August 1 the Black Sea

“The men who go down to the sea in their ships,
Who sail on the water and pursue their trade,
The sound of the sea echoes back from their lips;
Their eyes see the wonders of what God has made.…...” James A Tweedie 

Well we went down to the sea today - not in ships but in a bus. The Black Sea! What does that conjure up in your mind? Barring more recent ‘times’, I have had only vague notions of the Black Sea - high school history, soldiers, war, Sebastopol, Crimea, Florence Nightingale, Russia, and romantic notions of exotic remoteness. I have wanted to visit this vast inland sea for a long time and today I sat on its shores on the sand with my feet almost in the water watching happy families playing. It was an absolute delight. 

Wonderful cool beach ‘boxes'

Families at the beach like anywhere else in the world.

This teenager walked around for ages in her 'modesty suit'
presumably recording on her phone 

Hookah pipes available

Here at the beach and many other places you could order a hookah pipe.  The flavours are various, lots of fruit flavours. I tried one last time we were in Istanbul - it was too long since I had smoked so it was a bit rough.

The whole day was an interesting experience. We were on a tour catering mainly to people from Arab states, the predominant tourist population here in Turkey at the moment.  Barring a couple of people, we were the only English-speakers on the bus. I got into conversation with a delightful man holidaying from Jordan who is an intensive care nurse. I also got chatting with a lovely young Egyptian man who was heading to UK to study robotics engineering and AI - we were both tracking the bus in our phones and puzzling about the route the bus was taking (two nerds separated by many decades). I reckon I probably look like their grandmother and am a safe bet.  We drove through forested country and visited rivers and a tranquil hidden lake. It was a bit touristy for our taste but a marvellous opportunity to see parts of Turkey we would not normally have seen. Plus the Black Sea!!  It was along day.  Tomorrow we head for Gallipoli. This is an interesting land and we are slowly learning how to be here, to get an appreciation of its people.

Huge Coms tower recently completed with a restaurant on top

A new mosque being built in a city with over 3000 mosques!

They made a stop at a family fun park on the way; I wandered off and found this

I wonder if it works? 

Lots of road building including tunnels

A delightful cruise up the Goksu river

On the way back to Istanbul we made a stop at a tranquil lake - another popular tourist spot. 

Then it was back into the traffic.