Rize Turkey - Land of Tea and well, Corn

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My new friend Megan and I decided to visit a small part of the Black Sea area of Turkey this summer, and I am really glad I did. I am leaving Turkey in two weeks and after living here for a year, I realized I hadn't done any traveling within Turkey, and that is a shame. So we took an evening flight to Trabzon, rented an economical Fiat for three days, and drove the 70km or so to Rize. We stayed in an öğretmen evi, or teacher house. These apartment-like hotels are all over Turkey and are for teachers to stay in when they travel, and some even live there while teaching. Megan had a teacher card, so I could stay as her guest. These apartments are inexpensive and convenient, and a great idea!!!

When we arrived there were a lot of people outside dancing. Not sure why, a wedding maybe. We were hungry, so after we checked in we got in the car to find a place to eat. It was about 10PM, so a lot of things were closed, but we passed a nice looking restaurant and even though they were moving the outdoor tables inside, they said they were open. And they were quite surprised at blond Megan's ability to speak Turkish! I had a lovely chicken saute (tavuk söte) and Megan had a cheese pide (Turkish pizza). We still think they were actually closing and stayed open for us. The food was great, but we were tired and went back to the hotel for a shower and sleep.

The next day, we drove back along the road the way we came as much of Rize was actually to the west. Rize is built along the sea with mountains behind it where they grow the tea, so it is a very long city. We found the 'downtown' area with no problem, parked the car, and our first stop was tourist information where we got a free map, DVD, and a book about the area, none of which we actually used. Behind tourist info was the Rize Museum and the Çay Museum (tea museum). We went to the Rize Museum first, which is always free, and is in an old mansion. Its exhibits include old furniture, weaving looms, kilims and carpets, and household utensils used over the centuries. It was really interesting, and the house was actually the best part! It has incredible wooden ceilings and floors. Next we went to the Tea Museum, which we thought was 3TL but they didn't ask us for any money. We were the only people there, and the guide explained how the machines were used to process and store the tea. He told us in Turkish, but I understood quite a bit and Megan translated some things for me. This museum is also in an old mansion which is stunning, and it was really interesting to see how the tea is dried and packaged, and they have examples of the packaging over the years. Well worth a visit.

Rize is the tea growing region of Turkey, and much of the tea is also exporte. We wanted to see the tea, so we headed up into the hills behind the museum. As we were walking up the hill, we saw two Turkish women picking black mulberries and they invited us to try them. These two women were so funny and they let us pick as many berries as we wanted. They were surprised that we could speak Turkish, one of us at least, and I think they enjoyed themselves as much as we did. I could understand some of what they said, but Megan really talked to them. This was definitely a highlight of our trip. We continued upward and it became clear that not many tourists walk this way. We met some other people who pointed us in the right direction, and we ended up in their garden. They grow corn in every available space, as well as beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, and of course, tea. We were rewarded with beautiful views of the tea, the sea, and Rize. We kept climbing and ended up in a tea garden, and there were a couple of tour buses there. I think this is how most people travel to this area. Bleh. It was too hot for tea, so we took pictures and cooled down a bit, and headed back down the hill in search of ice cream, which is never hard to find in summer in Turkey.

We walked in Rize a bit more, explored a local vegetable and fruit market that was beautiful, and then we got in the car and headed to Çaykara (tea black), a small village where we were going to stay in another teacher apartment. It was a short drive and when we arrived, we had plenty of time to walk around the small town, eat some delicious chicken şiş and yogurt, and then we went back to the hotel to just relax. This small town was just a place to stay as there isn't much to explore in this area. We were discouraged from walking up in the hills because of wolves. Okay. Right. The man who runs the teacher apartments was a bit strange, quite overweight, and quite smitten with Megan, who by some miracle could understand him. He offered to walk with us up in the hills (uhh, no) and we noticed he closed the door to our room when he offered to do this. Megan promptly said no and opened it again. There may be wild dogs in those hills, but there are no wolves. The wolf was in our room!

We had a nice enough evening just relaxing in the room eating cherries and watching Martha Stewart!! We couldn't believe we had English television here in the middle of nowhere.

Off to Uzungöl tomorrow.

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Photos

Cucumbers
They have limited space, so cucumbers grow up, like beans