Kıyıköy

Above: One of two rivers meandering into the Black Sea under my hotel in Kıyıköy.

After a fairly long day of commuting yesterday I finally made it to Kıyıköy. Apparently this was the first day I could make it up here. This is a rugged part of the Black Sea Coast and the roads are tight narrow and twisty with lots of trees and underbrush and steep hills. The road had washed out from the flash-floods and two bridges over the river on the way here were wiped out. Turkish road crews created two detours through the trees but the damage along the river is extensive. Guys on the bus said two people had died - some folks had built their old houses in the flood plain.

The cool thing is that I am pretty much the only real tourist around here for miles. The locals are staring at me like I'm from the moon. And I might as well be. But I found a great hotel on a bluff overlooking one of the two major rivers into this small fishing village of two-thousand people or so. The keeper is this extraordinarily nice dude who immediately brought me an ice cold beer while I sat on the patio.

Travelling alone can obviously be very solitary at times but yesterday evening was one of the occasional times that easily makes it's all worthwhile. I thought I was the only guest but the hotel-keeper is also entertaining his friend from Paris who is a Turkish mid-level functionary for the European Court of Civil Rights. Totally not a politically correct guy and telling me all kinds of silly stories about Iranian whore-houses in eastern Turkey (the Iranian guys apparently don't like to do that sort of thing in their own country so they have these places set up ın Doğubeyazıt - I had been to this town some years before thinking it was only the location of a fabulous old palace - who knew?) etc. Guy knows Romanian English Turkish and French fluently from what I could discover. All of the folks at the table conversed in whatever language was comfortable to them - and of course the rube that I am used only English while trying to pick out the random Turkish or French words I knew. The dude's Romanian girlfriend translated whatever she could for me. He and his 'family' - mother Romanian girlfriend Turkish ex her Turkish boyfriend and the hotel keeper all invited me to eat dinner with them when they saw me sitting alone. Best grilled fish - straight from the Black Sea - I have tasted in some time. We stayed up until two in the morning shooting shit smoking loads of cigarettes and getting drunk on Raki.

Today after having a terrific breakfast of fresh bread date marmalade olives tomatoes some kınd of bizarre bologna and wonderfully pungent goat cheese I started wandering the town looking at the 5th c. crumbling walls around the town and looking for some sort of same-period monastery ruin that's supposed to be around here. Nobody here speaks English outside the hotel and I don't know the Turkish word for 'monastery.' So I am heading to the beach soon to walk along the shore. The hotel keeper said not to swim in the water today as the wind is blowing north - rip-tide.

Later I'm heading to the harbor with the hotel keeper to pick up the fresh fish for dinner tonight and probably more Raki etc. Off to Edirne sometime tomorrow depending on when the only bus in town decides to leave.

Below: Up on the cliffs that run alongside of the main fıshing village. You can walk right to the edge.

Still can't find that darned comma....