istanbul to zonguldak

Istanbul to Zonguldak

Hi all, yesterday we left Istanbul at 7.00am and headed for Zonguldak

on the Black sea arriving just after mid day. We past thru Eregli

which is huge ship building port with coal and steel prouction as

well.

We have hired a car and driver/guide for 6 days and will go from the

Black Sea down thru Capadocia to the Mediterainan and back to

Istanbul. He is proving very good value, we took a bit of a gamble

having engaged him from using him as a taxi driver one night in

Istanbul.

Whilst wandering around Zonguldak a english speaking teacher

approached and offered to take us to visit his private school with 350

children. Of course there was no holding Pauline back so we ended up

by being mobbed by hundreds of screeming kids (just like home). We

then headed for Bartin and onto Amasa where we stayed the night. On

the way we saw farmers making hay the old way - cutting by hand,

loading it dried and unbaled onto trailers and thhen hand stacking. We

stopped to take photos and were asked home for a drink of sour yogurt

which we accepted of course, although I somehow managed a sore tummy

on the way - no way was I going to drink that! But Pauline bravely

managed some - and survived. What friendly people, within no time the

almost whole village (300) joined in.

Next thing the cows started wandering up the street, being returned

from grazing in the nearby hills. (everyones in the same herd) They

all knew which house they belonged to, turning into the dirves without

direction where they would be hand milked and spend the night under

the house.

These people are very poor - no tractors or cars for most, but they

share what they have. The women and old men do all the work, the young

men just seemed to wander about watching. The Black Sea seems to be

very foggy most of the time, but the countryside is very green and

quite steep and hilly. Its hard to imagine it snows here in the