Blogs from Trabzon, Black Sea, Turkey, Middle East

The Hazelnut is something I normally only dwell on during the winter holidays. Usually as part of the one pound mixed bags I buy at the grocery store for Thanksgiving. I have one of those lacquered wooden 'Tree Bark' bowls that I park on the coffee table like my Mom used to. Hazelnuts are easy to open, compact little brown spheres that crack into perfect hemispheres between my molars. It is the poor-man's Macadamia. I'd never given them much thought until now. It's Saturday morning and scurrying around me are a half-dozen, chattering women who look as if they've just stepped out of a 1910 Ellis Island 'new arrivals' photo. Loose fitting clothing, head scarves framing beautiful open faces. We're all tending to Ramazan cooking chores. Working together in the outdoor kitchen. Hacer ministers to an ... read more

23 April What an incredible start to today. And incredibly early. We arrived at Kaya Camping yesterday afternoon and set up our tents along a perimeter wall with views of the Rose Valley in the near-ish distance. Steph, Quinn and I were on cook and made leek and potato soup, followed by pasta with a salami and tomato sauce. It turned out really well but I thought the stock cubes were gluten free and they weren't. Even using five stock cubes between two dishes made to feed eleven people each plus seconds was still enough to send my stomach into spasms and give me a severe headache. I finished dinner and went to my tent, not even able to sit up with the other five to watch the latest episode of Game of Thrones. Alarms could ... read more

Bacon excluded, I've never been a fan of the other white meat® which is pork in case you don't remember the ridiculous advertising campaign from many years ago. After traveling in Russia for almost 2 months where pork features prominently and in Armenia where it is practically unavoidable, it was a pleasure to arrive in Turkey where the other white meat® is thankfully nowhere to be found. The alternate title for this blog is "Where There Is No Atkins Diet" owing to the piles of bread served with every meal. No problem for me as I was never a proponent of the Atkins Diet and Turkey arguably bakes the best bread in the world. $US ≈ 1.78 Turkish lira (TL) Accommodation and food On the bus from Batumi, Georgia I met Kash from Japan and we ... read more

Přesun autobusem z Karsu do Trabzonu nám trval celej den. Večer jsme dorazili na autobusák a zavolali Bünyaminovi u kterýho jsme měli bydlet. Sehnat ubytování v Trabzonu nebyla vůbec žádná legrace, protože je to univerzitní město a to znamená, že na konci června jedou všichni domů. Náš hostitel naštěstí přes léto pracoval na místním letišti a proto výjímečně nikam neodjel. Cesta k němu vedla do strmýho kopce, hornatostí to připomínalo San Francisco. Ale kromě hornatosti tedy už ničím jiným. Nikde žádná stará tramvaj, o číňana by tu člověk nezakopnul a žádná automobilová honička s autama co skáčou jak ping pongový míčky se tu taky nekonala. Benjamin se naučil jazyky dílem ve škole a dílem v německu. Německo se na něm dost podepsalo paříklad tím, že byl tanečníkem disco. Údajně si odskočil z Reichu na jednu noc ... read more

There are some places for everyone which you feel a belonging without knowing really why and Black Sea region of Turkey is somewhere like that for me. Ok my father is from this region and when I seek my ancestory,which ever branch I look for at my fathers side, I always end up somewhere in eastern Black Sea but still I spent a very little time of my life in this region and I was in my end twenties when I first have been to eastern Black Sea. However I always felt a feeling of belonging and longing both to this region and colourful people of it. Maybe there is really something like a genetic memory. I had one week holiday left for 2008 and I really felt tired. Last few weeks the humid air of ... read more