Black Sea Road Trip...in photos

Ok, so it's only been 2 months since we took our 10-day road trip along the black sea coast of Turkey.  I actually even uploaded these photos to the blog maybe 6 weeks ago, and then life got in the way again (which is my way of saying I got lazy).  Here's a recap of our adventures.

First stop: Safranbolu.  A really cute town with lots of old ottoman-style buildings.

Paul started out the trip (at 3 months) riding face in in the Bjorn.  This meant drool EVERYWHERE.

Stopped by Amasya as we made it to the coast, they have a tiny museum.  And i think Paul blew out a diaper here.

There was a really cool mosaic too.

Leaving Amasya, beautiful coastline

2nd stop: Sinop.  It took probably 3 hours longer than we thought to get here, over twisty narrow hilly roads.  Which are more fun in the dark with a crying baby in the backseat!  We did get really good at the side-of-the-road feed & change.

 

3rd stop: Unye.  Mostly we stopped here because it was too far to drive all the way to Trabzon in 1 day.  Hotel was peaceful.  Ate some fish.

On the way to Trabzon, we stopped at this ruin of a castle, because the Rough Guide said it was the best preserved one of all the castles along the coast.  It was a wall in a field, with a soccer goal standing sadly in a grassy patch.

4th stop: Trabzon!  3 days here was a nice little break.  The first night there was a Trabzonspor game so Paul decided to buy a scarf to fit in with the cool crowd.  Also we discovered he could ride face-out.  So much happier that way!

Sumela Monestary, built way up into the clifs.  Dates from the 380's, present form from the 13th century.  We hiked up

We ran into a gaggle of high school girls on the way up the mountain, they were overcome with joy to see such a cute baby.  I'm sure Paul is on many facebook pages of people he does not know.

Aya Sophia of Trabzon, built around the 1400's.

Pretty cool artwork in the dome.  Amazing how well all this stuff has held up.  I guess they built stuff better back then.

Ataturk hung out here once when visiting Trabzon, so they gave the building to him.  Then, after his death, the city purchased it back from his estate to make it a museum.

A rare photo of the 3 of us!

Old church on a random farm.  The old guy said the government came at one point to maybe make it a formal tourist site, but he wasn't interested in leaving the land his family has lived on for generations.  So the museum dudes left.

Paul made friends with the old women at the farm. He was very popular on the trip.

Beautiful frescoes inside this old church on the farm, seriously this building was used as a hay barn for a while before tourists started showing up.

All along the road leading out of Trabzon along the coast, there were tons of people out drying their freshly harvested hazelnuts.  We bought 20TL's worth, we still have a bunch left.  I think they taste like acorns.

Landscape went from lush coastal to high, brown, and hot pretty quick.  Anatolian plateau here we come.

5th stop: Sivas   This was the site of the Sivas Congress, one of the places where Anatolian leaders came together in unity during the Independence movement in Turkey in 1919.

Totally normal to stand in traffic with a baby in a bjorn.

Saw a couple old mosques and medreses.

Pretty blue.

On the way from Sivas to Ankara, we stopped at Hattuşas, the capital of the Hittite Empire from 1800-1200BC.  Old stuff.  Dennis had some lectures on the ipod so of course we were well educated ahead of time.

Lion Gate

Lots of ankle-high ruins.  Quite a significant site.

Last stop: Ankara (2 nights here, so we could see the Museum of Ancient Anatolian Civilizations (of which there were many, going back over 10,000 years), and then hit the commissary on the way out for bacon.

I think it's neat that they would make statues of this.  I guess women really are cool because we can feed (and create) the next generation.

I forget exactly how old this stuff was, but let's say neolithic. 

Dennis's favorite part of the trip: we happened to be up on the Kale (old tower/fortress thing) when the jets were practicing for the upcoming Victory Day celebration.  It was pretty darn cool to be above them.

The room where the 2nd Parliament of new new republic met.  We saw a lot of Ataturk stuff, did I mention that?

Seriously, mom, can we go home yet?