Every tunnel is always the worst. The very moment I see it from afar, my heart sinks. I fumble for my phone and stare at the map, trying to find a way around. There seems to be a small road over the mountain. I try to take it, but it’s a dead end. There are […]
A day in a roadside hotel. The room is okay, the yard is nice, breakfast is the bomb. I walk over to a shop down the road and end up buying not only water and a candy bar, but also a pendant from the Trabzonspor football team because I like its colors. Guess I’m a […]
Last night, when I was almost at the ögretmenevi where I was planning to stay for the night, two guys appeared and wanted to take a picture together. Then the cops showed up. Not just one or two, but four of them. As I was standing there, posing for the picture in my Chinese reflective […]
It’s two in the afternoon when I see my first pine tree in as long as I can remember. Actually, it’s a bunch of them on both sides of the road. Their fragrance fills the air, and just looking at them makes me feel as if I was on the shores of the Mediterranean. That’s […]
Here, on a pedestrian overpass, on a metal bridge that spans four lanes of traffic, here am I, and I’m having tea. Below me, there is a constant roar from the vehicles of those people who want to get somewhere – anywhere – really fast. I can see the Black Sea hitting the shore, it […]
Somewhere in the south of Trabzon, hidden deep inside of a mountain valley, there is an old Greek Orthodox monastery called Sumela. It is not functional anymore. There are no monks, no holy books, no ritual chants, just a few stone buildings hanging on to the rocks. I can’t help but ask myself what happened […]
I took a walk around Trabzon with an old friend today. We talked about his life and mine, and about some of the things that had happened in the last few years. The big things and the small things. Meanwhile, we looked around. When we passed the old Gülbahar Hatun mosque, I said let’s go […]
Islam came to Trabzon rather late. Maybe it was because of its city walls (which now mostly lie in ruins) or maybe it was because its inhabitants were so famously stubborn and hot-headed, anyway Trabzon remained Christian (and independent) for a long time, even after almost all of its surrounding territories had adopted Islam. It […]
Remember the other day when I stayed in that village guesthouse? Well, when I got up that morning and I went down to brush my teeth, I sneezed, and during the violent convulsion that accompanied that sneeze, I felt something weird in my upper back. I have been feeling a bit of pain ever since, […]