kebab me to death

We arrived in Sinop and based on the recommendation of the owner of the seaside camping went to a seafood restaurant on the water. This is some cold dish of mixed vegetables and tons of garlic. It was very good.

This is the black sea fish that everyone eats, unfortunately it was not fresh so I had to order another dish...lamb. They gave me two tiny (not worth photographing) pieces of lamb and tons of rice and french fries so I decided to go for some baklava and found it made with chocolate.

Our campsite, being Ramadan there was no one, we had the place to ourselves and just mere meters from the beach.

Luke was trying to describe to me that there was Turkish ice cream (dordurma) but we could never find it but finally here I found a lemon flavor that was similar to my toothpaste. It's like a sorbet.

Next stop BAR. After 2 weeks of hard riding and no alcohol (or often food) in sight we found a bar where they poured a huge whiskey. I had mine and Luke's :)

Along our route we encountered a group of Turkish riders who were a support team for a bicycle tour.

We had 300km along the coast, beautiful twisty roads with hairpin turns and some dirt and gravel where I saw this little critter slowly making his way across so I helped him along.

We stopped in Cide before our destination of Amasra and finally found something other than KEBAB!

It was a stew of potatoes and meat, some young beans in broth, Kofte and excellent Turkish coffee.

Amasra at sunset. 

We found an apt where we all had our own rooms and it was right in town so we walked around a little

Beautiful roads lined with trees and blessedly cool

Next the historic city of Sanfranbolu where Ottoman style homes are everywhere and people still live in them.

Even the sugar is in a tiny replica of the traditional houses.

Notice the rusted satellite dish, some homes are vacant.

Very old Minaret under renovation.

These kids were laughing and giggling and just fun to watch....they started to talk to us and of course it sounded adorable but they were probably saying "hey stupid tourists give us candy..."

The 5 Turkish Lira menu.

The Turkish coffee is presented inside a handcrafted silver canister.

This building was in the center of town and it's where the caravans on the silk route stopped for rest and re-provisioning. I'm at the table below.

Another 500km to Istanbul. Motorway. ARRRRR but again we were lucky and did not get separated and found the hotel that thankfully Volkan booked us. It was perfect!!! Thank you Volkan you have made our trip so much easier by helping translate.

These are for the hookahs which we found everywhere, we are staying in the old city.

It was a bit of an ordeal of moving cars but we got the bikes up on the sidewalk in front of the hotel where they are monitored on camera. My bike is being held up by the wall (I could not get the kickstand down)

Luke leaves today for Sofia. while I will stay on for a couple days and leave at 3am Monday morning. The Italians are here with me. I just had breakfast on a rooftop terrace overlooking the Bosphorous and intend on going back to sleep. The bed was so soft and comfortable it gave me a crook in my neck!

Today spice Bazaar for mom's spices and REAL Turkish delight and tomorrow the palace that I missed last year.