Last thoughts on the Karadeniz: Sumela

I nearly forgot to tell you about Sumela. It's Trabzon's most famous attraction, about 45 min. inland.

In the 3rd or 4th century a monk named Barnabas had a dream in which the Virgin Mary told him to found a monastery in a remote place she would show him. He and a friend followed their instinct and hunches until they came to this place in the mountains south of Trabzon. They said the image of the Virgin appeared to them in the rocks, and when they climbed the mountainside they found a perfect set of caves and a spring of pure water.

Monks lived there until 1923, when the Greek invasion of Turkey (starting at İzmir, getting as far as Ankara) failed and Greek Christians were no longer welcome. Recently there seem to be moves to refound the monastery, but it's not clear whether they'll succeed.

An awful lot of Turkish tourists come there but it still has a wonderful fascination and a holy feel. If you like you can walk up from the hotel and restaurant, but our bus drove us as far as possible and we had just a 10 min. walk. Some of us walked down, though; it took half an hour.

Our Yahoo album has some pictures that can't possibly come close to the real thing. Have a look anyway.

Meanwhile, we're still in Büyükada recovering from a bout of the Sultan's revenge that we probably brought upon ourselves by not refrigerating some meat soon enough. This bug makes you really appreciate the Turkish way of saying "Get well soon": "Geçmiş olsun," which literally means "May it pass quickly."