A delightful day of failure

The key elements of yesterday’s plans failed utterly, but I couldn’t have been happier with the day. Öznur and I signed up for a tour featuring a huge cave and spectacular views of valleys above Trabzon. I met the tour near my hotel and introduced myself to other passengers as they boarded the minibus. All of them spoke English, lucky for me, and none spoke Turkish. We started with a couple from Sudan, a family from Yemen, a couple from Palestine and an American; me. Since our route would take us right through Öznur’s town, she got on the bus last and immediately became our translator.

I had a bag full of Trabzon dates and passed it around. Then, at our first rest stop, Yusuf noticed a guy with a pot boiling on on an outdoor stove and offered tea. I declined at first, but in the end we all went over, and Yusuf treated. The group began to coalesce, but I’m not sure we knew that yet.

We hit our first setback when we arrived at the cave. The driver said something with a disappointed tone of voice. Öznur translated that the recent rains had engorged the river and we wouldn’t be allowed into the cave. Yusuf and I didn’t feel deterred by walking under a waterfall and tried to talk our way in, but the lady at the booth was adamant. Nobody gets in, regardless of courage or foolishness. We went upstairs to a little café in a minor cavern above the cave’s entrance and took pictures of the cataract and each other instead.

Still acting optimistic, our driver took us up to visit a manmade lake higher in the valley. As we approached the lake, we rose into the clouds, and by the time we reached the lake, we couldn’t see much. Nevertheless, Yusuf and I followed the lakeside pathway and found a dam not far away. Yusuf took my camera, ran around the dam, and took pictures of me in the fog near the spillway. We had a good time there, and ultimately enticed the rest of the group to follow us back. First, however, we all found our way into a warming house where somebody bought tea. Öznur produced cookies. We chatted and warmed up. We were a team.

We drove back out of the clouds and up into a spectacular valley. I savored the views all the way up, in case there would be no view at our destination. It was clear enough to be pretty most of the way, though we never saw across the valley. When we finally reached the high viewing point, however, the clouds were so thick that we could barely see the road. The driver said that he ordinarily stops there for lunch because the view is spectacular. Not today, however, so the group readily agreed to delay lunch by another hour and eat at a lakeside café close to town. I bought local strawberries to tide us over.

Over lunch, Öznur made an excellent proposal. She suggested that we eat lightly so everybody could come to her town for fish dinner at the end of the tour. Those sitting closest to Öznur understood immediately, but those farther away ate full lunches. They regretted that when we got to the fish place. Anyway, we had a lot of fun sharing a family-style lunch, and after lunch most of us went out to ride pedal-power boats around the lake.

Only the couple with a small child was unable to join us for dinner. Their daughter had done very well, but it was time for her to go home. Replacing them, Öznur’s friend who had come to the restaurant to prepare a table for us joined the group. He insisted that we order a dish that didn’t appeal to most of us, but since his English isn’t very good he may not have known that he was forcing something. It didn’t matter because we all liked it. It tasted far better than it looked.

Reluctant to part, we took a public shared taxi with Yusuf and Reham to the Aya Sofya mosque, formerly a very early Christian church. The ceilings inside the mosque are covered up right now, under restoration, but we were able to see a lot of early Christian motifs on the ceilings of the porticos that served as entryways to the old church. Then we crossed the street to Yusuf and Reham’s favorite dessert place. The owners greeted Yusuf with big hugs and called him brother. Everybody likes Yusuf. Then they gave me big hugs and knocked heads with all the men. We chatted into the night, probably keeping the owners from closing their café. I had to say goodbye to Öznur there, since we lived in opposite directions. She tried to pay the check, but the owners wouldn’t take money from anybody. Everybody is so NICE here.

Speaking of nice people, I feel compelled to mention politics. At least once a day, somebody asks me nicely about Donald Trump. Yesterday’s driver pretty much summed it up. It’s the only English I heard him use. He told me, “America very good. Donald Trump, problem.” Everybody seems to agree, but I’m glad that international political problems have not changed the underlying dynamic of human relations. Wherever you go, people are generally nice and want to get along. It makes for a pretty sweet life.

Another amazing day

We've had a couple of amazing days. Yesterday, Oznur and I took a bus to Uzungöl and "just" walked around. First we walked around the perimeter of the lake, stopping to eat a picnic lunch at the far side. A kind waiter let us use a table with a superb view for the price of cups of tea, and then moved us inside when rain came.

It rained off and on all day, but we never got wet. Generally, we simply found ourselves at the right places at the right times. Once it rained a little as we walked down from high above the lake, completely engaged by the amazing view, and my umbrella protected us during those few minutes. At the bottom of the hill, we stopped to savor the sweet scent of a damp field full of wildflowers and then stopped at a covered outdoor cafe for soup and snacks. It rained some more while we ate, but stopped again when we wanted to go out.

We walked downstream below the lake and found another huge field of wildflowers, amazing views and singing birds.

That evening, after returning to Trabzon, we had a traditional Turkish dinner of black liver and enjoyed the attentions of a very kind staff. We enjoyed our next meal at least as much, this time in a little coastal town called Rize. Somebody sent us to a popular place with a variety of fresh-cooked dishes. We ordered well and ate with pleasure.

After lunch in Rize, we went up to a formal tea garden with a small arboretum and excellent views. The taxi driver who took us there offered to pick us up later and bring us to the castle we wanted to see, but we nearly didn't call him because we saw a taxi in the parking lot. I wanted to take the car at hand, but after much conversation with the driver, Öznur decided to call our original guy. This happened because of a misunderstanding, but worked out to be the right thing.

As Öznur and the driver chatted, he suggested that we might prefer to see a mosque at the top of a hill. It would be far away, but we'd go past his house in the village where president Erdogan was born. Later, we met the driver's family, including President Erdogan's cousin. But first, the mosque. I had no idea we'd get so high into the mountains, but we drove far away, gaining a commanding view in spite of the day's mist. The driver and I stepped into the mosque for a while, and after I stopped to pray (in my own way), he decided to invite us home for tea.

We sat down in an overheated room with a fire burning in the fireplace and sipped delicious tea. More and more family members appeared and the room began to fill up. Öznur was the only woman to stay in the group, though I meet some other women from the family as they went about. Öznur stayed busy translating the important stuff and participating in the conversation. We both felt loved by this wonderful group, and delighted to be among them.

By and by, the conversation turned to Trump, as it always does. I'm used to it. Even in Belarus, where people generally supported him during the elections, they are now worried. You can imagine how much he scares Turkish Muslims. As we wrapped up that part of the conversation, Ahmed asked me to tell outsiders that the real Islam is good and that Muslims themselves are generally good. That's certainly been my experience.

The last couple of days have been absolutely extraordinary. I think that Öznur and I open doors for each other, and we're having a very rich experience that neither of us could have had alone.

Pictures from Trabzon

So here I am in Trabzon, Turkey. I've had another great day, but it's too late to write a blog post about going up to Uzungöl. I hope you'll have a look, then, at some of my favorite pictures. I've added captions to each of them, so click on whichever ones aren't obvious to you and the caption may help.

Click here for the album.

A day with Turks

We flew from Boston to Istanbul last night, on Turkish Airways. It felt like we got an inexperienced crew on a poorly-prepared airplane, a far different experience from our first trips on Turkish Airways. Nevertheless, I slept pretty well and didn’t mind the long trip much.

Alla wanted to stay in a nice hotel this time and minimize her time on the streets because of recommendations by the Russian Government. A nice hotel sounded good to me too, and we agreed on the Hyatt Regency, which we were able to book at a deep discount on Expedia. The hotel got us in the end, though. And we don’t mind.

I read an article a couple of days ago by a hotel employee who explained who gets the best treatment and why. He stated clearly what I had understood to some extent by experience: If the hotel knows you’re a price-conscious shopper (you bought at a discount rate from a service) they don’t expect you to come back if you can’t find such a good deal next time. I tried anyway. Our Expedia deal didn’t include breakfast, but we had paid up for a view room so I tried to sweet-talk the clerk into giving us breakfast coupons. He wouldn’t give in, but assured us that we’d enjoy an excellent buffet for an additional 30 Euros apiece. He also offered an alternative, an upgrade to a “Regency Club” room at a discount rate not much more than the cost of those two breakfasts.

We took the upgrade and got moved up by eight stories, free supper (“snacks”), free breakfasts and a somewhat bigger room. Once we saw the snacks, we knew we’d done the right thing. It was a perfect light dinner for us on the first night of our big change in time zones, and we enjoyed the company of the hotel staff who attended to us, and great views in a beautiful place.

After eating, we went off to the pool and swam for a while, took a sauna, and came back to our delightful room. Alla brought with her a gift of two lemons, a gift from the tea lady in her side of the spa. When you add everything up, we still saved a considerable amount of money by flying Turkish Airways and staying here, and we’re having an excellent time.