Full set of Sumela monastery photos
We weren’t expecting much from Trabzon thanks to the guidebook lowering our expectations, making it sound like a working port town full of sailors and prostitutes. For all we know they are there in big numbers but the town also has a large and lively main square with everyone sitting out having their cups of tea under the trees and dining al fresco, even on the chilly week night we arrived.
We came by bus and got a taxi through the narrow hilly streets. Most of the town is perched on a hill above the Black Sea and they don’t make much use of the coastline. You have to cross a major highway to get there and it’s mainly an industrial looking port, so we spent the majority of our time in the hilly part of town. After checking into another small room smelling of stale smoke, which felt like they hadn’t opened the windows since the start of winter, we strolled into the central square and had a nice dinner on the pavement. I had an iskender kebab which is simply lamb kebab meat covered with a buttery tomato sauce with sour yoghurt. It’s quite good. Trabzon also has an amazing halva store. Halva is a sugary almond and butter based sweet which we had as part of almost every breakfast in Jordan. It’s found in many places but seemed most popular on the Black Sea coast in Turkey. This particular store had enormous blocks of halva in the window which looked like loaves of bread, to draw you in. We stopped to take photos of it and then asked the proprietor for what must have been a pitifully small order because he kindly let us have it for free.
Trabzon has an amazing Byzantine-era church named Aya Sofya. It sits on a small hill commanding incredible views of the coast. It dates from the middle 1200s when the Byzantine empire was in charge of this part of the world and exuding a very Orthodox Christian influence. Despite the years and some neglect, frescoes detailing Bible stories cover the walls and are in remarkable condition, still bright and detailed in parts. It’s easy to imagine the church in full glory when it would have been as impressively gaudy as the Sistine Chapel.
We walked back through the suburbs from this church taking in the old city walls which are still grandly towering above modernity and then took a dolmus to the other well known spot in town, the Boztepe hill. Ordu has a pretty nice hill overlooking the coast but it’s trumped by Trabzon which has a stupendous view. We got there by sunset and enjoyed watching everyone get a samovar of fresh tea, which, as caffeine-free freaks, we did not partake of. It blows people’s minds in Turkey when you inform them that you don’t drink tea. They’re at a bit of a loss as to what to do with you, so common a social ritual is the offering and accepting of tea. We had orange tea in places (really just hot cordial), the chemical apple tea, fresh apple tea which doesn’t taste of much, and rosehip tea, which was a good substitute but not widely available. Turks drink little glass cups of tea constantly (25 cups a day is not uncommon), usually with 2-3 sugar cubes, and the tea hawkers ply their trade everywhere – including on ferries, buses, in shops and on the street. There would be a revolution if Turks could not sip their tea every day. We saw barely a soul drink Turkish coffee despite that drink being the more famous in Australia.
Trabzon is also the closest city to the Sumela monastery which is one of those landmarks that you wonder how you never knew about before. We were driven in a tour van up through gorgeous mountain scenery with the spring streams running full. There was still some snow at the base of the pine trees with soaring mountains in the background. You round a bend in the round and there in the distance, literally carved out of the mountain, is the monastery. You couldn’t imagine a more picturesque setting.
The monastery was built in the 4th century and is plastered with bright frescoes depicting stories from the bible, which are still in remarkably good condition. It would have been a cold and lonely post in winter but on the day we were there it seemed like a very pleasant and fresh place. We ate lunch next to a roaring river before heading back to town.
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