July 28, 2007

We are now in Sinop on the Black Sea and yesterday we enjoyed the beach ... here... this is a great town with lots of history but unfortunately we can not stay another night... we will be going back to Sampun and then on to Cappadochia on an overnight bus tonight.

The quote of the day is my dad's.... he said the other day... if you have to pay to use the bathroom..there will be toilet paper .... he of course did not say that there will also be turkish toilets involved ... all the rest stops so far .. turkish toilets ...

Yesterday we were going from Ordu to Sampsun and we went to use the bathrooms ... as I was exiting I saw the woman who cleans the bathrooms doing a needle point on her head scarf. I went out...got my mom and even took a picture of her and the scarf. She said to me that if it was done .. she would give it to me. ... how nice is that ... I thought to myself....what a wonderful talent she has and here she is cleaning bathrooms ....

anyway enough about Turkish toilets ...

We left Constantinoupoli to visit the Black Sea / Pontic area of Turkey.... many of you many not know ... but in addition to the Armenian genocide ,... there was also a Pontic genocide around the same time. These pontic peoples have Greek roots and spoke a specific dialect of Greek.... many Greeks do not understand many words. Anyway... my dad's father came from Gumushanne, Argirupoli in Greek. This village is close to the city of Trabzon which was our first stop on this leg of the trip.

We flew to Trabzon and grabbed a cab to take us around the city. We went to Aya Sofia... a beautiful Greek church which is now a museum...the thing that makes me sad is that the icons ... most of them were deliberately scratched off ... why do we us people do that ... What you find in this area is that 99 percent of all the churches have been converted either into mosques or cultural centers ... the thing that I find sort of amusing is that we have to pay to get in...

We then visited Attaturk's house there.... I tell you ... this man is EVERYWHERE in Turkey ... statues, buildings, every city, in stores... in hotels... I have never in all my travels seen one person be so so popular 70 years after his death. here is some info about him ... He was able to organize Turkey to what it is today ... changed the written language from an Arabic type to European, he modernized the country by building factories and had a pro-western view on clothing, culture, etc.

My dad says that his grandmother had a restaurant across the street from Dolmabahce Palace where he lived. Many many of the state employees would come over and eat at her place... he also said that they called her sisko madam .... big woman ... madam was called a woman who was not of Turkish muslim descent... apparently his motorcade passed infront of the store and there was even an article written about her in the newspapers in the late 30s. You are not going to believe this ... but my dad as a little kid was brought inside the palace and he says that Attaturk even tapped his head as he walked around. how cool is that... he also remembers the day his funeral processed infront of where they lived...

Enough about Ataturk .... the house that is his in Trabzon .... belonged to a Greek Pontic ship and bank owner ... Konstantinos Kaboyanidis .... unbelievable home ...he brought stone and materials from Europe and even had heat ... the first home in the area to have heat. The signs outside the house and the tour guides say that when he left, the state took over the home and then the state gave it to Attaturk ........ I am sure he did not leave on his own accord... who know what happened to him ....

I have got to go now ... There is more to write about Trazon ,Ordu, Sampun and Sinop ... I hope to add more to the story later on today or in Cappadochia.... I also hope that my parents join me on a balloon ride over Goreme .... lets see if they will.

Hope you are all enjoying the summer....Evie ,Gregory and Sofia