The Black Sea (that isn't so black)

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Hanging out at a bus station in Istanbul on a Friday night in the height of Summer is not something I want to do again! Everyone tells me how great the Turkish bus system is and I'm sure it is. My first experience just happened to be chaos!

Cumhur decided to come to Safranbolu with me as he hasn't seen much of Turkey so I was happy to have company. Not to mention someone who could speak Turkish with me as it's taking me a little while to forget the Uzbek and Russian I've learned over the last month and pick up some Turkish vocab.

Our bus was meant to leave at 1am and when we arrived at the bus station there were hundreds of people waiting for their buses that were supposed to have left before midnight. There almost wasn't enough space to stand with my luggage given that the buses that were going through the station were almost running over other people trying to find their buses! It wasn't until 2.30am that we departed the station, but I was just so happy to get on the bus so it was all good. I am now hoping that my shaky start with buses here does not become a common occurrence.

Safranbolu is a quaint little town that has become a UNESCO World Heritage listed site because of its preserved Ottoman houses. We walked through the cute cobbled lane ways and visited some of the old houses to learn about how they lived back in the days of Ottoman rule. The wooden houses are really cute inside and it was particularly interesting seeing how they built bathrooms hidden inside cupboards as well as revolving cupboards that made it possible to prepare food in one room and pass it to another without being seen. Bench seating doubled up as beds with bedding stored in the toilets, which were converted to cupboards during the day!

Safranbolu originally derived its name from saffron, the spice used to flavour the local locum which is Turkish delight and the town is full of shops selling the stuff! We had so much thrown at us to try I didn't actually need to buy any. The turkish delight here is different to the one you get in those Roses boxes! It is really yummy and you can get all different types of locum.

As Safranbolu is only about 100km from the Black Sea Coast I was really keen to visit a coastal town and the pension we stayed at were offering transport to Amasra the closest town on the coast. This cute little town was such a nice surprise. For some reason I assumed that the Black Sea Coast isn't as beautiful as the Mediterranean or Aegean coasts because that is where most people go. But the water is lovely although it's more green than black, and the town is really pretty and laid back.

It was packed the day I went as it was the weekend which meant that holidaying Turks from Istanbul were there so I got an opportunity to see some Turkish families in action at the beach, cooking their bbq's (which looked and smelt so good). We got to sample fresh fish of the season and take dips in the (much warmer) waters than I had experienced in Central Asia. They say that Winter is the best time for fish in Turkey but I was impressed with what they had to offer!

I could have easily spent a couple of days here basking in the sun and eating the yummy seafood but I had to prepare myself for another overnight bus ride to my next stop - Cappadocia.

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Photos

soaking up the sun
ali (hotel manager) me and anna (from barcelona)

ottoman, ottoman, ottoman
Safranbolu

inside a restored Ottoman house
some of the houses had some lovely antique furniture. the cupboard on the left opens up to a niche that is a bathroom