Sumela

Findik people :-)

Surely we have a plan of the trip however usually is looks like we don't exactly know where we will end up the next day, since it is all dependant on our hosts and luck at hitch-hiking. And it was just like that when we left Trabzon in some morning. All we knew was: visiting Sumela Monastery first and then decide where move on to.

We got a ride to Macka from two guys who worked in a findik (hazelnut) processing factory. That region is very famous of hazelnuts. We also got a huge bag of nuts as a present! Delicious.

Frescoes

The primary plan was to hitch-hike to Sumela but before we could react we were put into dolmus by our previous drivers. We were not very excited about that as we knew it would generate costs, later on realizing that hitch-hiking to monastery would not be possible at all. We were sitting in dolmus with our eyes closed when two cars were passing each other on unprotected by any barriers high, narrow, mountainous road. In the end it seemed that the drivers knew what they were doing as we got to the monastery safe and sound.  

Monastery from the inside

It was actually worth risking your life to get there since the structure was astonishing. The first thing which comes to your mind when you see this is: how the hell they built it there?! We didn't find it out however we were sure it was unbelievable effort for people of that times.

While coming back we met Indian tourist who studied in Paris. We presented him idea of the CS and hitchhiking in Turkey. He had even instant practice as we hitchhiked altogether from Macka to Trabzon. Jagoda taught him the most useful expressions in Turkish during hitchhiking when I was speaking with the driver for whole 45 minutes ride.








 In Trabzon we left our companion with bunch of hazelnuts and started to hitchhike to Artvin, our next destination, but we weren't so lucky as usual and after few transfers we got to Borcka and because it was a night already we had to take a bus to Artvin. There we met Volkan and Fatmagul and their lovely Labrador puppy - Robin.

Night view on the Black Sea (on the way to Artvin)