I've been to my daddy's hometown last month - never seen a place so green before! I had spent several weeks in the same region when I was a kid, but that was almost 20 years ago, so I had no clue about its limitless beauty though I knew the greenest part of Turkey is the east side of Black Sea.
It was surprising for me to see so many foreigners in the city, from all around the world, tourists were there to experience this perfectness. I, being a Turkish, felt quite proud about my roots which came from Rize. My mother is from somewhere else, but my daddy was born in a small village in Rize. We had a very little house over there, one made with wooden, and this was where my dad used to live when he was a little kid. He moved to Germany many years ago to study in the technical university in Munich, and lived there more than 10 years afterwards, but never forgot where he's real home is.
As his daughters, we're happy to carry on the tradition. My sister and I spent 5 days in this village, in a new huge house my dad got built. He planned every detail of the house, and got a huge 4-storey building in that small village. With this luxury and comfort standards, I will most definitely go there a few times in a year (!) Because otherwise, it's not that easy to stay in any village house in Rize as most of them are too old and everything gets a bit wet as a result of high moisture in the city.
The city itself is not a beautiful one, I should say that. But the rest is just so perfect! Do rent a car. Drive around the city. Follow the narrow pathways directing you to unknown villages... It's worth driving. You'll love seeing the dark green trees and high mountains everywhere.
The Bridges and the CastleWhile driving around, you'll see many bridges that were built aaaages ago. These are masterpieces themselves and I loved photographing every one of them one by one. I now have a collection of bridge photographs (literally.) The one you see here is only one of them I saw when we were heading to a castle known as Zilkale.
Zilkale is the most popular castle in that region. It's sad that the castle has no web site that can be offered but it's easy to find as it's quite close to the city. 12 kilometers away from the city centre, when you start driving from the district named Çamlıhemşin to the south. You can ask anyone about the directions (if you can find some one speaking English of course), they will be more than happy to help you. Blacksea people are nice and helpful all the time.
The castle was built during the Trebizond Empire hegemony and was used by the Ottoman Empire afterwards. It's sad to see that most of the castle is gone now, and all you can see is incomplete walls surrounding the region. You might spend about 15 minutes in the castle, and that would be enough. It's quite small. Probably it was much bigger once.
The best part about the castle is, you can take magnificent photographs by the Kaçkar Mountains. Do take photos and share them with your friends! Most of my friends thought I went to Switzerland to see the Alps. Nope. All the photographs were taken right there.
Kaçkar Mountains, with the highest peak at an elevation of 3,937 meters, are alpine in character with steepy rocky peaks and numerous mountain lakes. They are definitely worth seeing and don't leave the castle without taking at least a dozen of photographs.
The Çat Village
When we stopped by a local cafe, one of the waitresses over there offered us to get to the Çat Village. So we all agreed to drive there, though we didn't know it would last more than 1 hour to get there! If you're a lover of beautiful views, you definitely must go and see the Çat Village; the view is utterly wonderful, but if that's not your kind of thing, then don't waste your time on the roads. It gets harder to drive when you get close to the village and as it's almost 3,000 meters high, you start to lose your control over your body. I experienced a serious breathing problem while climbing up the hills and begged my dad to drive back. As urban people who used to live with less oxygen, we're not accustomed to places with so much fresh air!
The village had a shocking effect on us as there were only 5 houses survived till today and the rest have immigrated years ago, God know why. After taking a few pictures on the top of the mountain, we left the village.
What to Eat
The cafe I mentioned above was one of the best local cafes in Rize. My dad told me that he visits them at least once every year to eat 'muhlama' in there. Muhlama is a traditional meal done with a mix of special kind of cheese, butter and flour. The Sini Cafe staff cooks it with garlic chive in it, and this was something new to me - I loved the taste of it!
The atmosphere in the cafe is also worth seeing. I may be saying 'cafe', but it was more than that. I loved the surroundings. Though it was quite cold, we preferred sitting outside to get some fresssshhh air (see my jumper, that belongs to my dad - I was silly enough to think Rize would be as warm as Istanbul is, so did not put any jumpers in my luggage). The cheesy think in the middle is 'muhlama' - my favourite traditional meal of that region. The organic butter and the garlic chive are what makes it look brownish red. Usually it looks orange-yellow without those ingredients in it. Another popular meal for Blacksea people is black cabbage though I don't quite like and eat it. But if you're in for trying new things, you should definitely try it - I mean try any meal with it, because Blacksea has countless dishes made with black cabbage. Anchovy is another thing popular in Blacksea, and local people can prepare different kinds of dishes by it. An example is rice and anchovy cooked together. Not my kind of thing again as I don't like eating fish most of the time, but those who like seafood may try it - I'm sure they'll like it.
Blacksea is a great place to escape from our every day city life. I felt fresh and happier after this vacation I had. And a perfect place to capture wonderful shots. Bon voyage to those who will be visiting it soon!
