I slept soooooooooo good after dancing the night away on the Black Sea. Luckily, the next morning we had planned a morning of driving in the van. We woke up and headed down to breakfast in the hotel. Someone in our group was awesome and headed to a little market and picked up some bananas. They were HUGE and delicious. They also had a tv on in the breakfast room. At first it was Turkish MTV, and then somehow they turned to American music videos. It's weird when we you get so used to hearing a foreign language all the time and then hearing English again. As each person in our group made it down to breakfast, they all just stared at the tv trying to decide if it was actually in English or not. Hilarious. Unfortunately, John woke up and was not feeling well at all, so he chose to spend the day at the hotel.
The rest of us loaded up the van and we were off to the mountains! This time I dressed much more appropriately. We started out driving along the Black Sea, which is a beautiful view.
Then once we hit a town (whose name has left me) we headed up into the mountains. The views were absolutely stunning.
You see these hills covered in tea bushes with mountains on the very top of the hills. How in the world they got their houses up there is a complete mystery to me, and how they planted and harvest all those tea bushes too. Randolph did explain how they get the tea leaves across the river stream though. They have these crazy box pulley things where they can load up the leaves at the top and then transport the leaves down the hills. Very resourceful is you ask me!
They also have these amazing bridges over the water. When I heard we were going up in the mountains in Turkey I was imagining nothing but us and nature. I was wrong. There was a little town (sorry for my spelling Randolph) called samelhemsheen (phonetic). It was a little mountain town, but had some pretty nice shops and restaurants (I'll cover these later). Once we left this area we started to encounter the snow. We made it all the way up to a little resort town called Ayder before we stopped. It would have been pretty rough going much further in that van.
At first we though Ayder was a fake/ghost town. It was COVERED in snow and there was not a person in sight. Not that I blame them... We did find a few guys who were taking care of a hotel/hostel who invited us in for some tea. While they prepped the tea we went for a little stroll through the town. We found a shopkeeper who invited us in as well. He had a few souvenirs on sale that some people bought - mostly socks and scarves. I had my eye on something he had outside.
Honey. Apparently tea and honey are what these people do well. We asked about the honey and he showed us a hive WAY up in the trees where he grows his honey. I was impressed. He offered us a small discount, but it was still REALLY pricey for a jar of honey. When we balked at his price, he told us about a competitor who sells his honey for like $450/half kilo! Isn't that insane!!! But apparently the quality of the honey depends on the flowers that the bees go to, so that is why his was so expensive. Very intriguing. I bought a jar : ) I couldn't help myself.
Then we headed back to the hostel to have tea. As they were described, the two guys were basically hippies. They weren't too interested in religion. Ethnically they were hemsheen people, which is basically the same as Armenian. But they were very nice and served us tea, an amazing little chocolate dessert, and let us sit around their fire.
Of course to get down to where they were holed up, we had to go down the staircase of death. Before you go down there is a very foreboding snowman with a sword in his hand. I knew that had to be a bad sign...They had these stairs that were COMPLETELY iced over. Even with my tennis shoes on and holding onto the wall, I pretty much slid to the bottom. I was so proud of myself until I saw one of the local guys literally run down the stairs without holding on. A shot to my pride, but oh well.
As we went to leave Ayder, we took a few pics of the view. Looking up at the top of the mountain, Randolph pointed out some specks that looked like rocks.... they were houses. How in the world they got up there... I still don't know. Must be cold up there. We did see a lady with a big pack on her back heading up the hill, and she was knitting as the same time. Way to multitask!
On our way back down the mountain we stopped back in samelhemsheen for some souvenirs and lunch. The souvenir shop we stopped in had a super nice lady who taught showed us how to wear the traditional headdress in the area. What do you think?
While I was waiting on some people to buy souvenirs I walked around the corner and saw a fish tank full of fish. Interesting... even more interesting when it turned out that was where we ate lunch and I had fish. I wonder which one of these guys was my lunch?
While we were at lunch they were running a special on tv. Apparently a really popular Turkish singer had been shot. Randolph basically described that it would have been like Frank Sinatra or Snoop Dog being shot. Interesting. Everyone on the tv was basically in hysterics, crying and playing old videos of him singing. It was pretty weird. The rumors were that an old business partner of his who had a grudge shot him in the head after a show. Pretty wild. This restaurant did have one of the few things I put in my mouth in Turkey and had difficulty swallowing. It was a dessert made pretty much from stirring syrup into cornflour. It was nasty. One bite was enough for me. Ick
After lunch we wandered through the town a little bit and then headed back to Rize. We stopped along the way and took lots of pictures of the scenery. At one point as we were driving we saw a group of guys on the side of the road. One was playing an instrument and the others were dancing. On the side of the road in the middle of the mountains in Turkey, these guys just stopped on the road for a dance. It was bizarre but Randolph assures us it happens all the time. Some of our guys decided to join in.
As we were driving along the coast again, they were talking about how people always say they see dolphins in the Black Sea but how Randolph hadn't. Pretty much immediately, we saw a dolphin. No joke. It was so ironic, and funny. It happened so fast I didn't get a picture. Sorry. When we got back to Rize we stopped to take a few pictures. They have a giant tea pot in town. Pretty cool.
We also stopped to get some local information and take some pics of the town center. It was getting pretty chilly though so we went back to the hotel to get John and go to dinner. We ended up eating dinner with a friend of Randolph's who is a carpenter in Rize. After dinner we went back to his workshop to see some of his work. He really was incredible. He had tables and chairs and desks. Most of his work was from taking tree roots and using them. He described how he never had a specific plan for a piece wood, but how he looked at it and how the work just took shape. He was a true artist.
After visiting the workshop, we headed up to a hill at the top of the city to admire the view. Sorry the pictures aren't very good. For some reason my camera doesn't take very good pics at night. It was C-O-L-D up there. We didn't stay outside very long but headed inside for some tea. A few of us also shared the fried cheese and wheat dessert. While Ernest and Randolph talked to the carpenter, it was a good chance for the rest of us to unwind and just chat for awhile. It was also the last night before two of our team headed home to the states and the rest of us headed to Istanbul.
Check back tomorrow to read about my airport meltdown and our first day in Istanbul.
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