Wednesday, 21 October 2026

 

Start: Trabzon (TR) 8:00

Arrival: Bolu (TR) 18:30

 

Total: 820 km

 

 

 

The Black Sea Coast between Trabzon and Samsun is a string of large hotels, one after the other. As charming as the mountains and shore were, I couldn't for the life of me imagine what all these tourists were doing all day long. There was no sandy beach, just a rocky shore with waves crashing against it. The promenade was right next to the loud and dusty thoroughfare. Maybe they went hiking in the mountains? "They're relaxing", Sonia said. But how? What were these hundreds and thousands of tourists actually doing? "Nothing", Sonia explained patiently, "they just rest." All day long, nothing at all? That sounded stressful. But I had to admit that the view over the sea was pretty cool.

 

 

We made good speed, though there was rather a lot of traffic. Just outside of Trabzon, a grey Dacia Sandero overtook us and then immediately veered into our lane and braked. Way to go, mate. I braked and kept a safe distance. Now the Dacia was slowing down even more. Shaking my head, I overtook this erratic driver and soon lost view of him in the rearview mirror.

 

To my utter delight the winding local roads that I remembered from my journey four years ago had been supplemented by a brand new highway. For long stretches, one could go 110 km/h. Around urban settlements, the speed limit however was slightly lower. "82 km/h?", Sonia asked incredulously, "what's the story behind this?" It did seem a capricious number. Maybe it was a precise conversion from an ancient Turkish mile to kilometres? While we were duscussing this oddity, a car sped past and then veered into my lane. The grey Dacia! "I passed this car half an hour ago," I said, nonplussed. "Maybe another grey Dacia?" Sonia ventured. Nope, this one. Well, not that odd, seeing as it was the main road to both Ankara and Istanbul. "You're going too fast", Sonia rebuked me. Right. 82, I know.

 

 

 

 

Trying to stick to the ideosyncratic speed limit, we enjoyed the view outside. Sonia and I both preferred the dark forested inland scenery to the cluttered-up coastline. Fields, slender cypresses, here and there some houses nestled in the softly rolling hills - an Anatolian Arcadia. Somewhere along the way, we stopped for gas. Shortly after getting back on the highway, Sonia wordlessly pointed ahead. A gray Dacia Sandero was passing us. "It's him again." I nodded. Now that we were attuned to it, we saw this very same Dacia three more times within a couple of hours. What a curious coincidence really. Just one of these things, like meeting three random people at various places who later turn out to be brothers. In a movie, one would say "how unlikely". But then, so are Boltzmann brains and it seems the universe is full of them.

 

 

The afternoon sun was shining brightly and as we were driving due west, it was shining right into my eyes. I felt a headache coming on. "I'm having an aura", I announced. If you can't see the road in front of you clearly, it's best to pass on the torch. At a rest site, we switched places and Sonia manned the wheel.

 

Behind the next bend, all the cars had to slow down. Police control. Most were waved through, but an officer motioned for Sonia to move to the side. "Maybe they had a speed camera a few kilometres earlier", I said uneasily. I might not always have stuck religiously to the speed limit. And now my ever careful and conscientious sis had to deal with the fallout. The officer looked at our licence plate, then at his screen, waited for who-knows-what and finally waved us on. Yay, no fine, no bribe, not even a car check. Good thing too, what with the mess we had on the backseat.

 

 

Sonia drove on, and five minutes later, my eyesight was fine again. No headache, no more zigzag lines on the edge of my vision. I was ready to get back into the driver's seat. The aura had lasted just long enough to prevent me from speeding into a traffic control. What a serendipitous mishap! Btw, this candid pic of me was taken during a later pitstop. I needed to stretch my legs and performed some impromptu yoga moves at a rest area. Sonia thought it fun to immortalize my butt while I did a toe touch, but I was already back up in a standing position before she captured a shot.

 

 

As so often, we raced the sun. Well, this time we lost by a quarter of an hour. It was already dark when we rolled onto the parking lot of a hotel on the outskirts of Bolu. Sonia hopped out to ask whether they had any rooms left while I closed my eyes for a moment. When I opened them again, we had a room for the night. Yay, no more driving for today! "They have an underground garage", Sonia added, "I think it's somewhere over there..." Well, ALMOST no more driving anyway!