In the last episode we met up with Hayati in Trabzon
and had a great time hanging out around the fishing port.
In this episode our adventure around Trabzon continues.
We're Marianne and Chris in May 2018, we quit our 9-5 jobs,
rented our house to travel full time.
Due to the pandemic, our attempt to drive around the world has been put on pause.
Finding ourselves in Turkey,
we are going to show you the best this country has to offer.
Okay let's go!
So we've jumped into their car, because it's going to be easier for parking in the city,
and Trudy's left in secure parking by the fishing houses on the harbour.
See you in a bit Trudy!
okay thank you very much for this morning, and hello uncle Nuri!
And Uncle Nuri is a couchsurfing host,
he's really well known in this area for taking in travellers,
showing them around town and sharing the experience of Trabzon.
so this bread that you can see behind us is a traditional bread from Trabzon, it's huge!
wow oh wow look they got the fire oven,
oh look pide,
this one is the traditional pide?
Yes, and this one? oh lovely,
Can I have this one?
how cool is this seeing the pide being made fresh,
and the the wood fired oven that you can see behind us.
Is that cheese? (No it is butter) small - Thank you
Oh it's gone! magic.
i think that's possibly the biggest wood-fired oven i have seen!
it's huge!
This is the room where they're making all the dough.
This restaurant is amazing, look at these look at these lights.
lovely isn't it? It is beautiful!
this is what happens when you go on a walking food tour!
Is it a walking food tour? i think so i don't know.
You just need baggy trousers! we're just going with the flow today,
because Nuri is very kindly showing us around.
oh look at that!
wow that looks amazing, it really does!
it's like it's not like the pide we know,
We have had pide but it is very very thin,
this is like a Trabzon bread which is thicker than the pide we know and covered in cheese,
and it looks absolutely delicious,
but it's very hot because it's just come out of that wood-fired oven.
okay i think I'm probably going to burn myself because it's still very hot,
it smells lovely! it's very nice cheese, that really cheesy cheese!
I bet that's lovely isn't it? it smells lovely!
That is delicious !! the best way to start the walk around Trabzon!
i've just asked the lovely lady who's serving at the counter
what do you call it? and it's cheese pita! there you go!
well that was a delicious lunch,
and now we're just going to have a walk around old town here in Trabzon.
Such a hustly, bustly town it's really big.
We've just arrived at an indoor market! Oh amazing!
let's go and have a little look around,
when we went to Central America this time last year,
we had a great time in all the market places!
Obviously times have changed,
everyone has to wear a mask inside or at least cover something on their face! and
keep their distance,
but it's where you find all the fresh produce,
it's where you find all the local stores
there's people that have just pitched up from the countryside,
and got little tables laid out,
you've got red chilies hanging up,
you've got cheese's, all the different types of cheeses!
my favorite thing about markets is it's all fresh in season
None of it is imported, this is all local stuff.
We're looking at all the different types of flours, corn and different ones.
Wow all this wonderful produce!
it's absolutely amazing.
Look at all this veg,
as we always say you come into a market in a town and it really gives you a feel for the heart of the city.
and this indoor market is a wonderful place to walk around
and just see all the local produce
and soak up the atmosphere.
So we're just walking through nice bit of greenery in the City centre here,
and it's nice and green, right next to what looks like the wall of the city or the castle.
so 4 000 years ago, this used to be a hill
and actually they flattened the top of this hill to create the original City of Trabazon.
we're in the Kanuni Park in Trabzon and it's a lovely place to come it's really peaceful,
you can see some statues, some old buildings that used to be churches,
and of course you can have a cup of tea
and then just absorb the lovely relaxing atmosphere.
So until 1461 this absolutely beautiful building was a church,
and then after that time in the Ottoman Empire it was turned into this beautiful Mosque.
In fact at that time this building was the centre of Trabzon City.
Ah I can see the original mosaic floor,
look at this mosaic floor, I don't know whether you can see that?
that would have been the original floor,
Wow that's glorious
Walking around look at this wonderful old building here,
it gives you the opportunity to actually see how they would have built it.
60 years ago we had our house at the entrance of that building i was born there,
so this little area here it used to be a little village and is actually where Nuri was born!
Okay so we've arrived at the main high street,
it's a pedestrian area
lots of shopping and coffee shops!
Check out these tubs of olives, that is some serious olives in that shop!
oh there you go
Is it that style? yeah and it's the Surmen is the name of the town in this area of Trabazon that is specifically famous for making knives.
Wow so many
These beautiful chef knives here!
I was just about to say the Turkish residents!
Our Turkish ID Cards have arrived at our Turkish address!
So we're going to be getting those in the next couple of weeks!
Woo Hoo !!
We've obviously been blessed to have a tour guide called Nuri,
but we are astounded at how beautiful this this city is,
there's so much to see here and it's got everything from sitting by the relaxing water,
to coming to old town and now into this really cosmopolitan funky area with all the shops and cafes
it's just a beautiful city.
So this building here is the old town hall and now houses the tourist information office.
Nuri's brought us down to this lovely little spot and he pointed out to a rock formation that is called the elephant's foot
apparently there are only two in the world and the other one is in Argentina!
we thought we would stop for a lemonade by the sea,
Cheers and just have a bit of a refresher!
Walking down the street we've come to a an area where they just sell cookware, metalware, teapots.
We're really lucky because we've been able to come inside and have a look at the layout of one of these hotels accommodation,
so the accommodation for the people would have been at the top,
and then the animals would have been stabled inside these archways, how cool.
and now it's an art gallery, and now it's being used as an art gallery!
so ordinarily before the virus hit this region
this area would be used for handicrafts and women would come here and make beautiful local products,
but obviously now due to the corona situation,
the women here are still working but they're making masks for the local area.
This is Trabzons oldest trade, where valuable things were produced at that time such as gold silver and copper!
so we're going to go in and have a little look!
What a fascinating building!
look, look up you can see all the way up there!
Look at that, for water ? it is a well
Walking around these little side streets,
is absolutely fascinating, it's been a really wonderful walk around Trabzon today,
there's just so much to see it's it's more than I expected it's a really interesting place,
if you do come down along the Black Sea,
i would definitely recommend taking the time to spend a day having a . look around the city.
So Nuri's driven us up to Bozetepe, which gives us a wonderful aerial view over the city of Trabzon,
and if you do come to Trabzon you should definitely come up here,
because the views here are amazing, I bet the sunset's amazing from up here!
Wow superb view!
so to give you a sense of direction,
we stopped and had a drink down here,
and that is where we first parked this morning and where we parked for the laundry,
and this is all of Trabzon, the old town where we've just walked around is all down here.
What a view,
and when you come up the top there is a photographer who will happily take your photograph!
in fact he's just taken a photograph of us!
here is the photo!
looking right up here, wow what a view!
and the building down there that you can see that's visible right smack in the middle of the roads,
was the American Consulate about 100 years ago,
and Nuri was also saying that this massive big coastal road that goes all the way as far as the eye can see,
did not actually exist until 1955
and it just goes on forever and ever and ever all the way around!
Nuri was also saying that this this area here up until 1995 used to be used as a cruise ship port
and boats would go off into Russia and Istanbul and all over,
but now it's just used for trade and cargo.
In Trabzon they also have an airport just up here,
and it's internal flights only so you'd have to fly from Istanbul to here,
but they have an airport here.
Thank you very much Nuri!
Bye
That was a superb day, so interesting.
Trudy is here, all good we're back home.
oh
What's happening?
oh you're still there!
it's so early
we hope you've enjoyed the show,
Thank you very much for watching!
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bye for now!