Ch 34, Day 3: Preserving History

 18.5
kms, Aug 23, 2012



Ordu
has a lively, big city--almost touristy feel to it, with a cable ride
starting at the coast heading up to the mountains and a big, brand
new park right along the shore.









But
what the Traveler finds as he heads up to explore the neighborhoods
on the steep slopes is what puts a smile on his face. He sees
houses... old, traditional Ottoman era houses, being painstakingly
restored, one by one. This is heartwarming because it's very rare to
see this in Turkey. Typically what he's seen all across the country
is the beautiful traditional architecture either being left to slowly
decay, or completely destroyed and replaced by the most boring,
unimaginative houses and apartment buildings you can imagine. Time
and time again he's arrived in an important historic city, only to be
disappointed by hardly finding a trace of the rich historical past.



I
can understand Turkey wants to be quick an efficient to build a
strong economy--razing buildings to the ground and building high
rises is much cheaper and space-efficient than restoring these old
structures. But at least a little effort to preserve the past? Well,
here he finally sees it... Beautiful half timber hillside homes,
having the old wood painstakingly removed and replaced...



Turkey
feels almost too easy. In fact, I think it might be the easiest
country in the world for my type of travel. Transportation? clean,
cheap, regular... self-explanatory... Food? delicious, clean, cheap,
easy to figure out... Cheap hotels? in every city. Safety? Hardly
ever feel the slightest bit threatened or harassed....



Sure
there's that little language barrier--but the fact is, you can take
care of all the basic stuff without even knowing a word of Turkish.



Fatsa
is a that typical Turkish town experience that he's gotten so used
to. Nothing neither remarkable or unpleasant about the town itself.
It does have a nice, large park along the shore that kind of seems
like it was designed by the same guy who designed the Urdu and other
shoreline parks... same setup: artificial waterfall... lights that
change color... little ponds and bridges... Fatsa does have a nice
little fishing harbor and a dock reaching out to the sea.



It's
late when he reaches Unye, but it's not a problem as he
quickly finds a reasonably priced hotel--even though this is a
touristy area and this is the middle of the summer. Unye is a small,
cozy town nestled next to the mountains where the highway is forced
to narrow to squeeze through it.



Next
morning he takes the streets that climb up the steep mountainside.
Wherever there's not a house there's lush, almost jungle-like
vegetation. This is a different image of Turkey (and of all of the
Middle East) than what you typically picture. He stops at a friendly
family run eatery for his menemen omelet fix, then follow the highway
back to the city center, pausing for strum along the shore, with a
beautiful shoreline home in the background.



And
so ends his first soothing, stress free chapter wandering across
Turkey... Tomorrow will begin another one.





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