at all, and only one restaurant was open, but it served trout, so we were very happy to get relief from what had seemed like an all-meat diet.
This part of Turkey has an interesting and complicated history. Vestiges of Greek, Armenian and Georgian languages are still spoken. Ruins of churches and castles are everywhere. Besides tea and hazelnuts, it is the center of the Laz people, Black Sea music
We had no weather problems on our return to Istanbul, and we had the treat of sharing the plane with Trabzon’s winning soccer team. Here’s the photo set on Flickr. I’m still adding to it, so it will complete in a few days.
If you like Turkish film, here are a couple of titles that are related to the Trabzon and Black Sea region of Turkey.
Bal (Honey) – This is the third part of a trilogy about Yusuf.
The Edge of Heaven – The beginning and end are Black Sea; in between is an interesting story.
Now we are looking forward to better weather, a speedy final term, and our return to New Mexico.
xox
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The photo club took its first trek of the year to the newly renovated and restored 
