Olympic bicycle ride 2008

The way from Rize towards Hopa near the Georgian border is a strange but pleasant experience being a cyclist on a six-lane motorway (near the towns with the parallel feeder roads even eight lanes!) with very little traffic. One would think that only EU-subsidized infrastructure projects are capable of producing such overcapacities, but more likely we're looking at an attempt to create new communication lines to circumvent Russian controlled markets. Anyway: track of the day (http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=16451) highly recommended for cycling; attributes: flat, fast and scenic. Minus only for the unilluminated tunnels!
Most of the international traffic is truck traffic and the town of Hopa caters for the truckers' needs with its hotels, shops, exchange offices etc.
I haven't got the detailed mileage, height and other statistics of the trip worked out yet - I will do that after I have finished my part of the journey (whenever that might be) - but my clock shows now 2,185 km of cycling since start in Olympia on Feb 20. Because of my days off in Turkey most other people have about 300 km more, so officially it's now 2,500 km in 36 days.

The entire Turkish Black Sea coast is is the land of hazelnut plantations. Despite the problems they cause to allergy-susceptible people like me in spring time (recently some other people around me started sneezing, too) hazelnuts are of course the main ingredient in this:

I know that it somewhat politically incorrect to call this food, but we are consuming just huge quantities of it every day.
The other thing impossible to avoid is this:

- and I really have stopped counting even the daily portions of çay that we are offered everywhere, very often for free. East of Trabzon one enters the land of tea, the plantations of which cover the hills in green terraces tea processing employs people in the towns.

And then there is Ayran, the Turkish equivalent of piimä or Buttermilch. (Sorry, I never found out the English term for it.) The warmer it gets, the more refreshing it is. And the weather has been quite pleasant recently...

Alcoholic beverages don't feature greatly in Turkey; there is really only one beer (Efes) and it is quite expensive. Neither is wine a part of the Turkish cuisine. These things will change when we enter Georgia.

For track of the day: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=16395

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.

Sunday evening was special. The Föhn effect from the nearby mountains caused the temperature to rise to 27 degrees in the evening! Also Monday (only 72 km to Trabzon) a rather warm, though not sunny day. Continuing on the flat motorway (police 'discovered' us only in the afternoon and kindly escorted through the city of Trabzon at rush hour), one could call it almost ideal cycling conditions.
Ex tempore a reception in the City Hall was arranged for us and we got accomodation in the Municipality's own guest house 20 km away from the city.

Nüfus means population. Interestingly enough, the figure for Trabzon - second largest Turkish Black Sea city - is missing. Wherever the figure is displayed, one gets a good idea about upcoming services, traffic etc.

Mayor of Trabzon receiving us in his office under the obligatory Atatürk portrait (which one can see in much, much, much less official places in Turkey...). The lady on the right helping with translation was happy to tell me about her way from Turkey to Turku where she had spent time in Turun ammattikorkeakoulu.

Locking bicycle. Notice China 2008

GPS and more photos: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=16391

Photo by courtesy Mark van Essen

Happy Easter again! The organizers surprised us this morning with a personal hand-painted Easter Egg!
On the modern almost continuous coastal highway (some tunnels still under construction) we passed the city of Giresun with all-day police escort. Besides the normal Trafik Polis clearing the way ahead of us now also the more heavily armed Jandarma is with us, even if there are no more than four of us deciding to stay in a group. Easy and fast cycling, anyway.
Near the town of Görel the snow covered 3000+m Pontic Mountain tops provide a spectacular background for the occasional lemon and olive trees on the coastal roadside.
Transport was surely more difficult in Xenophon's times, when he walked across the mountains towards the sea with his 10,000 Persians somewhere here in the area making the famous exclamation 'Thalatta, Thalatta' (The Sea, the Sea!).
We are mentally preparing for leaving the Black Sea Coast after more than three weeks before the end of this month.

Track of the day: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=16011