The Ups and Downs of May 18th and Beyond

The Ups and Downs of May 18th and Beyond

Up- By around 2:05pm the clouds rolling in over Altıntepe Valley had created an even more mystical atmosphere, providing a roof over the walls of fir trees that descended precipitously to the river.

Down- The bus definitely wasn't coming by that point, and the walk back to the parking lot was a lot less fun with the prospect of procuring transport the 46 km back to Trabzon hanging over my head.

Up- Some Turks mistook me for a local about half-way down and asked me how much farther up to the Monastery; if I had caught on to the question a little sooner I would have told them they were about 1/10 of the way there, but by the time I understood they had realized I was a yabancı.

Down- I mentally calculated how much a taxi was going to cost, then added the roundtrip fare I had already paid- it was more than Jake Barnes spent on one day of liquor in "The Sun Also Rises" (not adjusted for inflation).

Up- A yellow Mercedes mini-bus stopped for traffic next to Mike and I (still on the road down the mountain); the driver's confused glance obviously meant "Hop right in, partner!" He was still confused as he pulled away as he pulled away with Mike, the hiking stick I'd picked up in the woods behind the toilets, and me flopped down in his back benches; I cleared some of the confusion with his friend sitting next to me and he nodded reassuringly- sure enough, in the parking lot the driver kindly began to flag down passing passenger vehicles to ask if they were going to Trabzon. After three straight rejections, I set aside the hiking stick, since it wasn't doing us any favors for getting picked up. After about ten minutes, a gray Toyota with two young-ish men in leather jackets stopped.

Down- The driver lifted his head a little exhasperatedly at the minibus fellow's request.

Up- Leather jacket's kinder instincts overcame him and he cleared room in the back seat for Mike and I to sit down. He didn't even realized I spoke any Turkish until we were almost in Trabzon and trying to figure out where to get dropped off, so the awkward attempts at conversation were mostly avoided- score.

Down- Mike and I challenged the neighborhood kids to a game of pick-up basketball on the way to lunch back in town and they made us admit that Hedo Turkoglu is better than Larry Bird. OK, I made that up, not much went wrong on the way home, it ended up being almost the same amount of time and money I had originally planned on, and Mike sure didn't let his blood pressure climb because of it.

Up- A jovial, pink-cheeked pideci made us some cheese pide, basically flatbread with toppings, and it was quite delicious. Between that meal and the pide we had just before getting on the bus home, I decided that being reincarnated as a Trabzon pideci wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, for sure.

So now you know how I got home and ate lunch; since it's eleven here and I have an observation in class tomorrow, you'll have to wait until this weekend to find out the rest!