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We delayed our usual 8-AM-ish departure long enough to have breakfast (included in the price of our room) at Unye and then continued west on the coast highway. At Bafra we stopped for some refreshment (tea, cold water, and chilled watermelon) and quickly became the day’s news, as word spread from the café where we sat to all passersby and the surrounding shops—“American tourists are here!”
After Bafra the road went bad; the beautiful coast highway ended and we wound through the mountains on uneven pavement, gravel, and rutted construction roads (it looks like they’ll complete the highway all the way to Istanbul, but for now it’s a bit of a mess). The mountain views down to the water are spectacular, and we came down again at Gerze and took a lunch break.
At Ramadan the unbeliever has to be prepared for certain disappointments, and ours have centered on food. Our dinner plans in Unye were derailed when the “best restaurant in town” proved to be one of the only places open, and it was iftar-only—that is, a big buffet for scores of starving diners and no ordering from the menu. We had yet to find the good, fresh-caught fish dinner, but in Sinop our luck was about to change.
We found Zino’s Country Hotel, checked in, and relaxed, each in our own ways. I was sitting on a little terrace outside our room, tapping away at my notes, when Jim returned from the beach and we were joined by a young Turkish couple from Room 304, across the hall. After a pleasant hour of chat, Engin and Filiz graciously invited us to join them at an excellent fish restaurant in town. It was the wonderful Black Sea dinner we had been waiting for; afterward we wandered around the lively port area, where cafes and tea gardens were filled with people of all ages, playing backgammon, cards, and a version of rummy-cube, known as OK in Turkish.
Before saying goodnight, we exchanged e-mail addresses with our new friends. Spending the evening with them was one of the highlights of our trip so far, reminding us that travel is so much more than far-away places—it is our meetings with people that bring the places to life.