1. We would like to start on Sept 8^th or earlier since Meli – the owner of our company and our guide has a tour booked on the 26^th of September.

2. The flight arrives in Trabzon at 08:45 giving us the full day in Trabzon. Therefore we suggest just one night in Trabzon is sufficient

3. In the afternoon the clients can have free time to walk the busy streets of Trabzon and see the very unique and traditional SILVER/COPPER weaving of this reagion.

4. The hotel is very centrally located
   for those who like to have free time on their own this will be an ideal location.

5. The dinner will be served at the roof restaurant of the hotel. The restaurant is open to public and one of the best Restaurants in the city

• Early morning flight to Trabzon.Meet the bus and the driver

• Drive to Sumela Monastary Sumela, also known as the Monastary of the Virgin. It has been said that it is neither on earth nor in heaven. Carved on the slope of a mountain, it looks like a nine story high building hanging down from the clouds and sitting on the top of the forest. A short hike through the rain forest will leave no question in your mind about where you are in Turkey, The Black Sea Region.

• Lunch at Sumela Monastary National Park

• Visit the city of Trabzon in the afternoon. St Sophia, & Ataturk’s House
  After the crusaders invaded Constantinople in 1204, Trabzon became the capital of the Byzantine empire for a short time. Longing for the grandeur of Constantinople, in Trabzon, they imitated the Churches of their beloved city in a smaller scale. St. Sophia of Trabzon though much smaller will leave with you the same sense of religious devotion as the original one in Istanbul.

• Overnight at Horon Hotel Trabzon

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

• Leave Trabzon after Breakfast

• Once we leave Trabzon and drive East, our bus will look like it is caught between the Black Sea and the steep slopes of the mountains. The scattered houses in the villages on the green slopes of these mountains look nothing like the architecture of the rest of the country.

• We the clients are interested we can visits one of the municipalities of the towns along the way and have a short meeting with the Mayor of the settlement to get a better understanding of their lifestyles, social and political problems and previliages of Black Sea settlment – We can discus enviromental issues, what the work force is doing or anticipationg in the changing economic systems..etc

• Lunch Served near Rize

• Ayder, The village that we are heading to today is known for an excellent spa. We will enjoy the natural hot waters with the locals.

• Watching the locals dance and sing tonight will probably be one of the highlights of the tour.

• 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.

• Overnight at Vesile Hotel

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.

• Today we will drive up to the higher yaylas of Ayder. If you are a lover of nature you will say that this day alone gives you your money's worth of this tour. Since our bus can not go beyond Ayder, we will be driving both ways in small mini-buses. Those who are interested in hiking can walk down hill to enjoy the nature more.

• Lunch at the montains

• 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.
  Overnight at Rize at Asnur Hotel

• 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. Americans can go to Georgia with out a visa.

• Those of you who might want to put their feet in Georgia and spend an hour or so at a cafe by the black sea .

• 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.

• Overnight at Hotel Karahan, Artvin

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

• 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. With the new road getting to Erzurum from Kars is around 3 hours

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

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

1. You had not mentioned Dogubeyazit but

2. Driving to VAN either from Erzurum or from Kars to Van is doable if we were in a race and not having time to enjoy any thing around us.

3. I have done this tour hundreds and hundreds of time, I strongly insist that dogubeyazit should be a stop

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.

• The folk dance will be arranged with few students

• This will not be a touristic show

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

Day 11
September 18 Saturday
M A R D I N

• One advantage of starting from North is giving us more warmand dry days on the Black Sea

• The other advantage is the drive today will be down hill rather than up hill which makes a big difference in enjoying the view

• Visit one of the oldest Christian Monasteries on Earth where the congregation is still speaking Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke. The father of the monastery will open the doors to us where monks will proudly show us the in and out of their thousands of years old building. My monk friend, Gabriel will give us the pleasure of hearing how Jesus would have sounded if he were teaching what we read in the Bible. Because he will be reading his Bible in 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

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  1. The city is registered as UNESCO WORLD HERRITAGE SITE.

  2. In the afternoon we will have free time to wonder around in the old markets of the city

  3. This will be photographers heaven

  Lunch will be an experience by it self we will try the unique Mardin Local food

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

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.

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

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