Saluting the crowd

DAY 35. SEPTEMBER 5. TRABZON

drýnkýng tea

Saluting the crowd

Batumi was not made to withstand torrential rain and when we awoke I thought that we were in Venice. The water in the street was above knee height and things were floating down the street. Cars were parked up on the side of the road trying to find higher ground and people were unable to walk the streets. The rain continued all morning and I contemplated building an ark and gathering up animals.

Even putting our luggage on the bus was an achievement and we were soaked through by the time we had boarded. We were supposed to do some sightseeing in the morning but without a snorkel and flippers this was impossible so we made a swift exit from Georgia and straight to the Turkish border. This was supposed to be a very easy border crossing but as you have learnt by now, we don't have easy border crossings.

The rain was bucketing down from an enormous height making the crossing quite unpleasant. With our luggage we had to walk from customs to passport control to the Turkish side, a distance of only 400 metres, but hard to negotiate when the water is so high and it is raining so heavily. Again we were soaked. The actual border crossing was quite quick especially on the Turkish side that took about two minutes it was only the rain, which made it so hard.

Crossing into Turkey was quite a milestone for Fee and I as it is the 50th country we have been to. Super effort that. As I entered, I raised my bat to the pavilion and waited for the applause from the crowd. A superb milestone raised. It had been a goal of mine to visit 50 countries and I had finally done it. Coincidentally, as we had done a lot of travel before meeting, it was the 50th for Fee and she also did a lap of honour.

Being the first one through passport control I went to look for our bus. This involved another 400 metre walk. As it was raining so hard I put my backpack underneath my jumper to keep it dry and headed on out. I got to what looked like the exit where there were several buses waiting. As I walked out, two security guys screamed at me, grabbed me in a half tackle and dragged me into a room. Here they shouted at me in Turkish, ripped my jumper off and grabbed my backpack. Having spent so much time in ex Soviet Union I responded with my few Russian words out of habit. It was a bit scary and I closed my eyes and prepared for the rubber glove. After a couple of minutes they gave me my stuff back and with a smile told me to proceed. I didn't realise it at the time, but with a big bulge under my pack I must have looked very suspicious and Turkey has had a few bombs in recent times. Shaken I went back to where the group was waiting and some local guys gave me some tea.

We were heading for Trabzon a city of half a million on the Black Sea, about 200km from the border. The Black Sea coast is a big holiday destination for locals but we could barely see out the window due to the rain. Still it was exciting to be in Turkey (despite my initial welcome), as I had wanted to visit for a long time. We have three weeks here, which is a good time to see a lot of the country. Most of our group are heading home in a few days and are worrying about work and are getting sad at their holiday ending but we are only a third of the way through ours. (It has gone quickly though).

We stopped for lunch after 2 hours and it was good to have such different food. Kebabs (that were actually like hamburgers) and fresh fish followed by baklava were delightful. It is amazing how much the food changes in such a short time. And the language. After weeks of Russian we now had to learn some Turkish words. You can tell we are closed to Europe as the price of food and drinks have increased dramatically and are on a par with costs in Australia. The exchange rate was now basically one for one, so we have now snapped back to reality. Turkey changed its currency system earlier this year, as the notes were getting some big it was ridiculous. The smallest note was 1,000,000 lire making every person in the country a millionaire. They have introduced the new lire currency, which is much easier to manage.

We were reminded we were in a country with a 98% Muslim population as some women entered the restaurant and they were covered head to toe. Their dress only had a small slit for their eyes. The country is less religious the further west (and closer to Europe) that you travel but here in the east (where few tourists visit) it is still reasonably religious.

By the time we arrived at Trabzon the rain had stopped and the sun was out which was a relief. Some talked of swimming in the Black Sea but it wasn't warm enough. After drying our clothes we headed into the centre of the city. A major form of transport in Turkey is the dolmus. These are mini vans that drive the streets and act as a combination of a cab and a bus. There were hundreds of these cruising the streets of Trabzon making it easy to cruise around. In a sign from God we got dropped off in the main square outside a place called Beer Time. And it surely was. From the outdoor balcony we had a great view of the city and it was a hive of activity. The main square was full of tables at each one, were people drinking tea. The glasses they have tea in are about the size of shot glasses and come with a spoon and two sugar cubes. The sugar is not really required as the tea is nice on its own, but so as not to offend you at least need to put one of the cubes in.

There were lots and lots of people around, it was certainly the busiest city we had been in since China. It seemed every second shop was selling kebabs (or kebaps) as they are called here and I knew my kebab count in Turkey would be high, especially after drinking beer.

As mentioned the cost had skyrocketed and we spent more in one night then we would go through in a week in other country we had been in. I had a great feeling about Turkey and knew we would enjoy it.