Trabzon: Little Istanbul on the Black Sea Coast of Turkey

 

Trabzon’s Meydan or central square

For tourists from Iran and Iraq, it’s a road trip. For visitors from Saudi Arabia or Dubai, it’s a weekend get-away via a non-stop flight on a discount airline. For us, a visit to the Black Sea coastal city of Trabzon, is a chance to immerse ourselves in a part of Turkey well-known to Middle-Eastern travelers but off -the -radar for most European and Americans whose itineraries rarely take them this far east, almost to the border with Georgia.  

Walking through the bazaar quarter our first morning, passing shops selling fresh bread, handmade brooms, socks and cooper pots, we stop to buy a simit, one of the sesame-covered dough rings sold on every corner. A woman gives me the thumbs up, and asks where we are from. “America,” I tell her. “America!” she repeats, then touches my arm. “Welcome.”

Dress is conservative, but fashionable 

Morning bakery stop

For anyone who has heard the stories about locals in Barcelona, Venice or Amsterdam shunning tourists, it’s a great feeling to go to a corner of the world not used to seeing Western visitors. Little English is spoken, but everyone goes out of their way to communicate, often with hand signals, a calculator, a smile or a warm gesture. Trabzon is an ancient city, historically important due to its location along the Silk Road, the trading route between Europe and Asia. Cruise ships call at a port that serves as a gateway to Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The main tourist draw is the Sumela Monastery, built into a mountain cliff 4,000 feet above sea level by Greek monks in the 4th century. I'll get to that later, but for now, we're enjoying the walkable and mostly-pedestrianized city center with its tea gardens, parks and inexpensive restaurants and cafes.   

Hand-made brooms for sale in the bazaar

Local life centers around the Meyden, a large square lined with benches, lights and trees where people gather all day and night. The centerpiece is a statue of Mustafa Ataturk who founded Turkey as a democratic republic in 1923, and is credited with modernizing it as a secular nation after Ottoman rule. 

Surrounding the square are restaurants and cafes in historical buildings. The one below, built almost entirely out of stone, houses a Viennese coffee shop where you can order a latte, smoke a water pipe, or sip a tiny glass of locally-grown black tea. We found one pub on the square that serves alcohol, but most places don‘t. Trabzon was originally Christian and Greek Orthodox until it was captured by the Ottoman Turks in 1461. Today's it is mostly Muslim. While Turkish women wear either colorful head scarves or choose not to cover at all, here it's common to see Saudi and Iranian visitors walking the streets in white sneakers hidden under full-length black chadors.

Trabzon was a major copper mining center during the Ottoman era, and the craft still flourishes. The bazaar quarter is lined with shops selling copper pans and kitchen ware, although from what we saw in shop windows, it seems like more modern materials such as Teflon and Aluminum are catching on with today’s cooks. 

Copper kitchenware for sale

Other specialties include hefty rounds of sourdough bread baked in stone ovens and rice pudding made with cows milk from the mountain villages in the high-plateau area of  Hamiskoy.

Vakfukebir for sale in the bazaar

The cows feed on wild flowers that impart a unique flavor to the milk which is then boiled for three hours. The pudding is sold everywhere in pottery crocks for about $3. We had our first of many helpings at a shop called Ugar Usta Hamiskoy Sutlaci Ayasofa, which served it either plain or with honey or ice cream. 

Our first of many servings of Hamiskoy sutlaci

The milk for Trabzon’s rice pudding comes from the highland mountain villages of Hamiskoy, a farming area above Trabzon

Trabzon residents are very proud of their city's reputation as a cultural capital of the Black Sea coast. It seems like every other shop is a pastry shop specializing in desserts made with pistachio nuts. This dessert resembles a pie-shaped piece of baklava filled with pistachio. 

Tom enjoying Kuymak

Kuymak is a Turkish breakfast dish that looks like a Swiss cheese fondue. It's made with cheese and corn meal, and eaten with bread and a wooden spoon. 

Aya Sofia

Trabzon doesn’t have many historic sites, but one is the Aya Sofia, built as a Greek Orthodox Church in 1238, and converted into a mosque following the conquest of Trabzon by the Ottomans in the 1400s. 

Sumela Monastery

Cruise ships call in Trabzon mainly so passengers can take a day trip into the mountains to tour the Sumela Monastery. We went in a small van excursion booked through Get Your Guide. I took us about 45 minutes to climb on the winding roads into the mountains where two Greek priests built a cave church in the 4th century to honor the Virgin Mary. The path into the monastery has been much improved with boardwalks and stone steps compared to a few years ago when visitors had to navigate root-strewn trails. Still, it was quite a climb. Our tour brochure said “not suitable or those over 95,” so we figured we qualified. 

This was the most important of many monasteries built during the Byzantine era and the best preserved, even after it was abandoned in 1923 when the Turkish Republic was created. It’s believed that 150 monks lived here over the years. Rooms were designated as the kitchen, dining area and library as well as various chapels, some containing 9th century frescos restored to erase scratches and traces of vandalism. 

Hidirnebi Yala

When Turks and visitors from hot climates want to escape the heat, they head for the yaylas,  mountain farming villages above the tree line. The closest yayla to Trabzon is Hidirnebi where Saudi, Iranians, Syrians and others have bought summer homes or vacation villas. Some live close enough to drive. Others fly. 

We visited here on another Get Your Guide day trip which also included a stop at Cal Cave, one of many accessible caves in the area. The scenery is beautiful, but often obscured by fog.  As our driver navigated steep hair pin turns, we could see almost nothing. We wondered what we would do here for the two hours time allotted. Then the fog cleared, and the afternoon unfolded. 

Cafe Çimen

Fall is a slower time there, and there were few people around. Summers are busier when families rent tents for the day, try zip-lining, ride horses and picnic in makeshift outdoor living rooms set up by the local restaurants. We shopped around for a place to have tea before settling on the Cafe Cimen where the owner positioned little tables on the hillside and pillows on the ground for picnics.

We ordered tea and rice pudding, then talked a while with Burcu, the cafe owner’s wife, an English teacher in the nearby high school. She said we were the first Americans she had ever seen in the village. She was as thrilled as we were to carry on a conversation in English. 

Burcu and her special gozleme.

She insisted we sample her special gozleme a Turkish flatbread stuffed with sweet peppers and white cheese.

Table with a view

"The world is so small," she said in a WhatsApp message after we exchanged pictures to share with her students. It's always impromptu encounters like this that produce the best travel memories. 

Off the grid in Safronbolu on Turkey’s Black Sea Coast

 

Safranbolu

Turkey’ Black Sea Coast – from the northern end of the Bosphorus just east of Istanbul to the frontier with Georgia - is off the radar for most people other than Turks.

There’s lots to explore, from mountain villages and ancient monasteries, to seaside towns, with fewer crowds than the more well-known Mediterranean or Aegean destinations, but figuring out where to start is a challenge if you don’t have a car. 

There are easier places to begin than the town of Safranbolu in the far northwest corner, but I had my heart set on spending time here from the beginning. 

Nestled in canyons, surrounded by mountains, and away from  the coast itself,  it is not on the way to anything, but in Ottoman times, it was an important stop on the Silk Road trade route between China and the West. Traders came for the saffron, and created a town that retains its cobbled streets, mosques, bathhouses and traditional inns built between the 13th and 17th centuries. More than 2000 18th and 19th century historical homes called konaks, fill the historical center today, some lived in by locals and many transformed into guest houses, hotels, restaurants, shops and cafes. 

Evening in Safranbolu

And so, the decision was made. After mentally nixing Safranbolu from our itinerary several times due to the hassles of getting in and out, we dug in and committed to a six-hour bus ride from Istanbul for a three-night stay. It will take another three hours to get out and onto our next stop.

These days when you Google a destination for travel information, a list of frequent questions pop up such as “Is Safranbolu worth going to?”

I give it a big Yes. For Turks, it‘s a tourist town, a weekend getaway. They come to eat in the restaurants, and shop the local bazaar for tiny jars of saffron, gift boxes of Turkish Delight and colorful bottles of flower-scented cologne. 

It‘s always time for tea in Turkey

For visitors like us, it‘s a place to immerse ourselves in a part of Turkey where little English is spoken, where we can walk everywhere, and stay in  a welcoming konak with a 250-year-old history.

No car. No problem. The owner of Gunes Konak guesthouse picked us up at the bus station (We communicated on WhatsApp using Google Translater). Our second-floor room, on a hill overlooking the town, has a modern bath and shower, but also creaky floorboards, crooked doorways and wooden window latches. 

There’s a prayer rug stashed in the corner and a tiny arrow point to Mecca on the ceiling. The local mosque plays the Call to Prayer over loud speakers at inconvenient times. 

It’s all about becoming part of a neighborhood for a few days where a simple “Merhaba” (Turkish for hello) goes a long way.

Gunes Konak guesthouse

Our Turkish neighbors. A simple “Hello” in Turkish produces smiles

The $70 rate includes breakfast prepared by three women busy in the kitchen before 8:30 a.m. Waiting for us are platters of olives, cucumbers, tomatoes and cheeses; fresh bread; four types of homemade jam; fried eggs sizzling in a copper pan; a Turkish version of French toast; a roasted pepper and olive spread; and endless glasses of steaming Turkish tea. 

Breakfast platter with Simit, a circular bread encrusted with sesame seeds.

In 1994 Safranbolu was placed in the world Cultural Heritage list by UNESCO in appreciation of the efforts towards preservation of its heritage as a whole, but especially its traditional houses, reflecting the Turkish social life of the 18th and 19th centuries. 

The size and the planning of the houses were determined by the large size of the families. Uniformly made with white stucco, brown shutters and red tile roofs, most are are two or three stories, with delicate woodwork and carved wall and ceiling decorations. They were built to line up so as not to block each other’s light, prompting architectural historians to characterize them as early examples of socially responsible building design.

The whole town is walkable, but the narrow streets are steep and laid with rough stones. Most people come here with cars. 

Logging lots of steps

The city’s name comes from saffron which is native to Safranbolu. We will just miss the annual autumn harvest when fields will be covered with purple flowers. These days, more saffron is imported into Turkey than exported, but the government is taking steps to encourage more production. Our B&B host recently planted a small saffron garden for his guests.

Saffron for sale in the bazaar 

Small jars of real Safranbolu saffron sell for around $10. Some sells for less, but we were told it comes from Iran.

Turkish Delight is shaped like a rope, then cut into bite-sized pieces 

Turkish Delight or Lokum is another sought-after local treat. Every shop employs someone to stand outside with a tray of free samples. Based on a gel of starch and sugar, it comes in many flavors, including saffron, Turkish coffee and Oreo. Safronbolu‘s version is said to be unique due to the town’s hard water.

Bakers, blacksmiths, shoemakers and coppersmiths also contributed to the economy in the past. A few still ply their trades in back alleys, but most of the traditional workshops have been replaced by souvenir stalls. Our neighborhood has its own simit baker. It’s fun to watch as he shapes his dough into circles before baking it in a wood-fired oven.

Our favorite building is the Cinci Han (inn)  built in 1640 as a caravanserai - a way station for traveling traders. Restored in 2004 as a hotel, it is made completely out of stone. 

A coffee museum runs a cafe on the second floor overlooking an open courtyard. Here you can sample various kinds of Turkish coffee, served elegantly on little gold platters along with small glasses of juice and a square of Turkish Delight.  

All this for half the the price of a Starbucks latte. Naturally, we have become regulars.

Next stop: Trabzon

Bucharest: East Europe’s Hidden Gem

 

Night vibe in Bucharest’s Old Town 

Our room in the hotel Rembrandt, once a Jewish bank, faces copper-clad rooftops that gleam at sunrise as an all-night busker folds up his boom box after one last rendition of Jail House Rock.

Sunrise over the Romanian National Bank

Rembrandt Hotel 

From the upstairs breakfast room,  we watch the morning unfold in Old Town Bucharest, its pedestrian streets quiet until its bars and outdoor cafes reopen for the day.

Waffles served street side 

Our front window faces the Romanian National Bank, built in 1883. Around the corner is a blue trolly selling waffles and the Cafe Van Gogh with a shaded terrace. A block away is the Beaux Arts-style former Bucharest Stock Exchange, built in the early 1900s, now housing a restaurant and hotel.

In the past, Romania’s capital got a bad rap — known as much for its traffic-clogged streets as its concrete apartment blocks . We gave it a miss on a swing through other parts of the  country 17 years ago, but over the last decade much has changed. Subways, trams and buses are clean, modern and efficient, making getting around easy. Even better news: Bucharest has tourists, but not as many as most of Europe’s first-tier cities. And it has retained it’s own currency - the lei- making things less expensive than countries on the Euro.

Filled with Belle Époque architecture that survived World War II, Communist-era destruction and earthquakes, it was known throughout Europe as the Little Paris of the East. What was left standing in the historical center contrasts with the big boulevards, wide streets and Stalinist-style government buildings built by Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Ceausescu and his wife were executed by firing squad in 1989 after anti-communist uprisings in Eastern Europe. During his regime, buildings owned by wealthy nobles, businesses, banks etc. were nationalized. Once the government fell, they were returned to the heirs of the original owners and over time, restored.

CEC Palace, headquarters to CEC Bank

Among the most famous is the CEC Palace, built in 1897, headquarters to the CEC Bank, and now spectacularly lighted at night.

Caru’ cu bere

We were lucky to snag early dinner reservations at Caru’ cu bere, a brewery opened in 1879, nationalized by the communist state in 1949, and renovated in the 1980s with murals, Gothic decorative details and stained glass windows. 

As outstanding as the architecture is, it’s the Romanian people - entrepreneurial, energetic and English- speaking- that have made our stay meaningful.

Vlad and Lorena 

On just our third day in town, we were fortunate to have had dinner with Lorena Duicu and her husband, Vlad,  though the Eatwith.com program, a sort of Airbnb for dining. We got acquainted over glasses of their homemade plum brandy, then moved onto grilled eggplant salad, smoked fish, a delicious pork stew simmered in a clay pot, polenta and a homemade plum crumble pie. 

It was an evening filled with good conversation about American politics, the war in Ukraine and our mutual love of travel. We were happy to have made a connection like this in a city entirely new to us. Understandably, Romanians were fearful when Russia attacked Ukraine. Kyiv is just 500 miles away. For now, though, life goes on normally in Bucharest which is far away from the fighting.

Anaid of Freetour.com

Anaid, a guide with Freetour.com, gave us a short history lesson in a two-hour walking tour covering some of the Christian Orthodox churches that survived the communist era. Most impressive was the 18th century Church of the Stavropoleos Monastery where a few nuns still live.

Stavropoleos monastery

The story of the vamprire Count Dracula, she explained, was inspired by Vlad the Impaler (or Vlad Dracula in Romanian), an important ruler and national hero in the 1400’s. The castle in nearby Transylvania, marketed as Dracula’s castle in Bram Stoker’s novel, actually had little connection to the real Vlad, and there‘s no evidence Stoker ever saw it.

Mici at the Obor Market 

We don‘t eat much meat at home, however, when in Romania…everyone must eat mici, tiny, grilled, skinless pork or lamb sausages, served with a glop of mustard and bread. It's estimated that Romanians eat 440 million annually. You can order them in the fanciest of restaurants, but we went by tram to stand in line with the locals and sample these ($1 each) at Terasa Obor in Bucharest‘s Obor public market.

Lining up for mici at Obor market

Tom samples a honey cone

Bucharest has beautiful, family-friendly parks. On our way to tour an open air folk village in Herastrau Park, we watched kids of all ages using small, fold-up scooters do tricks in a skate park while their parents relaxed at a cafe across the street, talking and drinking beer. 

The Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum takes visitors through what rural Romania looked like a century ago. The man above was dishing out “honey cones,” like ice cream cones, only filled with a rustic mixture of honey, bee pollen and bee’s wax.

Sipping visinata at SIP

Anaid, our Freetour.com guide, left us with a final tip. “Be sure to try Visinata,” she said,  Romania’s signature spirit made with sour cherries. They call it Dracula’s blood.

The base is plum brandy that is infused with fruit, often sour cherries, but sometimes blueberries or strawberries. It’s alcohol content is high, so best tried at a bar like the one, appropriately named SIP.