The Black Sea, cute animals and more frescoes

Another stunning drive, this time through wooded vertiginous mountains, brought us down to the unromantic Black Sea coast with a four-lane highway rushing past the port – once the most important on the Black Sea in Turkey – and the uncharming city centre of Trabzon comprising gold shops, chain stores and over-priced nut purveyors: Trabzon’s surrounding area produces 75 per cent of the world’s hazelnuts.

Our hotel, at the top of a steep, steep road has a stunning view, fortunately, although the weather is somewhat unsettled:

Apparently the unsettled weather is a great attraction to the huge number of tourists from the Arab countries – the manager of our hotel says they ring to find out if it’s raining or snowing and, if yes, then they book to come.

But as usual, two streets away from the horrible tourist area lies the bazaar with its wonderful variety of goods including dresses and children’s dressing up clothes

Trabzon – then Trebizond – was founded in the eight century BC by the Greeks. It became renowned in the fourteenth century as an off-shoot Byzantine kingdom by refugees from Constantinople . Its wealth resulted from the diversion of the main Silk Route to avoid Mongol controlled territory further south. The Genoese and later the Venetians won the maritime trading privileges making the city a centre of art and learning. Following internal struggles, the last emperor of the Trapezuntine state surrendered to the Ottomans in 1461 although Pontic Greeks continued to live here until 1923.

One of the few reminders of the Byzantine period is Aya Sofiya Camii, a mosque which was built in 1263 as the Agia Sofia. It became a mosque in 1461, was occupied by the Russians and used as an arms depot and hospital from 1916 and reconverted to a mosque in 2013. This caused something of a furore because the mosaics on the floor were covered in carpet and the frescos covered up with curtains – the case went to court apparently; now a compromise has been reached with the frescoes more or less on display outside prayer time and the mosaics covered by glass and then by a carpet during prayers.

We particularly liked this fresco when Jesus turns water into wine (appropriate in this rather ‘dry’ country):

A trip to the botanical gardens high above the city brought unexpected pleasures: roses (see the opening picture), a sign prohibiting nuts:

a rabbit enclosure with special bunny houses in which they piled on top of each other:

We found the kitten taking shelter in the bunny houses pretty enchanting too in a kitsch kind of way:

And while we’re on cute animals, we met this puppy yesterday when we stopped for a coffee on the side of a mountain:

Even the coffee was cute with a rose in a glass of water to flavour it and tiny little sweets: