Alejandro, Randy and I enjoyed the huge buffet breakfast at the
Samsun Sheraton which was good since we skipped lunch later that day. We then headed out in the perfect weather along the pretty coast road that runs between Samsun and Sinop.
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| The striking and luxurious Samsun Sheraton |
Sinop is the northern most point of Turkey and sits at the end of a peninsula. I had long wanted to see it but it was not impressive when we arrived. We paid to park and walked to the historic place across the main road. This was a prison but is now a museum. We opted not to pay the entrance fee and see the inside but instead walked around it.
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| The crowded entrance to Sinop proper - only one road in to this peninsula small city |
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| Some delicious looking fruits and vegetables for sale along the Sinop streets - I am sure if Mehmet was with us he would have bought some |
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| At the historic prison fortress of Sinop now a museum |
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| Some boats behind the prison - these looked like they needed serious maintenance work |
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| A historic ship on display at the fortress prison museum |
There is also an interesting statue across from the prison on the main road. This is a tribute to Diogenes the Cynic (great name!), a Greek philosopher who lived in Sinop about 2500 years ago.
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| The base of the statue to Diogenes |
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| The Cynic himself with his faithful dog |
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| The Turkish flag flies proudly from the Sinop citadel |
Having experienced all of what we wanted at Sinop (it was congested with normal Monday morning activity and some tourist buses) we headed south and inland. Our goal was to drive through Kastamonu, a city famed for its Otoman architecture, which lay between Sinop and Ankara. The drive was challenging but with amazing scenery. Much of it went through a national park with remote mountains. This was breathtaking to see but Randy had to be on his toes with the winding road - a paved two lane affair.
Almost to Kastamonu we saw a brown sign (meaning a cultural or natural sight worth seeing) and turned off. This spontaneous act turned out to be a good one. It was an active archaeological dig of the ancient city of
Pomeiopolis. There was a museum of the findings next to the dig. This was interesting.
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| The museum, more of a large shed, alongside the Pompeiopolis dig |
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| History of the city which is found across the road from the current small city of Taskopru (Stone Bridge) |
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| One of the Roman artifacts - reminds me of a similar one we saw in a Roman ruin on an island off of Kuwait City |
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| A nice relief carving |
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| A striking mosaic portrait |
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| Some of the building architectural pieces in the museum |
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| A fine carving - not too worn for being 2000 years old |
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| A sarcophagus - the Romans did right by their dead |
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| A nice ram's head |
Then, we walked through the dig sight with much activity going on and hiked as far as the theater which was being excavated. It was quite hot in the full sun but we were very happy to actually experience archaeology in action. There were archaeologists and students from around the world, literally, including the U.S., Asia and Australia. Very cool!
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| The active dig of Pompeiopolis |
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| Working hard on a mosaic floor |
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| Detail of the careful layer digging |
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| The mosaic design is clearly visible |
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| The international group of archaeologists in the hot central Anatolia sun |
We piled back in the car and drove to Kastamonu. We drove around the streets with some Otoman structures. The main part of the city is quite pretty with a small river, Karacomak Cayi, running through it. Along either side of the river are tree lined streets. We drove up as far as we could to the citadel which afforded nice views of the city below. Kastamonu looks like a place worth spending a night but we could not do so on this trip. We had to get on to Ankara.
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| The Kastamonu fortress crowns the small city |
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| A selfie as close as we got to the fortress |
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| View from the top - note the fine Otoman structure in the middle of the photo |
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| Garlic for sale - would have loved to buy some |
The drive to Ankara was uneventful and full of the typically stark beauty of central Anatolia (which I personally love). We arrived in the evening where Alejandro was staying at the Middle East Technical University Guest House on campus and Randy and I stayed at Casa Dengiz in Golbasi, south of Ankara.
We joined Mehmet for a dinner at a famed Iskender Kebab place,
Uludag, in the trendy Cayyolu area of Ankara, west of the city. Iskender is shaved meat on top of pita bread topped with tomato sauce and yogurt and (what makes it especially good) melted butter. A nice way to finish off the best road trip ever! Northeastern Turkey - you did not disappoint us and amazed us with your historical treasures (which are little visited), your unbelievable natural beauty (which is diverse beyond belief) and your friendly people (who receive few visitors but are uniformly warm and helpful). I sincerely hope that this trip was not my last to this very special part of the earth.
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| Some Efes and coban salatasi to start our completion dinner |
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| Mehmet - we planned this road trip for nearly a year and it was totally worth it! |
