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THE BLACK SEA, EASTERN TURKEY
& SOUTH EAST TURKEY
August 31, 2011 - September 18, 2010
Please read journal for Black Sea and East Turkey tour
  TRIP JOURNAL

2010 Tour Group journal

Day 01
Aug 31, 2011
ISTANBUL

Please check the arrival info below.

Even if the tour members are arriving at different times we will give you the transfer to hotel Ayasofya

• Transfer from the Air port in Istanbul to the hotel

• Overnight in Istanbul

• We will meet at the lobby of the hotel at 05:00 PM for a group meeting

• Dinner tonight is not included in the tour price

1. The Black Sea People live in what they call YAYLA in highlands during summer and in early September. These settlements are little villages of scattered houses built above the cloud line.

2. When the shore of the Black Sea is soaked with rain, the Yaylas have the wonderful sun and the beautiful greens of hundreds of years old trees

3. Therefor, we have prefered spending one of 2 nights that you had spared for rize in a Yayla

4. The accommodations are acceptable clean, with private facilities in the rooms, excellent warm people amazing food

5. Overnight at a family run bed and breakfast place . The whole family will be trying their best to make your stay a very memorable one.

1. The people of the Black Sea have villages on the third levels of the mountains as well. They use this level to graze their animals for only a month. During the winter they live by the sea. During the early part of the summer they move up higher where Ayder is. Later in the season they go literally over the clouds. Such places are called "Yuksek Yayla." Which means higher than the higher settlement.

2. The dinner in Rize will be at the Hotel

3. After the wonderful ride in the Mountains, you will feel like your oxygen saturated body will like to go to sleep quickly.
    

4. To avoid spending two nights at the very basic hotel we will go all the way down to the shore and stay overnight in Rize. Our lunch today will be very special. In the mountains a mother and a daughter cook as they have learned from generations before. You will love their KUYMAK- Corn flower based cheese dish.

• Drive to the Georgian Border.
  For 75 years the communist regime of the Soviets banned people from going outside the boundaries of the Iron Curtain.

• Since the fall of the Communist Soviet Empire, this border has been very busy with people trying to get into Turkey to sell everything they have.

• Along the way, we will see what is called the Russian Markets and there, we will be able to see the falling economy of the former Soviet people and how desperate they are.

1. We prefer driving to Kars from ARTVIN. The view is spectacular

2. It is not a tourist path

3. The road is great

4. It follows the ancient Silk Road

5. Driving on this road will give us chance to see

6. ARDAHAN and also the Farthest Eastern Lake of Turkey . the lake and the villages around the lake are most picturesque.

7. Over the mountains of the Black Sea we will leave the last sight of the sea behinds us and drive south to the highest city in Turkey. Artvin looks like an eagle's nest.

8. Overnight at Hotel Karahan, Artvin

• ARTVIN – ARDAHAN – KARS
  Once the Caravans of the Silk Road used the road that we will take toward Kars via the Lonely Pine Forest . This is the name of the forest and the name is very appropriate for the location of this wonderful region at an altitude of 7,000 feet. By sunset, we will be driving by a lake which will be catching the last rays of the sun as we drive into Kars . Overnight at Hotel Sim-Er.
  

1. Kars to Erzurum

2. It will be dinner time by the time we arrive in Erzurum

3. ANI Drive 23 miles to the border town of Ani , the 10th century capital of Armenia . The city walls of red stone will make you feel like you might be walking into a movie set. But when you see the cathedrals, churches, temples dedicated in Zoastrian deities, caravansarai and the Silk Road , you will realize that you are actually walking in the time tunnel of hundreds of years.

1. It will be nice to have 2 nights at one place so we can do laundry

2. Erzurum has the biggest and the oldest Mosque of Eastern Turkey and a fabulous ethnographic museum

3. People in Erzurum are very loyal to their cuisine. Lunch will give us an opportunity to taste what the people of Erzurum have been eating for hundreds of years.

• Visit a nearby village. See a hay, duck and dung economy.

• Visit the 12th century Medrese (a Seljukian School ).

• Talk with the imam at the 12th century Mosque and enjoy the ethnographic museum.

• Visit an old caravan stop where the local black stone is mounted in silver and gold by the local artists in the most aesthetic art form. Dinner at the hotel. Overnight in Oral Otel

1. The drive to Dogubeyazit is one of the most scenic route of our tour
2. since there are no opportunity of finding a restaurant , we will have a picnic lunch today
3. We will wait by  Mount Ararat to watch the mountain fade in the setting sun
4. Keep your fingers crossed so we can see the stork family who had been living there seems like since the time of Noah

1. Watching the sun rise is certainly optional

2. No body needs to get up that early unless they really want to experience this moving view

3. IF were not staying in Dogubeyazit we would miss the ISAK PASA PALACE as well

4. Mail your post cards from the eastern most post office that you can find in Turkey on the Iranian border. See the miles of petrol tanks coming from Iran to put the economic reality of the region in a different perspective.

5. ISAK PASA PALACE After lunch visit a palace which is like an experiment model for an architect trying to put the architectural features of all those who had run caravans on the Silk Road. Iranian gateways, Ottoman domes, Baroque harem rooms, Armenian stonework, Georgian reliefs will be captured in your pictures as a proof of synthesis of civilizations.

1. At Akdamar Island feel the excitement of the masons carving the scenes from the Old Testament and the New Testament on the walls of this church 1,100 years ago.
2. With the snow in the mountains and blooming almond trees, try to understand how the word white can have different meanings.

3. The folk dance will be arranged with few students

4. This will not be a touristic show

5. The tour members after the folk dance can converse with the students who will be so eager to talk to them

• Visit one of the oldest Christian Monasteries on Earth where the congregation is still speaking Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke.

• We will have a chance to see Mesopotamia with its fertile fields stretching under our feet when we walk the streets of Mardin. Overnight at the same hotel in Mardin

1. Diyarbakir is a very crowded city
2. The only pick pocketing that I have experienced in my career has been here in this city so the clients will have to be extremely careful

3. there is a nice pool at this hotel if you like swimming please bring your swimming suit 

• The black city Walls reflecting in the waters of Diyarbakir will meet us upon arrival

• Out side the city walls we will see people fishing in Tigris river

• The ULU CAMII Complex of Diyarbakir is on the Moslem Pilgramage site. We will visit these “sacred “ edifices

• Dinner and overnight at Tourist Hotel

1. Urfa is one of the  oldest settlements of Anatolia. the original name of the city ,Ur, was changed to Edessa by Alexander the Great. The Biblical references call the city by the name that was given to her by Alexander.

2. The city claims to have the most number tombs of the holy men of all the monotheist religions.

3. Urfa is also the birth place of Abraham

• Drive south to HARRAN. and the Syrian border

• You will be mesmerized with what man can do to a desert. Instead of the sand dunes of thousands of years now the captured water of the Euphrates river irrigates the cotton fields giving the people of not just the region but of all of Turkey a new hope for the future. Harran where Abraham lived seems like it has not changed at all.

• The conic homes look like they could have been his house. The women dressed in layers and layers of colorful dress look like they could have been his followers marching down to Canaan.
  Overnight in Urfa

1. By the time we get to Nemrut it will be pass Sun set time

2. Therefore we have to leave 02:00 am the next morning to catch the mountain for sunrise

3. Early evening is highly advised
    

Mnt NEMRUT /  KAHTA

• In Urfa have another Biblical experience in its sacred lake, birth place of Abraham and many more treasures for your memories and /or cameras.
• On the way to Adiyaman, we will stop at the biggest dam of Turkey. 22% of the electric energy we consume in Turkey is being produced in the turbines of this Ataturk Dam.

1. The moonlike terrain of Cappadocia with its endless artwork is a photographer's delight.
   Overnight in Uchisar Lalesaray Hotel
2. The drive today is a very long one .Please plan to sleep in the bus
   
    

CAPPADOCIA

• Cappadocia is a land where nature and man have competed with each other to create the most unusual and the most beautiful.
• We will hike to 10th and 11th century churches, monasteries, and houses carved in the rocks,
• We will visit a family living in one of these rock dwellings.

Balloon ride in Cappadocia is a superb experience it is an option if you want to do it we need to make the rezervation a head of time but the payment will be made by credit card directly to the Balloon company
 

CAPPADOCIA

• Balloon ride
• Zelve
• Goreme
• Avanos
• Overnight in Cappadocia