Day 12 - Trabzon (May 4, 2009)

Although technically Spring Break was over and Em had returned to Istanbul, Sonya and I had decided at the beginning of our trip to leave an extra day for Trabzon at the end to explore more and enjoy our last bit of Spring Break. I think we also did not want to go back to school and enjoyed the thought of missing the first day back.

We weren't sure where to go or what to do with our last day but took some suggestions from Hüsniye. She suggested that we see Atatürk's House. We found the information on how to get there and took the bus up the hill to check it out. It was a very ornate, white, house with a beautiful garden. It reminded me a lot of touring a very small version of Mt. Vernon. The furniture was beautiful and we got a good sense of how royalty lived in the early 1900's in Turkey. Apparently, Atatürk had many houses around Turkey and these were a dime a dozen. It was still neat to see it and to walk around the gardens which had a lot of different flowers.

We took the bus back down to the seaside and decided to head into the Şişman Restaurant for lunch. We came into the restaurant at about 11:45am or so. Sonya, Em, and I had been DYING to eat here ever since we saw the name on the first day. The reason being is that on our trip, we sort of developed an inside joke between us. Whenever we ate a lot of food or something like that, we referred to each other as şişman. The word is Turkish for a fat person. So after an entire week of joking about this, on our last couple of days of the trip we actually see a place with that name! It was hysterical for all of us! So of course Sonya and I HAD to eat there!

Well we went inside only to find that it was not a regular restaurant but instead more like a pub. They did not really have lunch food and only had snack food. Despite this minor setback, we were determined to say we ate at the Şişman Restaurant! So what did we do, you ask? We did the only natural thing that could be done! We ordered a pitcher of beer! I think the Turkish people working there thought we were crazy for drinking a whole pitcher between the two of us before noon but we didn't care because we ate at the Şişman Restaurant!

Following our little afternoon of fun, we walked around the Russian Bazaar and around other shops throughout Trabzon. After walking around for a while, Sonya and I had decided that we had become bored. I also think it was tough for Sonya because she had really started to miss Seçkin at that point. The weather also began to turn a bit rainy so we found ourselves a cafe with a backgammon board, bought some tea and relaxed for the duration of the afternoon. By about 6pm, we went to the hotel and packed our belongings and met Hüsniye for dinner at her favorite place, the Forum. The Forum was a shopping mall with a food court full of Turkish and American foods. I ended up eating Sbarro's because I had been missing American food like crazy! After a nice dinner with Hüsniye, she walked us to the dolmuş and helped us to the airport.

We said our goodbyes with her and then went through security to board the plane back to Istanbul. At around 10pm, we arrived back in Istanbul, took the metrobus back to Hisarüstü and said goodbye to the best Spring Break trip I have ever had.

After 12 days in Eastern Turkey, I felt I had learned so much about a side of this country that not many people get to see. Additionally, I was excited about the fact that we had taken some risks which turned into some really neat experiences (such as meeting the Kurdish people on day 3 or hanging out with the college students in Van). All in all, the people in Eastern Turkey showed us an incredible amount of warmth, friendship, and hospitality that I will not soon forget. The people in Istanbul who told me that Eastern Turkey was dangerous and that I should not go were probably right. However, in going, I ended up having one of the most incredible trips and experiences in my life. I can't really convey in this blog how truly awesome the trip was...I hope one day some of you can experience a trip like this one too.