Turkey: Hoppa on the Black Sea
Hoppa....we have a lovely dinner of Black Sea fish and superbe mezze, including delicious Tarama, Aubergine three ways, terrific fasulya (rich local beans done to death with a tomato sauce and paprika), lost of Raki and all is very well indeed.
Set on the border with Georgia, it is teeming with women who have slipped in from Georgia, Ukraine and mostly Moldova - "ladies of the night" earning the touch Turkish Lira.
Yesterday we drove inland to high mountain country just off the coast to ruined massively strong circular Georgian churches and to the provincial capital of Artvin, which is built on the side of a steep hill. It is a university town of some charm and crazy angles: Nothing is right or left, rather, it is up or down!
A splendid lunch of stuffed peppers and aubergine, home made ayran. Then we headed into utter drama, first sort of high desert country a la New Mexico featuring side roads to old typically Georgian monasteries and churches which appear undestroyable by even the most fantic Islamist. Next we had a complete change of scenery. It is HIGH Tyrol. Much snow, wooden villages, lovely little tarns. People in Bodrum are swimming and they are skiing up here! On to Ardahan through countryside which looks like high moorland - a bit like Mongolia with high steppes. SUCH variety of topography in such a short space.
I'm writing from a boutique hotel in Kars set in an old Russian house. It is utterly bequiling and all is well. I think of Orhan Pamuk and Snow.
Set on the border with Georgia, it is teeming with women who have slipped in from Georgia, Ukraine and mostly Moldova - "ladies of the night" earning the touch Turkish Lira.
Yesterday we drove inland to high mountain country just off the coast to ruined massively strong circular Georgian churches and to the provincial capital of Artvin, which is built on the side of a steep hill. It is a university town of some charm and crazy angles: Nothing is right or left, rather, it is up or down!
A splendid lunch of stuffed peppers and aubergine, home made ayran. Then we headed into utter drama, first sort of high desert country a la New Mexico featuring side roads to old typically Georgian monasteries and churches which appear undestroyable by even the most fantic Islamist. Next we had a complete change of scenery. It is HIGH Tyrol. Much snow, wooden villages, lovely little tarns. People in Bodrum are swimming and they are skiing up here! On to Ardahan through countryside which looks like high moorland - a bit like Mongolia with high steppes. SUCH variety of topography in such a short space.
I'm writing from a boutique hotel in Kars set in an old Russian house. It is utterly bequiling and all is well. I think of Orhan Pamuk and Snow.
posted by ultimatetraveler at 7:30 AM
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