page 4
Contents
We decided to give the Ataturk Villa another try before leaving Trabzond but had no luck—the tourist information office, very hard to find, proved closed until noon once we finally discovered it—so we had a nice breakfast of menemet (delicious scrambled eggs with tomato, onion, peppers, and cheese) on Ataturk Alani (the main square) and headed back to the highway.
I can’t say enough good things about the Black Sea Coast Highway. In addition to being smooth, wide, well-marked, and toll-free, it is a model of intelligent design. Getting into city centers and back out to the road is simple and safe, requiring no fancy lane-changing or breath-taking exits. The guys who built the DC area highway system should come and take some notes.
We arrived in Unye around 1:00 PM, having left Trabzond at 9:45 AM. Directions to the hotel we wanted were sketchy, so we stopped to ask at a little market. Two people debated my question and then the woman stepped into the street, calling “Ahmet!” Ahmet waved from an upstairs window, came down to the street, escorted us to the hotel, and refused the taxi fare Jim offered to get him back home. That’s the Turkish welcome.
After a swim at a little beach campground nearby, we went down into town for dinner, strolled the waterfront park and fishing pier, and had dessert in a pastry shop that was rapidly filling with a post-iftar crowd.