So that you can all get lost in the time-space continuum – as far as our trip is concerned – here is a little musical slide show from Turkey. It is rather far back in time, and in space, but during the vodka drinking session in Irkestam I felt like putting this video together.

I dug out the tool kit from the bottom of my pannier and took the tyre apart. I managed the repair fast and without a hitch. In the meantime I developed an audience of about 5 adults and 10 children all around me, who were watching what I was doing with great interest.

After 10 we were on our way and started our 40th and last day in Turkey.

In the next town we prepared some „buffalo wings”, aka precooked, spicy chicken bits in the park.Our last Turkish town was Hopa. Zita and I have already discussed before we got to the town that we must drink one more Turkish tea before we leave the country.

We found the appropriate place for this by the table of a family restaurant, where we drank with enjoyment the sweet drink from the little tulip glasses for the last time.

You must come to Turkey, by bike, hitch hiking or any other way… They have excellent roads, everybody is very nice and friendly, so much so, that with our Hungarian heads on, it is unthinkable! Turkey is a really good place!

We celebrated our 3000th km and after that we had only a few kilometres to the Georgian border.

On this section the countryside looked just like it does in fashionable Western European holiday resorts. Except there were no crowds, hardly any traffic and the road was twice the width.

We would like to thank every Turkish helper, host, accommodation provider all those myriad of things that we received. We will never forget Turkish hospitality and will  carry its praise into the big wide world!;)

We managed to start early out of Trabzon.

We have arrived in Rise around midday. Rise is the city of tea, as this area produces all the tea for Turkey. Considering the number of Turks we have seen so far drinking tea at all times in all places, they must produce a large amount of it in these parts.

About 10km after Rise finally we found a bathing beach. Zita was promised a swim, so we stopped and went down to the beach.

It was evening by the time we left the beach.

The sun set after a tunnel, we stopped the bikes and ran across the road to see the whole of the golden stripe on the sea, that the setting sun painted on it.

About half an hour after sunset we found our overnight place. Underneath a mosque we found a room they dry tea in. This was underneath the terrace in front of the mosque.  We saw some people above us on the terrace, so we ran up and asked permission to camp there.

Permission given, they sat us down at their table and put a couple of plates in front of us. We got some lovely csorba and a very hot and spicy vegetable stew. The latter could only be eaten with a lot of water, bread and yoghurt, it was so hot. All this time life went on around us, the imam’s children were playing inside thet mosque on the carpet, we sat round the table and told them our story.

By this time I could use quite a lot of useful Turkish, saying where we come from, how long it took, how many kilometres and that this is our honeymoon round the globe.

Much to our suprise they agreed to repair our camera. While we were waiting for the camera being repair, we had the idea to try and find a shoemaker in the town, who could mend the toe-cap of my running shoes. We did find an old shoemaker, who patched up my shoes in this little workshop with the help of his oldfashioned sewing machine.

We rushed back into the Panasonic shop, where to our great delight we found our camera in good working order.

All in all we’we had a happy day today. Although we lost 100km, that was the distance we planned to cover today, but we saved 100.000,-Ft at the same time as we didn’t let my running shoes which had cost fortune  (get ruined = go bust) and we also munayed to get our very expensive camera repaired guite cheaply so we won’t have to buy either at least for the time being.

I was very happy that we could have a walk  in a big forest, among the mountains.The air was much better and everything was very green, beautiful crown, wild forest: it was fantastic.

We didn’t see too much as wasn’t any view, virtually we were walking in a big cloud.

We got a really unique experience in this abbey: this is built in a cliff and the distemper was very beautiful.Practically the half bible was paint on the abbey’s side.

In Trabzon we had visited a catholic church.

At the parish we met Nico who invited us for a tea and cake in the church’s garden where we met also his wife Elena and his godson called Constantin.

At night we left Mehmet’s house, they were very nice with us. For diner we had fish (fish out by Mehmet) and chips, was very delicious; we changed our addresses, made some picture and departed.

In a town called Görele we stopped to rest.

Yes, I can write about the fantastic hospitality that we found everywhere, as our days were simply filled with it.  Wherever we went, whatever we did, all the time and everywhere our experience was that the locals were really nice to us.

Therefore it was difficult to leave Görele, but we didn’t regret a single minute spent here, we were treated very well and we could sort a lot of important stuff on the internet.

On this day we progressed 74 km, and in the evening we got a place to pitch our tent in Mehmet’s garden. He invited us to his table, and  as we were rather hungry we didn’t resist. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me, as it would have made a fantastic photograph as this large family: young and old, man and woman mother and father in law, grandmother, grandfather and children sat round a table which was piled high with great food.  They made us welcome at this table.

Mehmet and his family allowed us to stay several days in their garden and as we have not found any other accommodation in Trabzon, there was no point to move on, so we decided to stay, spending the day with cleaning the bikes.

In the evening Zita and I went down to the shore and had a dip in the Black Sea.

It was good to be down on the beach, just playing and enjoying the sea, running up and down on the waterside and throwing stones into the water.

On the first day we managed to cover 77km. At the end of the day we were looking for somewhere to camp. We put the tent up in the garden of a family, and then went to have a nice dip in the sea.

We were planning to have an omlette for dinner, but the family had beaten us to it.  As it was Ramadan, they could only eat after sunset, but then they usually had a big feast.

This time we were offered food from this feast, we got csorba and dolma.

It rained all night and it carried on in the morning, so we had to start the next section in the rain.

In the afternoon I found something fairly large and metallic embedded in my front tyre.

We rode through the longest tunnel in Turkey ( 3820m).

Once we arrived in the town of Ordu we did some shopping, then we started the search for shelter for the night, as we didn’t want to stay outside in all this rain.

We chose a half built house, which seemed ideal. Next door there were some people living. We received not only water, but an entire evening meal from them. 

15 year old  Irem made us a beautiful little postcard.

For breakfast Irem made us a sausage omlette.

It rained all day this day too, but we made good progress – 70km – along the shore of the Black Sea.

Our evening was again spent showered with endless Turkish hospitality. As we were rained on all day, we would have liked to spend the night under cover, and we spotted a house being built for this purpose.  This one was in a village.

We were showing them the need for a roof, and sleeping, and bycicle, and in no time we were packing the bikes into a boat building workshop and were invited to sleep on the living room floor. I am sure that if we let them we would have received a bed and bedding too, but that would have definitely made us feel like we were imposing on them.

Us cold, European folks were not used to this enormous hospitality that we had day after day in Turkey… :)

And in the morning there was no chance of getting away without breakfast, they didn’t let us, we were treated to a big breakfast, followed by some packed up food, so we were exremely well provided for.

We had already the tickets to Samsun, but wanted to double check if we can also have the bicycles on the bus this is why we went to the bus station a bit earlier.

We just forgot to ask Mehmet where the bus station is. It was very far, behind lots of hills, but finally we just got there, 15 minutes before the depart so we were in a hurry to have the tickets from the cashier’s office and stripping the bicycles.

We arrived to Samsun at 23.30. We didn’t try to get to the city, find a campsite.

We got to the river side road on the tight and crowded streets. We were cycling in the wide turn-out road.

We left the big Samsun city, after 15-20 km the traffic hushed a bit, the life was easier on the brink of the road, we could take off also the masks.

In the underground town of Kaymakli we employed an old man called Mustafa for showing us round, who told us very interesting stories.

There are many underground towns in the area, but only 8 can be visited and even in these only a few blocks.  These enormous underground systems were built in blocks, each according to the same plan, like a timber structure around a central pillar.We saw some living and storage rooms, then a few churches and cemeteries, and even some where animals lived. They had a serious ventilation system, the narrow horizontal walkways between the rooms were designed in a way that air could circulate along them.These underground town systems were carved out of the soft volcanic stone in order to hide from the enemy.Their inhabitants were christians, the enemy was always whoever was after them. In underground systems like these, tens of thousands could live sometimes for months on end.

Our guide told us that the undergound town of Kaymakli was never taken by the enemy and having seen it, I can well believe it.

We discovered the valley of the Ihlara with Yasar, Beyza, Burak and little Yusuf.

First we couldn’t find the path leading into the valley,  but once it became obvious that we came the wrong way, we walked up to a house where we got to know a really kind family. They were offering us water, fruit and when we asked them which way to go to see the valley, Yasar the head of the family beckoned to follow him.

He grabbed the arm of his 3 beautiful children, Beyza, Burak and little Yusuf, so all six of us left for the valley, like a large family.

This valley was more like a canyon, with a tourist path along the bottom of it, which follows the stream with clean water suitable for bathing, especially in the deeper bits.

Both sides of the valley are formed by rock walls where frequently you come across cave dwelllings and churches.

This whole landscape forms a fantastic whole, which we liked very much.

Down in the bottom of the valley there is green countryside, a lovely stream that invites you to have a dip in it, further up, if you climb up onto the rocks to the foot of the vertical crags, every metre offers you an entry into a church or into dark and exciting caves.

A wonderful view opened to the rocky valley closest to Uchisar.We saw numerous cliff towers and all kinds of rock formations all around us.Zita and I were jubilant! Finally we reached Cappadocia on the 48^th day of our trip and after bicycling for more than 2,400kms.

A path led to the Sakli church. The chapel chiseled in rock was closed. But through its portal, we could see everything.

We rested comfortably in the shadows of the rocks above the inn.

In front of the museum, we ran into Marco, the Dutch guy, who was cycling around Goereme on a rented bike. Quickly he joined us, and from now on the three of us explored the cliffs.

Ezen a vidéken el lehet gondolkodni az élet dolgairól, főleg anno, micsoda érzés lehetett itt élni, sziklákba vájt lakásokban élni.

What did those people feel 1500 or more years ago, who carved enormous columned porticos from the cliffs, painted beautiful frescos, and created churches from nature.

That evening in Mehmet, Zita cooked a very tasty gulyas soup.