East Black Sea Region – Turkey

Here are some photos from a trip that we realised to the Black Sea (Karadeniz) region of Turkey last summer. I should have been pasting them earlier but I think i am still on time for people looking for a place to visit during their next summer holidays.

Sumela Monastery, Maçka, Trabzon, Turkey.

The nature, the actual culture and the traces of the previous ones makes this region of Turkey an option that is worth to visit.

Especially the north-east end of the Turkish Black Sea coast is pretty green and humid and full of steep mountains offering lots of options for ones who want to climb, do trekking or just walk in the nature.

Walking towards the lakes, Yukari Kavron village

Although one might also find and enjoy nice beaches on the coast, I think Mediterranean (akdeniz) and Aegean (ege) could be a better answer for ones seeking sea, sand and sun in Turkey. The mountains, the nature and the people of Black sea and their culture are what to go after. By the way it is a shame that the construction of the highway on the coast seems to be active and in order to start appreciating again the coast probably we should be trying to forget (or not imagine) its old and wild beauty. 🙁

Anatolian plateau seen from Hattusas (Bogazkoy), Hittite capital.Contradictory to East Black Sea region, though not so far.

Considering the dry and nearly desertic nature of Turkey’s interior Anatolian region, East Blacksea region painted with all tones of green and the rocky landscape shaved with countless water sources is shockingly different.

Continuous rainfalls and humid weather makes it an heaven for the farmers who produce tea. Tea production plants and tea farms are especially centered around the city of Rize, which is the second biggest of the region after Trabzon. Someone who knows how much we, Turks like and consume tea would appreciate much better the contribution of this region on our daily lives. 🙂 Rize also is naming the most common tea brand that would be served whereever you are in Turkey.

Traditional tea glass, Rize, Turkey.

Also the nearby town of Çayeli (literally this town means Land of Tea) is housing the most famous “Kuru Fasulye” (Haricots Lingots / white dried beans) restaurant of all Turkey. The restaurant is called Hüsrev. However, for this dish which is typically known as the most popular and cheapest plate nearly in all restaurants of Turkey and always served with or on top of rice, here, on the furthest point of Turkey becomes delicious but the most expensive kuru (as it is shortly called) of whole country. ( My wife has the best Kuru Fasulye recipe ever written in spanish language here. 🙂 I can assure it! This is a tasted link. )

Locals of the region were spending the winters in their villages or towns close to the coast and during the summer they were going up to “yayla”, the plain, big spaces that they could find on the skirts and heights of endless series of mountains of the region in order to be able to breed their animals and produce side products.

This old tradition is lately losing its popularity due to the change in their cultural habits. Nowadays people who live abroad or another region of Turkey come back to spend the summer in order to keep their links with their culture and a bunch of other locals who ought to go up to yayla for economical reasons. However,the traditional summer feasts of every yayla keeps their popularity. They are really fun and you could become part of one of those huge circles of people dancing to the sound and rythm of Tulum (an instrument very similar to Scottish Bagpipe) Mid-August 2004 we had the chance to see the Hemsin Yayla Senlikleri (Hemsin village yayla feast)

People dancing to the accelerating rythm of Tulum, Hemsin, mid-august 2004, Rize

Honey (bal) production is very common, thanks to millions of flowers decorating the landscape. Honey of Anzer yayla is very famous in Turkey and it is supposed to help and cure lots of health problems(!). The quality of the honey mostly depends on the yayla it is coming, as they are classified according to the number of different flower and plant that is served at the disponibility of the lucky bees. Anzer Bali (honey) is supposed to be made of 400-500 flowers of which 60-70 are endemic, which means that they can be only found at that very concrete area.

A nice flower,(çigdem) that we don’t know if it is endemic to Yukari Kavron Village or not ? but still it is a flower and it is nice and cool and everything and with this color it can only be an unforgettable “çigdem”!

end of first part…