Two hats amd two Fred Perrys in Bartın

Two hats ın Bartin, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

A quick couple of photos uploaded from our day trip to Bartin yesterday, passing over a couple of day in Safranbolu and the wonderful amasra on the coast. Internet connections are not always that quick and, moreover, when there is so much going on as well as allowing for some relxation time, there is not much time left for the internet cafe.

I uploaded thse two while we wait for a bus to take us eastwards along the coast towards gide where we may or may not spend the night depending on whether we like it or not and on the weather. After three days of bright sunshine and max temps of about 28, a storm has rolled in this morning, bringing thunder and light rain. This is what the Black Sea coast is famous for.

There is only one bus a day to gide and there are a small number of mainy Turkish backpackers waiting outside the PTT building with us. There are no buses going all the way to our next main destination which is Sinop, so we will have to change a few times and decide where to stop along the way, for a lunch or the night. We can expect the villages to be quite remote.

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The reasons why we went inland to Bartin yesterday were that we got ourselves a bit sunburnt the day before on the beach in Amasra, despite spending almost all the day under a parasol and because we had seen on the way over that Bartin had a lot od attractive Ottoman houses. Plus it is a pleasant twenty minute bus-ride over the mountains with views of Amasra's harbours and headland as well as othe beeches. Unlike in the south-west of turkey where the coastal ranges are covered in attractive pines, the moutains here are covered in dense and varied deciduous woods, with the odd eagle and buzzard flying overhead.

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Oh dear, we were the first to be waiting for the bus but were the last on which means I am sitting on the floor without a view but with a blackberry to pass the time. Not much elbow room and I suppose I can stand. But no, amazingly enough the young lady sitting nex to Fred just got off the bus, so we are sitting together both at the back!
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There are more trees here than in the jungles of Malaysia, although the roads there are better!

Lots of sweet chestnuts, wild cherries, oaks. Beech. Lime and polar in the valleys, pinesn ferns, ivy, silver birch, figs, blackberries, mountain ash and vines. A few clearings for whitewashed houses and some cows, maize or sunflowers.

Mist hangs around in some of the valleys, while the rain has stopped.

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The sun is shining again and we are stuffed into the back of a minibus next to all the baggage. A group of Germans took the best places in the bus while dumping their bags next to our seats, living up to the sterrotype many english people have/had of the Germans (certainl in the 1970's).

We were silly enough NOT to get out at Kurkucasile (which llokef so very pretty when the bus was ascending the hills after we left.

We stayed on to Gide, which had a long, rather forlorn grey shingle beach on the way in, not helped by the fact that the sun had just popped in behind. A new bank of cloud. The bus station sis not look very inviting so it wqs an easy decision to buy a ticket for the bus to Inebolu.


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So there we were with an hour to kill in Çıde and I left Fred at the bus station to see if I could get a photo printed of our bus boy Tufan who had just posed in front of the bus he had been working on.

No photo processing capabilities in town it seemed but instead I cam across a ladies market where many of the women from the surrounding villages come into town to sell their fruit, vegetables, yoghurt, honey and crafts. Very very colourful in their dresses and headscarves, a photographer's dream, at least it would have been until the sun came out and threw most of them into impenetrable shadow. Plus, I had to get back to Fred so came back with just a few shots, just in time to wave goodbye to Tufan in his Ozeminiyet bus, enough info to have the chance to send a print of the photo by post.

As a postscript to an earlier posting here, one of the Germans has been travel sick for the last half an hour or so, poor thing.

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Just made it to Inembolu. Oh dear, not the prettiest of places, under grey skies, hooded crows feeding off the carrion on the grey shingle beach.

There are two hotels. At Otel Ozlu Fred was shown into a room with three beds, one being occupied by a man smoking. This was for 7 euros a night. Fortunately, our budget stretches to the 20 euro a night hotel called Otel Altinoz, almost opposite. It'll do for a night before we go to Sinop.

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Oh well, another very nice surprise here ın İnebolu, Lıke so many places, ıt dıdn't look too ınvıtıng when we fıirst arrıved. However; before long we were makıng friends with the locals, the sun came out and we dıscovered a hilllsıde full of beautiful Ottoman houses. Some are decrepıt but many are being restored,

Hopefully, the raın will keep away tomorrow to give us the chance to see more of the town and its port, not too bothered about whether it will be swımmıng weather.

We have to be careful here about speaking Dutch to each other as ıt seems that many people from İnebolu have moved to or have conmnections wıth Holland (and maınly Zaandam).

In the meantime, we just had tea wıth a young chap waiting to go to unıversıty who spoke good English and hıs boss, a sporty young(ish) man called Ozdal, Now we have an appointment wıth Ates to drink beer at the local birhane!