TRIPPIN’ IS A WAY OF LIFE STYLE: RİZE; TRABZON/TÜRKİYE

Part 2;

                                                            ~TRABZON~

The "Bazaar District" of Trabzon

And now it is time for Trabzon memories…

When I came to this beautiful Eastern Blacksea Region…I firstly met with Trabzon Airport…It is just 5 km away from the city center and has a great connection with other airports (especially with Ankara Esenboğa Airport) in Turkey…

Then as I mentioned from my last post, I used  airport’s shuttle from the airport to Rize…of course how come I would have known my second visiting to Trabzon was going to be 5 days later than that night…

And that day finally came the night after we came from Tbilisi/Georgia trippin' I came to Trabzon by a midibus. I was actually planning to visit “The Sümela Monastery” but when I reached to the city center, I learned the bitter pill to swallow…That day was unfortunately so cloudy and as I learned from one midibus driver firstly I have to go Maçka town of Trabzon and then will need to use a taxi to reach the Sümela Monastery but the weather conditions were so strict for this trippin’ at that time and unfortunately I cancelled this trippin’.

Even if I couldn’t go to the Sümela Monastery I started to walk around in Trabzon. I didn’t have a time limit for Trabzon and with my photography machine I started to explore this well known city not only in Turkey but also in the world…

The municipality of Trabzon

Trabzon is located in a strategically important region, Trabzon is one of the oldest trade port cities in Anatolia…

I firstly came to the Belediye Meydanı ("Municipal Square"). This is where the heart of the city beats and where almost all hotels are located as I saw and heard…and only 5 minutes away from this square the bazaar district(s) of Trabzon starts...

"Kemenche" of the Eastern Black Sea Region

The bazaar district of Trabzon is located on the north side of Maraş Avenue. It is the oldest and most colorful marketplace of the Black Sea region as I observed also heard from many inhabitants of Trabzon..

The mural painting of kemenche players

Trabzon Museum aka Kostaki Mansion

According to my observations you can spend your whole day or you can get lost in its colorful streets…I realised that I passed from the same street as 3rd time when someone warned me…You can imagine beyond this :)

The Museum of Şamil Ekinci (Trabzonspor)

I also visited the museum of Şamil Ekinci also known as Trabzonspor Museum. Trabzonspor is a big reality in Trabzon for Trabzon inhabitants and as they claim it is more than a club. Nowadays the professional football team of Trabzonspor is in a big rival with Fenerbahçe to get the championship of Turkish Super League...

2nd floor of Trabzonspor Museum

Me with the cups of Trabzonspor (Super League)

Unfortunately I finished my Eastern Blacksea trippin' by Trabzon...

I am totally sure that I cannot forget anything about this great city too...

As I declared before: I WILL COME BACK FOR SURE

A part of Trabzon

TRIPPIN' IS A WAY OF LIFE STYLE: RİZE;TRABZON/TÜRKİYE

Part 1;

                                                          ~RIZE~

When I decided to go Georgia first of all I was planning to visit my friend who lives in a nice village of Rize city which is located at Eastern Blacksea Region of Türkiye as I mentioned from my last posts…

On 1st of April (as we clearly know the day of joke) I went to Trabzon from Izmir by plane. This was my first domestic flight I have ever used in my life as I mentioned from my last posts also…I was excited for sure…

I didn’t find a time to go the city center of Trabzon from the airport cause of my friend was waiting in Rize at the same time but I didn’t have a timing problem whenever I wanted; I would come there…

Then I used a shuttle to go Rize from Trabzon Airport. Even from the first minute I realised the difference; the difference of culture. Blacksea people have a different a way of understanding the life and reaction as far as I observed in a week. For sure until now I have seen; talked; lived with many people from Blacksea Region but now it is the real time…I was in Eastern Blacksea and that was a great time to discover my own country’s different cultures…I wanted to start this journey also for that reason…After 1 year abroad now it is time for travelling in my own country especially a region which is very special for me…

The first thing which would be the attraction for people who come to Blacksea (especially Eastern Blacksea) Region is to discover happy and humorous people. Nowadays it is so hard to run across with people who have joy of living…But even if under hard circumstances; they exactly know how to make their life more excited and joyful…Of course this is not only belong to a region or to a weather or something but I have been travelling for a certain time and a lot places but to be honest Eastern Blacksea people are different…Even for this experience to see their joy of living; it is worth to see that region…

When I reached to the city center of Rize, my friend was waiting there for me and we went to a restaurant which is pretty famous in Rize. I also learned that Rize also Trabzon are famous for their meat quality which is using for some kebab&döner and some traditional meals…For example not only in Turkey but also in whole Europe there is one meal which is well known DONER...is a Turkish dish made of lamb meat (mainly) cooked on a vertical spit and sliced off to order. According to my also to many people’s gastronomic pleasure this region’s döner is  one of the most delicious ones in the world…when I asked this to my friend also to some restaurants in Rize also in Trabzon I received almost the same answer...They claimed that they take care of meats so much even more than meats deserve  and some other techniqual and traditional details which I cannot even share in here as they requested…

We went to a very nice village (Salarha) which is located 14 km far away to the city center of Rize. I stayed at my friend’s home and this home also around were so pastorical. I just remembered the days which I had passed in Slovenia cause there were so many similar things which reminded me of Slovenia...

Tea fields in Salarha village

Me in front of my friend's home

Salarha

I started to discover Rize center with my friend the day after I came…I liked the atmosphere of Rize especially when we started to walk along the seashore…

A view in Rize

There is one square which is the famous square of Rize…Around of this square 2 museums are located…One is Rize Tea Museum (ÇAYKUR) and the other one is Rize Museum of Ethnology…Probably we spent almost 2 hours at there. We also listened about the tea making process from the officer of  ÇAYKUR Tea Museum…and about ethnology museum there are so many things to say but briefly when you visit this museum you can get almost whole history not only the Blacksea Region but also whole Anatolia…

Rize Tea Museum (ÇAYKUR)

Rize Museum of Ethnology

Nayla (Serende)

Then we walked uphill to the “botanic garden of Rize”. Even if it was too foggy, I liked the place and around of garden…

The Botanic Garden of Rize

After that we went to the city center again and my first exploring day finished.

Then the second day we came to the center again we met with his friends…I also would like to thank from here to them cause I have been hosted awesome by them…And they were great guides for me when I was in Rize…

We went to the castle of Rize and the view from there was amazing…I can’t forget this view…also the tea which we drank on the top of the castle…

The view from the castle of Rize

And around the night I had an another gastronomic pleasure. This time it was about deserts. Fırın Sütlaç (Baked Rice Pudding) is a desert which is pretty famous in Turkey. I personally tasted this desert in many places of Turkey but the one which I tasted in Rize was the best one so far...

And with this taste…I finished my Rize trippin’ with a great pleasure…

…I WILL COME BACK FOR SURE…

TRIPPIN’ IS A WAY OF LIFE STYLE: TBILISI/GEORGIA

As I told on my last post…now it is time for Tbilisi part;

Our train looked like an old Soviet train arrived to the station…Firstly I was a little bit excited cause I heard so many things about Soviet trains one of them was about their huge capaciousness…but when we got on the train…Oh my God!!! I had never seen such a train like that in my whole life…The style and capaciousness of it wasn’t the same which I imagined…Unfortunately there was also a heavy smell inside of the train…Anyway we found our place actually this was the most interesting view for me probably for my friend too cause all parts were the same…Our place was 3rd class and the price of it was 15 lari (the money currency of Georgia) which is equal to 20 Turkish liras; 10 euros per person and 2nd class was 23 lari but the thing is all these classes were the same…We were lucky actually when we bought our tickets from 3rd class…As you know for travellers “money” are so important…We shouldn’t be extravagant…

The journey took almost 9 hours cause the distance between Batumi -Tbilisi is almost 400 kms...

Even if it seems so long we were lucky cause there were some Georgian young couples just next to us and especially my friend arranged a great connection with them...They were great fans of Turkish musics especially Tarkan…

After a long journey as I mentioned above, we finally arrived to the train station of Tbilisi...It was actually a train station bigger than we imagined cause when we saw Batumi's station we unfortunately thought that Tbilisi's one also is the same but of course Georgia was continuing on to perplex us...

Tbilisi literally “Warm Spring” is the capital and the largest city of Georgia located at Mt’k’vari (Kura) River…as we heard something about this river; Kura’s water is always blurred…When we were at there, it was also blurred…

Mt’k’vari (Kura) River

Tbilisi is one of the few places in the world like Sarajevo (I have seen this when I was in Sarajevo), Paramaribo where a synagogue and a mosque are located next to each other…unfortunately we just saw this interesting coincidence from so far away cause the weather was so bad and we just had a chance to observe there from so far…

We continued on our discovering&walking…Finally after a long walking we arrived to the city center of Tbilisi and came to “Freedom Square”…Freedom Square known as Erivan  (Erivanskaya) Square is located at the eastern end of "Rustaveli Avenue"... 

Rustaveli Avenue is one of the most important things about Tbilisi…It is located in central Tbilisi named after the medieval Georgian (actually known in whole ex-Soviet countries) poet Shota Rustaveli…This avenue starts at Freedom Square and it is 1.5 km in length…The Parliament of Georgia, the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Rustaveli Museum and the Georgian Academy of Sciences are all located on Rustaveli…

Even if we stayed in Georgia almost 26 hours...I liked there...my 2.shortest journey in an another country...


Bye for now Georgia...maybe we can see each other...

TRIPPIN’ IS A WAY OF LIFE STYLE: BATUMI/GEORGIA

After 2 months…A new destination actually country appeared for me to visit…This was Georgia…

Everything happened when I saw a message from one of my friends…Esteban…He lives in Rize (the city which is located at the eastern Blacksea Region of Turkey) and he was planning to go to Batumi/Georgia…and then I thought that why don’t I go to there also…I also can visit him and can see eastern Blacksea Region cities like Rize-Trabzon and then can pass to Georgia…and then I booked my flight ticket and went to Trabzon firstly…It was my first domestic flight in my life cause before that I always used flights for abroad…

When I passed to Rize…I met with Esteban in the city center of  Rize and passed to his spectacular village (Salarha)…Imagine a village or town where is surrounded by only tea fields like Sri Lanka…I stayed in a place like that…

And the day which we think to discover Georgia came…We went to Batumi from Rize by a midibus which was small but the driver was really funny…He showed his passport and as you can imagine there were so many stamps cause he was passing the borderline every single day…and the conversation with him was nice and useful… 

 

The way of Rize-Batumi

And after 2 hours journey we reached to the borderline of Turkey-Georgia…Georgia has a different way when they accept foreigners into their country. They use “webcam” for taking photos of foreigners when they would like to enter…I haven’t seen or heard such a different enforcement like that…Georgia was waiting me with its own different atmosphere…

The first photo which I took in Georgia

When we arrived to Batumi unfortunately the weather wasn’t good enough for discovering the city but we didn’t concentrate on this and we started to walk around…Firstly we went to consulates district of Batumi and liked the architectural of buildings…

Batumi is a seaside city on the Black Sea coast and it is the capital city of Adjara (the autonomous republic in southwest Georgia)...

After consulates district we came to the area of  “Medea statue”…and as you can imagine we started to take photos…

Medea statue in the center of Batumi

In Batumi the train station is a little bit far away (around 12 km) to the city center…And we decided to buy our train ticket from Batumi to Tbilisi from somewhere in the city center but it was really hard to find this office…We asked this place to approximately 15 people but couldn’t find and then we came to in front of the Head Consulate of Turkey and we asked this place to one security police from there and he came even to the office which we were looking for…Thanks to him from here also (madloba)

The head consulate of Turkey in Batumi

Then we went to the seaside of the city…It is probably one of the longest seasides actually seashores I have ever seen in my life…The weather was bad but even with this weather the seashore was great…We probably walked a half of it as I guessed…then we came to the university of Batumi known as “Shota Rustaveli Batumi State University”…

The seashore of Batumi

Just next to the university there is a ferris wheel which is really bigger than I imagined. What a nice coincidence…There is a ferris wheel just next to the “Shota Rustaveli Batumi State University”…

Then we decided to go Sheraton Hotel to see their casino part…It was nice to see this atmosphere also…

Sheraton

Sheraton Hotel

Finally actually unfortunately the time to leave from Batumi came and we went to the train station of Batumi by taxi…I just would like to say something about taxi drivers in Georgia…Don’t think that they are so honest and easy-going people when you agree on the price of taxi…If you ask something about anything…they just change the money fee and they demand much more money than you agreed on…Be careful about if you would like to use taxi…

And the time came; our train came…the train looked like a really old Soviet train and I had one of the interesting also a little bit scary train journeys I have ever done in my life…

If you would like to know how it was;

WAIT FOR TBILISI PART…