Trabzon and Rize Day One

I'm breaking this up into three parts because there was so much fun that we had and this post would be pages and pages with all of the photos I want to include.

Trabzon!

Memorial Day weekend gave us three days to get out of Istanbul and explore some more of this country. We were invited to go with some friends to Trabzon, off in the northeast corner of the country. Trabzon has about 250,000 people and of course, compared to Istanbul's 18 million plus, it seems like such a quaint little village.

We woke up at four something in the morning to hop on a shuttle with our friends and travel mates to take us to the the airport on the Asian side of the city. The flight to Trabzon takes about an hour and a half. They have a tiny airport right on the Black Sea. We met our driver, arranged beforehand by another travel mate and we were off.

Our first stop was Uzungöl, Long Lake, up in the mountains. Yes, there are beautiful green forested mountains! It was so refreshing to see and once we got out of the van, refreshing to breathe clean mountain air. It's been so long!

It is nice to be there, but Uzungöl is a rather smallish lake, so there is little to do except for strolling about the touristy village and maybe grab a bite to eat. They do have paddle boats and bicycles for rent, but it was a bit chilly, so we opted for a mere stroll.

Requisite family shot. And snow!

Uzungöl. A-frames on the far shore. There was a lot of alpine architecture going on.

After Uzungöl, we stopped for a bite and descended back to Trabzon to see their Hagia Sophia, walk the pazar and check into our hotel.

Hagia Sophia is a compact church from the thirteenth century. The church is located on a hill above the city and has wonderful views. They also have beautiful grounds for strolling, or in our case, running after a very excited toddler who was about done being in a van all day.

Some of the frescoes inside the church.

The church and bell tower.

Getting a peek at the city below.

Looking west. A sample of the coastline.

He climbed into a fountain, rather, I let him climb in the fountain because it was dry.

Mama and her babe.

From there, we strolled along Uzun Street looking at shops and stuff and entertaining the crowds with a tall bearded man carrying a toddler in a backpack. No surprise, but the people of Trabzon are as friendly as they are here in Istanbul. It was a good jaunt through the narrow and twisty streets. Nothing was purchased save some apricots and we piled back into our van to see our hotel.

We stayed at the Novotel, which is not a telecom company, but a hotel chain which isn't too shabby. It is located right off the beach and had beautiful grounds to walk around and it's own exit to the Black Sea beaches. The beach is nice, but the water is COLD, plus it being early season and not too sunny, they were mostly empty.

With us fighting off exhaustion and hunger, our driver returned to take us to a splendid restaurant, again located on the water, where we dined on white bean salad, Akçabaat köfte and lamb. The boy was thoroughly exhausted and would not eat and just wanted to run around. The staff of the restaurant were more than happy to chase him too so his mom and pop could quickly eat some food. After that, glorious sleep.