We were on to Trabzon and the Sumela Monastery.
We took a morning bus and were again cruising the dry, mountainous, high altitude steppe. An hour outside of Erzurum we started climbing into the mountains. At first the mountains were completely devoid of vegetation, then we started seeing scrub brush, then bushes, then small trees. We passed through mountain villages made of mud and surrounded by sheep, the only defining characteristic being the mosques which presided over the villages.
The terrain became more rugged and the vegetation turned to pine trees. The air was getting more humid and dense. We climbed up a high pass and when we hit the other side we were in a lush, temperate rain forest with towering trees. The change was marked from one side to the other. We spent the last hour to Trabzon heading down the mountain until we hit sea level at the Trabzon bus station.
Trabzon has a population of 215,000 and it is located on the north coast of Turkey, an hour from the Republic of Georgia on the black sea. It is Turkey's biggest port on the eastern coast. The town was full of Russians on packaged holidays and there were lots of signs in their Cyrillic script there.
Our guidebook described the town as slightly seedy and hectic and said that most hotels doubled as brothels.
I left Gaby with our packs at a cafe and looked for a hotel for the night. The two "budget" options in the guidebook were so expensive that we could not afford them. I checked every hotel in the downtown over the next 2 hours and they were all awful. I finally decided on the "best" of the worst and exhausted and disgusted with Trabzon we crashed in the Russian Hotel.
The next morning Gaby woke to her entire body covered with bug bites.
We decided to take the day tour to the Sumela Monastery (or Virgin Mary's Monastery). A minibus took us to the path where we hiked up the 2453 steps to the ancient site with its ancient frescoes, which was hanging off of the mountain in the lush forest.
That night we took the night bus out of Trabzon in the pouring rain. We had seen quite enough of Trabzon, thank you.
Steve
We took a morning bus and were again cruising the dry, mountainous, high altitude steppe. An hour outside of Erzurum we started climbing into the mountains. At first the mountains were completely devoid of vegetation, then we started seeing scrub brush, then bushes, then small trees. We passed through mountain villages made of mud and surrounded by sheep, the only defining characteristic being the mosques which presided over the villages.
The terrain became more rugged and the vegetation turned to pine trees. The air was getting more humid and dense. We climbed up a high pass and when we hit the other side we were in a lush, temperate rain forest with towering trees. The change was marked from one side to the other. We spent the last hour to Trabzon heading down the mountain until we hit sea level at the Trabzon bus station.
Trabzon has a population of 215,000 and it is located on the north coast of Turkey, an hour from the Republic of Georgia on the black sea. It is Turkey's biggest port on the eastern coast. The town was full of Russians on packaged holidays and there were lots of signs in their Cyrillic script there.
Our guidebook described the town as slightly seedy and hectic and said that most hotels doubled as brothels.
I left Gaby with our packs at a cafe and looked for a hotel for the night. The two "budget" options in the guidebook were so expensive that we could not afford them. I checked every hotel in the downtown over the next 2 hours and they were all awful. I finally decided on the "best" of the worst and exhausted and disgusted with Trabzon we crashed in the Russian Hotel.
The next morning Gaby woke to her entire body covered with bug bites.
We decided to take the day tour to the Sumela Monastery (or Virgin Mary's Monastery). A minibus took us to the path where we hiked up the 2453 steps to the ancient site with its ancient frescoes, which was hanging off of the mountain in the lush forest.
That night we took the night bus out of Trabzon in the pouring rain. We had seen quite enough of Trabzon, thank you.
Steve
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