Amasya to Trabzon, Turkey

Thursday 12 April 2007
We climb up to explore the tombs of the Pontic Kings set in the cliffs above the town. There are 18 tombs of which 5 belonged to kings, carved in the C4 BC. Essentially they are very large blocks of limestone cut out of the cliff on all sides apart from the base, so you can walk behind, with a central hole which formed the tomb. The Pontic kings didn’t last too long and were ousted by Romans in 47BC (We suspect in fact that the tombs were built by the Romans as pizza ovens).

After travelling along the broad central valley for while we take a northerly road over the mountains to the Black Sea coast and stop for lunch beside the sea at Unye, a sprawling sea side town dominated by a large cement works. The drive along the coast eastwards is uneventful, as a series of tunnel boring and concrete highway laying machines have just preceded us so we complete the 470kms to Trabzon before dark. Negotiating the rush hour dolmus (minibus) traffic in the city centre by intimidation rather than skill we reach the selected hotel the wrong way down a narrow street. (We forget that being in a Turkish registered thing we can’t exploit the lost foreign visitor excuse which hitherto has indemnified us from complying with traffic rules). Before we can check the price the bags have already been taken up to the room which has a view over the now grey Black Sea as well as the unattractive rooftops of Trabzon.

Dinner is in a fish (or fishy) restaurant with tables full of natashas (the local name for Russian or Georgian ladies of the night).