Trabzon to Macka, Turkey

Friday 13 April 2007

We make the mistake of watching the weather forecast on the news at breakfast and find that most of eastern turkey is in for heavy snow over the next few days which puts paid to plans to visit Erzurum and Kars on the Armenian border. Instead we go shopping, for some warm clothes and then drive south into the mountains to the Sumela Monastery, a Greek orthodox monastery to the Virgin Mary built in Byzantine times in the C4 AD and finally abandoned with the coming of the Turkish republic in 1929 when all the Greeks were sent home. The monastery is perched high up the side of a 300m cliff reached by a winding track through the forest. Its a beautiful setting in the swirling mist. The main chapel is actually set into the cliff and covered in frescos, inside and out, with living quarters and courtyards clinging to the cliff face.

By the time we have climbed up and walked back down and had lunch of cabbage soup, an eastern black sea delicacy which makes chick peas an epicurean extravaganza, its too late to tackle the pass to Erzurum 290kms east so we retreat to the Hotel Bukuk Sumela at nearby Macka, from whence we can get an early start in the morning.