Today we had an off bike day and a lovely lay in….didn’t get out of bed until around half past eight….very luxurious! We had a simple village breakfast – to be honest getting a bit past it all ……would kill for some bacon and eggs, toast and tea!

We had booked a tour through Eyce Tours for 30 TL each, to go to the Sumela Monastery, and they were due to collect us at 10.00am. A bus did arrive but it wasn’t ours ….not speaking Turkish makes things very confusing to work out what’s what and few people here speak English. At 10.20am a man came in saying “Sumela” and we figured that was us and followed him up the narrow cobbled road to where a bus was parked….it couldn’t get down the road due to a traffic jam….common place here as they really have no idea how to drive and no one gives an inch!

It was about a 46km drive and we soon found ourselves lined up in a row of traffic waiting to pay the entry fee for the Park. Luckily Vince had thought earlier to bring our Museum Cards …as the entry to the actual Monastery was not covered in our tour…way to go Vince I knew there was a reason I married him!

We struggled up the mountain in our bus…. as there were many traffic “incidents”blocking our way….. and in the end our bus stopped and we had to get out and walk the remainder of the way….this was worse on the way back where we had to go even further on foot (about 4 km) to get to the restaurant lower down and dodge both oncoming and cars approaching from the rear…..it was crazy and at times I thought we were done for they came so close and fast….unbelievable! NOT HAPPY JAN!!!!!!!

The Sumela Monastery is a 1600 year old Greek Orthodox church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It is built into a steep cliff at 1200m (3900ft) on the Western Slope of the Altindere Valley within the Altindere National Park. It is within the Trabzon provincial borders (Macka) near the Eastern Black Sea Region. The monastery is constructed on rocks reached by a path through the forest…(see pics)….. but the 18th Century frescoes on the walls and ceiling of the Rock Church were very impressive and well worth the steep hike up to see them…as was the sacred water spring.

The site was abandoned as a monastery in 1923 and became a museum….it’s a very popular tourist attraction…it was packed today…with people pushing and shoving in front of you, cars blocking the road 4 abreast in some places….it was total chaos. It eventually got to the point I decided that if you can’t beat them join them, and took to mimicking their “bulldozer behaviour” to get through the crowds……politeness and taking turns have no meaning here!……I have to say it did detract somewhat from the actual experience of seeing the Monastery. We had a harrowing ride in the bus back to Trabzon…..Vince thought it was all hillarious….but I could have well done without it….thank goodness I have blood pressure medication…..the traffic here is trying to kill us!

[Vince’s addition – the traffic out of the Sumela Monastery was crazy to the point of ridiculous. There’s one road in, barely wide enough for one car in places, but generally two cars wide in most places. This was all fine when we drove up the steep mountain road in the morning to get to the monastery, but leaving in the afternoon was a completely different story. The surge of visitors through the day had resulted in the road verges being used for car parking, narrowing the road. Added to this mix was a constant stream of cars coming up the hill, and our tour bus was trying to squeeze through the narrow gaps going down the hill. And whenever we got blocked by oncoming traffic, additional cars would just join the queue below and make it even harder to unravel. Rather than help themselves and other drivers, everyone just seemed hellbent on adding to the mayhem by joining the traffic jam, unwilling to not participate in the farce. Eventually however some pedestrians intervened and started directing the traffic, shouting at drivers to reverse down the hill and let the bus move forwards. I wish I could have seen the traffic jam behind us, as I’m sure it was being repeated over and over again.]

A quick village breakfast and with a little help to carry our luggage, from the insistent hotel staff, the ANIMAL was loaded and we were on our way around 9.00am from Samsun to Trabzon (300km). As Vince was sorting out the bike a Turkish family came over to him and chatted for a while – they live in the Netherlands and had returned to Turkey for a holiday. The streets of Samsun were deserted with not a soul to be seen – everyone was indoors enjoying their festive day.

Just out of Samsun the grey skies opened up and the rain started to fall, quite heavily at times. The road became quite slippery in the rain – it possibly hasn’t rained here for ages and the oil deposited from the cars and trucks lifted up and became a slick mess. Neither of us have our jacket linings in and it wasn’t long before we were wet to the skin and feeling the cold.

Even in ‘rain’ mode Vince managed to get the back-end of the bike sliding around on the slippery road under brakes at one stage, which added a bit of excitement to the ride. Traffic on the road was reasonably light – probably again because of the festive day – but what few drivers were out on the road this morning all wanted to be Wacky Racers and some of them were downright stupid – like the Audi car driver who insisted on splitting lanes every time he arrived at a red light. He’d just squeeze between the trucks and cars, and race off to the next red light and do it all again. Patience is not an admired virtue over here.

The D010 coastal route from Samsun to Trabzon is a four lane (2 lanes in either direction, with a centre strip and barriers separating the oncoming traffic), and in most places it’s a comfortable 110kmh ride, but in many towns it passes through it grinds to a halt at traffic lights, so we couldn’t really maintain a steady pace for the ride.

And on the subject of red lights – many of them give a red+amber warning for a split second before turning green, which gives car drivers the opportunity to beep their horns at the cars in front, perhaps encouraging them to start moving, or maybe to show how fast their reaction times are. Whatever the reason – every green light brings on an orchestra of honking cars.

The road follows along the southern coast of the Black Sea however it looked more blue to us, with rock sea walls and patches of brownish grit for beaches. In some places little onion-shaped huts had been installed, kiosks serving goodies for beach-goers, not that we saw anyone at the beach today.

We arrived around 1.30pm at Trabzon and found our hotel without too much bother, though the cobbled streets were crowded and the GPS may have instructed Vince to ride the wrong way down a one-way street – or maybe the locals just wanted to have the whole road to themselves. At 50 Euro per night however our tiny room (so tiny that the small double bed was set sideways against a wall in the middle of the room… as the room was not wide enough to fit the headboard against the wall!) was disappointing. Our “sea view room” was non existent …we overlook an alleyway…the “private parking” is just the street in front of the hotel and the free internet does not work….can we pick them or what!

What a difference a day makes….we set off after breakfast for our long journey today (700Km plus) to Samsun via Ankara (to collect our bike parts that we ordered in at BMW via Brock) and were on the road by 9.00am. We stopped off breifly at the lookout above Cappadocia and took a few more photos…including Mt Erciyes (Argaues) as we left by a different road (towards Uchasir Castle) than the one we had come in on.

Anıtkabir (literally, “memorial tomb”) is the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (Pasha). It was designed by architects Professor Eminent Onat and Assistant Professor Ahmet Orhan Arda, who won a government competition in 1941 for the design of a “monumental tomb” for Atatürk. The site is also the final resting place of Ismet Inonu, the second President of Turkey who was interred there in 1973. His tomb faces the Atatürk Mausoleum, on the opposite side of the Ceremonial Ground. The mausoleum was depicted on various Turkish banknotes during 1966–1987 and 1997–2009.
Mustafa Kemal (Pasha) Atatürk (born 19 May 1881 in Salonika Vilayet Ottoman Empire, now Thessaloniki, Greece) was a revolutionary who became the first president of Turkey and held office from 29th Oct 1923 until his death on 10 Nov 1938 at Dolmabahce Palace, Istanbul. He died from complications of cirrhosis of the liver. He is credited as being the founder of the Republic of Turkey. His surname, Ataturk means “Father of Turks” was granted in 1934 and forbidden to be used by anyone else under Turkish law. Atatürk’s funeral raised both sorrow and pride in Turkey, and 17 countries sent special representatives, while nine contributed armed detachments to the cortege. His remains were originally laid to rest in the Ethnography Museum of Ankara but were transferred on 10 November 1953, 15 years after his death in a 42-ton sarcophagus to the Anitkabir.

His father was a minor official and later a timber merchant. When Atatürk was 12, he was sent to military school and then to the military academy in Istanbul, graduating in 1905. In 1911, he served against the Italians in Libya and then in the Balkan Wars (1912 – 1913). He made his military reputation repelling the Allied invasion at the Dardanelles in 1915. In May 1919, Atatürk began a nationalist revolution in Anatolia, organising resistance to the peace settlement imposed on Turkey by the victorious Allies. This was particularly focused on resisting Greek attempts to seize Smyrna and its hinterland. Victory over the Greeks enabled him to secure revision of the peace settlement in the Treaty of Lausanne.

He was a highly decorated military officer during WWI and following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire he led the Turkish National Movement in the Turkish War of Indepencence. He established a provisional government in Ankara and defeated the allied forces…..that includes us!

In Australia, the Kemal Atatürk Memorial is directly opposite the Australian War Memorial on Anzac Parade, the principal memorial and ceremonial parade in our capital, Canberra. It is named after Mustafa Kemal (1881–1938) who then, as a Lieutenant Colonel, commanded the Turkish 19th Infantry Division when it resisted the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) at Ari Burnu, on the Gallipoli peninsula, in 1915 during WWI. In 1985, seventy years after the Gallipoli campaign, the Turkish Government agreed to recognise the name “ANZAC Cove” for the place on the peninsula where our troops landed on 25 April 1915. In return for this gesture, the Australian Government established the memorial garden, around the Kemal Atatürk Memorial, that honours the heroism and self-sacrifice of the Turkish and ANZAC soldiers who took part in that bitterly fought campaign. This is the only memorial to an enemy commander on Anzac Parade. Closer to home in Western Australia, as part of the same reciprocal agreement in 1985, the channel leading into Princess Harbour in Albany (were our troups sailed from) was officially named “Ataturk Channel” whilst the Turkish Government officially named the beach at Gallipoli, “Anzac Cove”. In 2002, a life size statue of Mustafa Kamal Atatürk was erected overlooking this Channel on the scenic boardwalk leading from Albany to Middleton Beach. Access to the memorial is from the beach side at Ellen Cove Boardwalk (Middleton) or walking along Stirling Terrace from the CBD.

In 1921, Atatürk established a provisional government in Ankara. The following year the Ottoman Sultanate was formally abolished and, in 1923, Turkey became a secular republic with Atatürk as its president. He established a single party regime that lasted almost without interruption until 1945. After winning the War of Independence , he launched a programme of revolutionary social and political reform to modernise Turkey. These reforms included the emancipation of women, the abolition of all Islamic institutions and the introduction of Western legal codes, dress, calendar and alphabet, replacing the Arabic script with a Latin one. Abroad he pursued a policy of neutrality, establishing friendly relations with Turkey’s neighbours. He wanted to transform the former Ottoman Empire into a modern and secular nation-state. Under his leadership, thousands of new schools were built, primary education was made free and compulsory, and women were given equal civil and political rights. The principles of his reforms upon which modern Turkey was established, are referred to as Kemalism.

The Anıtkabir museum is composed of three sections. The first section is the Atatürk Museum, in which are exhibited Atatürk’s civil and official clothes, his personal belongings, various gifts presented to him, and many assorted documents and photos. The second section depicts the Çanakkale (Dardanelle) War. Audiovisual effects and objects such as rocks, cannons, rifles, guns and shells have been added to this section in order to give a 3 dimensional effect. The other panoramas depicting the Sakarya Meydan Savaşı and Büyük Taarruz (two of the most important battles of the War of Independence) have also been displayed in the same way. The third section is composed of recreations of events that took place from the time of the War of Independence (1919) until the death of Ataturk (1938).

Vince and I have been totally stunned at the number and variety of generations of people visiting (many local) and in general the great esteem with which this man is obviously revered throughout our travels through Turkey….his portraits and statues are everywhere. I read that each year at the exact time of his death, on every 10 November, at 09:05 am, vehicles and people in the country’s streets pause for one minute in remembrance….having seen the spectacle today, I can well believe it. Never have we seen such pride, idealisation and devotion to a public figure so openly displayed and widespread throughout a nation.

We had an unintended, but welcome, sleep in until 8.30am….the curtains in our hotel room are so dark we could not see daylight! After breakfast we set off in a taxi for the Anatolian Civilisations Museum…about 15 min ride to the old town and cost us around 20TL. We were unable to use our Museum Passes here….we have discovered they should have offered us all of Turkey for 105TL instead of the Aegean at 75TL….we tried to convince the clerk to exchange it and we would pay the difference….but he wasn’t having that and so we had to part with 210TL for new passes….and 10TL each for audio guides…Bugger! We spend a good 4 hours walking through the museum and it was exceptional….it won awards in 1997 as the European Museum of the Year. The museum is on the south side of Ankara Castle in the Atpazari area. An old Ottoman Bazaar Storage building houses the collection. They start with the Paleolithic era, and continue chronologically through the Neolithic, Early Bronze, Assyrian trading colonies, Hittite, Phrygian, Urartian, Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuq and Ottoman periods. There is also an extensive collection of artifacts from the excavations at Karain, Catalhoyuk, Hailer, Canhasan, Beyce Sultan, Alacanhoyuk, Kultepe, Acemhoyuk, Boğazköy (Gordion), Pazarli, Altintepe, Adilcevaz and Patnos as well as several other places.

The exhibits of gold, silver, glass, marble and bronze works date back as far as the second half of the first millennium BC. The coin collections, with examples ranging from the first minted money to modern times are truly rare and amazing. We especially enjoyed seeing some of the most rare pieces on display as well as just taking some pictures of things we liked…..and some Vince thought might look good in our living room back home…LOL!

I’ve uploaded some of our favourites including but not limited to: The first homo sapien skull found in Kadipinari Cave, Seated Goddess Figurine flanked by two leapards/lionesses from Caralhoyuk, Stag statuette – symbol of a Hittite male god, Bronze tablet from Çorum-Boğazköy dating from 1235 BC, Kabzali Dagger with Handle (Iron and Gold), Pyrygain Cybele statuette, Hasanoglan Female Statue in Electrum and Gold (3rd Millennium BC), King Anitta Dagger from Kultepe (18th Century BC), Ceremonial Bronze Situla from Gordion 740BC, Hurri and Serri (Bulls of Teshup – Storm God) from Bogazkoy (16th Century BC), King Midas’ Skull, Vase with face from Partinos (9th – 8th Century BC), Marble Statue of Godess Athena (Roman), Bronze Statue of Dionysos (Roman), Marble Boar Hunt Statue (Roman), Marble Statue of an Emperor (Roman), Jewellery from Troy….so much history in Turkey!!!!

We took our life in our hands on the taxi ride back and stopped short of our hotel before walking back to the little tailor shop where thankfully my jacket was complete with new zip! Later that evening we got dropped off at what was supposed to be a Cinema…but “near, next door, down the road etc” ….all have different meanings in Turkey! We walked for a while and did eventually find two cinemas….but neither had anything showing in English….so we stopped in a nearby cafe for dinner (38TL in total) before taking a walk home and absorbing the richness of the hustle and bustle of Turkish life. An interesting observation was walking along the streets littered with the business cards (including photographs) of the variety of “Working Girls” available. They also have these weird little shops where you can sit and watch big screen sport or engage in PlayStation games – Guitar Hero seems to be a favourite….they are everywhere!

With our Iranian Visas in the bag, Vince is now busy working on our Indian Visa paperwork!