Rest day Trabzon

From our nightstay we chartered a bus to visit the Sümela monastery, 'glued' to a very high cliff in the Pontic Mountains 60 km south of Trabzon. Its origins go back to the 4th century AD and was abandoned only with the 'exchange' of the Black Sea Greeks after the founding of the Turkish Republic. The remaining ruins (despite the poor shape of the surviving frescoes) still serve as some kind of identification symbol for many Pontic Greeks and their descendants (including our two Greek BC members, who served as excellent guides on the site) now living in Greece.