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04.08. – 22.08.2012 Trabzon, hazelnut capital
Sonja:
Finally, after arriving in Trabzon (80 km) I was really messed up, because I could not eat, I felt sick and I was plagued all day by heavy sweating. All I wanted in that moment was having a shower and going to bed. When Olli called our Couchsurfing host Berkant, as agreed with him, we unfortunately received the bad message, that he can't host us because he is just about to move. No!!! But he had a solution: We should go 20 km further to a hotel in Arsin. But we don't want to go to an expensive hotel! His answer: It is not expensive. I'm the manager and you get a room for free. What?!? Wow! Cool! But another 20 km?? Oh no! So back onto our saddles to drag ourselves a bit further, past a sea of hazelnuts, which lie here everywhere along the street and on the sidewalks to dry. The effort was worth it. Our temporary home turned out to be a double room with sea view, bathroom, air conditioning, television and amazingly fast internet and the food was awesome. Just in time for our arrival it even started raining and should not stop for 2 weeks. The cooling-down felt really good but it was still muggy.
The first few days I mainly spent in bed drinking tea to cure my gastrointestinal problems. Olli meanwhile helped Berkant and his buddies several evenings in a row with moving Berkant's stuff, but they always started late in the evening because of Ramazan and Berkant's busy working schedule. We also received mail, including a new bottom bracket for Olli, since his old one had already started to make problems in Serbia and it was really down the drain now. When Olli tried to install it, the nasty surprise: Unfortunately, we have been sent the wrong one, one for tandems! No! After a few phone calls to Germany and after we had described Berkant our problem, it was clear: We will wait for a new one, but this time the right one, from Germany, and we were allowed to spend all this time in the hotel and for free of course. According to Berkant no problem, but nevertheless we felt a little bit weird and out of place and had difficulties to cope with so much hospitality.
Another hurdle that had to be overcome and which made us a bit queasy, was our visit to the Iranian Consulate in Trabzon to apply for our visas for Iran. We knew from various sources that the officials there are usually quite friendly and uncomplicated and that you normally get your 30-day visa within just one day. Some people report, however, that they received visas for only 15 days without apparent reason. We were concerned that with our luck and aside from that during Ramazan, where officials are maybe in a rather bad mood because of lack of food and drink, our application just can go wrong. Therefore, we prepared and researched everything very meticulously and dressed according to the Iranian dress code: I wore trousers with long legs, a tunic with long sleeves, which I had especially purchased for this purpose in Istanbul, and a headscarf and Olli too exchanged his shorts for long pants. In search of the consulate, we then met Kemal, who actually lives in Germany and is currently here on holiday. Without further ado he then joined our search to help us find the right place, and then even went with us inside to translate for us. The officers were quite nice and after a few minutes we had filled out all the necessary forms. Afterwards we only had to go to the bank to pay for the visas. What surprised me most was the fact that they readily accepted my passport photo without a headscarf, because I had expected they would send me away again to have made another one with a headscarf. But no, my application photo from Germany was respectable enough for the official and he just told us that they often have the problem that girls try to apply with pretty revealing snapshots taken on the beach. After the trip to the bank we went with Kemal to his hotel to have a chat. When we went back to the consulate at 11 a.m., we finally received our visas for 30 days after only 2 hours waiting in total. Hooray!
Olli:
The rest of the time waiting for the mail from Germany we killed as follows:
Together with couchsurfers Ella from Australia and Juan from Costa Rica we visited the absolutely remarkable and impressive Sumela Monastery in the rainy and misty mountains. Furthermore, we didn't miss the small Hagia Sofia, of course. We also accompanied Ella to the consulate, where the officials weren't so friendly this time. Since she is Australian, she was immediately dismissed again with the request to first get a reference number online for 20 €, which may take 7 to 10 days. Unfortunately, the Iranians aren't on very good terms with the Australians, since those are politically close to the US. Moreover, we also met two Polish girls at the consulate who took us to their Couchsurfing host, who is the owner of the only costume shop in Trabzon, where she and her staff tailor all the costumes themselves. My absolute favorite: the elephant costume. We also visited her mother, who has a tailor shop for wedding dresses and other formal and traditional dresses. To swim in the sea was unfortunately not an option because of the bad weather, but we had a lot of fun with 2 other couchsurfers, Marianne and Nidalin from the Philippines, whom Berkant also hosted in the hotel. In the evening we had plenty of wine together while they showed us pictures of their home country. The Philippines are now part of our itinerary as well, of course. Together with another couchsurfer, Meryl from Belgium, whom we taught a little bit of yoga and who is absolutely addicted to Turkish desserts, we tried out a few culinary specialties such as Su Borek and Baklava (filled with local hazelnuts). Because alcohol is forbidden during Ramazan we had to disguise our beer as apple juice :)
During our stay here of over 2 weeks Ramazan finally came to an end, what actually would have been positive in itself. But the 4 days directly following this fasting period are holidays called the Feast and the post unfortunately does not work on those days. Hooray, let's wait even longer for our post! During all this time of waiting we became friends with the entire hotel staff and were almost part of the stock in the end. We had a lot of fun with those guys. Best wishes to: Ebru from the reception, at her 18th birthday we invaded the hotel kitchen to bake apple strudel for the whole team, afterwards we tried to teach her salsa and cycling; cook Ibrahim of the Texas Kitchen Mafia, who spoiled us with the best Turkish vegetarian food; kitchen help Laura and Nilüfer, who were always in a good mood; waiters Mustafa, Murat and Oguz, who made me their apprentice and taught us how to fold napkins; cook Sertac with the cool tattoo; the nice cleaning lady and the great hotel manager Berkant, of course, who introduced me to the fine art of playing backgammon! We will miss you all very much.
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