why did the turtle cross the road?

I'm back, and my headache is gone. Since my last post we have traversed almost the entire Black Sea coastline and caught about a bazillion buses (maybe 15). But I'll start from where I left off.

Our second overnighter on the bus took us from Ankara to the massive port town of Trabzon, which wasn't especially great but we were only there to visit a monastery set in mountains. Which was beautiful and very impressive in that it jutted out the side of a cliff face.

After our night in Trabzon we had an unremarkable few days of catching buses- we did sleep at a bus station one night but that isn't so much remarkable as a show of our ability to put up with an uncomfortable night's sleep rather than pay for a hotel room.

When we finally reached the town of Sinop we decided to spend the night rather than catch anymore buses. Because we might have killed ourselves. It was a good idea (both the staying alive and the staying at Sinop) because we used our free day to go and visit a town that boasted a park with 28 waterfalls. Awesome Land, I like to call it.

It was a rainforest park, right near a giant reservoir, and going straight up the middle there was just waterfall after waterfall after waterfall. 28 times. And we were allowed to climb up them! There were even ropes there especially for that purpose.

I'm climbing up the side of a waterfall in thongs using a rope as an aide...hence "AwesomeLand"! And then once we had climbed the 28th waterfall, there was an old man who was selling cay (tea) and apples and bread rolls in a little tiny cafe with a hammock. I don't think it gets any cuter than that.

And on the way home from waterfall village, we saw a turtle crossing the road...so now the title of this post probably makes a little more sense.

After that winner of a day we went and had some dinner then went to the thousand year old fortifications of Old Sinop and had a beer and played backgammon. So here's a little message for everybody to take away with them. Sometimes it pays to slow down and break up your journey a little. You get to climb waterfalls and drink in ancient buildings and see turtles crossing the road!

Aaannnd now, after another full day of minibus travel, we are in the small coastal town of Amasra, our final stop before Istanbul.