After crossing the border from Greece, we headed first to Istanbul – just like we did 3.5 years ago on our way to the Arabian Peninsula. Always a fantastic city: modern – yet exotic and oriental, enormous in its size with its 22 million inhabitants – yet almost provincial with its small streets off the beaten track. This time, we focused only on the highlights: the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia, a Bosporus harbor cruise, and otherwise let ourselves drift through the alleys or be pampered in a hammam. And Karin was busy shopping again! It’s also rare that we can park so centrally, cheaply, and yet relatively quietly in a big city.
We were actually thinking of avoiding the traffic chaos when leaving the city on a Sunday. Unfortunately, today is the end of Ramadan, and it feels like everyone is going somewhere… so it takes us a good two hours to get halfway out of the city and cross the bottleneck bridges over the Bosporus to the Asian side.
Our next destination is the little-known Nallihan Rainbow Mountains, located about 300 km southeast of Istanbul. Similar to their counterparts in Peru or northern Argentina, the rock layers, glowing in a variety of colors, are never short of fascinating. The drive to our wonderful overnight place allows Shujaa to play in the mud again. And our pitch with its magnificent views and absolute solitude is a top-notch spot.
Safranbolu – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – is a gem among the Pontic small towns, and its old half-timbered houses and bumpy cobblestone streets are very picturesque. Unfortunately, we can’t enjoy the ambiance quite as much, as we have to return to Istanbul the next day to fly back to Germany to see my mom, who is in hospital.
After very exhausting and sad days at home, paying my mother a final farewell, we continue our journey after 16 days and, due to time constraints, skip the originally planned detour to the less populated western Black Sea coast. Instead, especially on the completely built-up stretch between Samsun and Trabzon, we are reminded of the similarly ugly Iranian coast on the Caspian Sea. It’s always interesting how, as well-traveled people like us, we often have associations with other locations or experiences. The weather is not really good, but there isn’t much to see here anyway.
A detour to the famous Sümela Rock Monastery brings us to a completely different world: Like an eagle’s nest, the facade of the four-story monastery nestles perfectly into the niche of a steep cliff face. The monastery was founded around 385 AD and has a rich history… recently it was extensively restored. Its location on the edge of a deep valley high in the Pontic Mountains, as well as the frescoes are impressive. Back on the coast, the same monotonous drive continues, passing one town uglier than the next. Only from the city of Rize onwards does the landscape become more appealing: deep green tea plantations stretch down to the sea, the development decreases, the sea is blue, and everything always looks much more beautiful in the sun.
Shortly before the Georgian border, we turn off the coastal highway and drive along the Artvin Reservoir into a spectacular mountain landscape: the road is rightly considered one of the most beautiful in Turkey! A completely different world awaits us again on the northeastern Anatolian plateau, still partially covered in snow. The roads are still great, but otherwise the area is extremely poor, backward, and barren. With an unemployment rate of 60% it bears no resemblance to the bustling metropolis of Istanbul or even the busy Black Sea coast. We visit the sprawling complex of the former Armenian capital of Ani with its impressive churches and fortification walls before heading to Georgia… country number 57 with Shujaa on our world tour.
