For spring break, our program is taking the sixteen of us to
eastern Turkey for a week to see some museums, old monasteries, and
breathtaking landscapes. Each day, I will try to give a brief recap of our
activities.
Day 1
After waking up at 4am and catching an early flight to
Trabzon (a city in northeastern Turkey on the Black Sea), we enjoyed a
traditional Turkish breakfast—cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, bread,
butter, and jam. It was a chilly, sunless morning in Trabzon, but I still enjoyed sitting
by the sea, munching on food, and sipping hot Turkish tea.
The first site we visited was Hagia Sofia, an old Georgian
church situated on the coast. It’s a fairly large church and its ceilings are
plastered with beautiful paintings of biblical scenes. There are two
other Hagia Sofia churches in Turkey, the smaller of which has recently been
converted into a mosque. The third Hagia Sofia is the famous one in Istanbul
that shows up in movies and history textbooks and is positioned right across
from the Blue Mosque.
After Hagia Sofia, we made our way to Sumela Monastery. The
monastery is built into a cliff side, so after driving up a dangerously steep
hill, we had to leave our tour bus and pile into vans for the rest of the way.
The van ride was hair-raising, as our driver seemed to disregard the precarious
nature of the road we were using; the road was narrow, had no guardrails, and was
slick from the rain earlier that day, yet our driver seemed to relish his
ability to take sharp turns and drive quickly.
When we reached it, the monastery was shrouded in a thick
veil of mist, which, according to our guide, is pretty common given the
altitude and the amount of rain this area sees. Unfortunately, the fog
obstructed the view, but after our steep ascent, I knew quite well how high up
we were. The stone buildings are built on the side of a sheer cliff face so the
monastery is quite a visually stunning complex.
After inspecting the monastery, we opted out of taking the
vans back down the hill in favor of a walking path that snakes its way down to
the parking area. Once we reached the bottom, we had lunch at a restaurant that
served the best rice pudding I’ve ever had. I also had some excellent trout
(served with skin, bones, and the head).
Overall, it was an excellent day, filled with cool old
churches and tasty food.
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