Day 158
Day total: 16 hrs, 7 .0 kms

Next day I continue on west, slowly and reluctantly working my way back towards Istanbul. There's so much more exploring I'd like to do around here. Unlike in previous years, when I felt weary and quite ready to give up traveling for a while, at the end of this "big trip" I feel I've still got a lot more wandering in me.

It's threatening to rain when I reach Giresun, and I just make it a few hundred meters up the crooked streets and it starts to pour. A friendly shopkeeper invites me inside, and we chat the best we can.

Finally the rain stops. Giresun is half surrounded by steep mountains covered with lush vegetation, with road climbing up them that beckon to me. But the castle built on a steep hill right in the middle of the city calls to me first. It takes a couple of failed attempts to get up there--ending up following a dead end alley that leads to someone's patio. But finally I reach the top and am rewarding with a stunning 360 view of black stormclouds unleashing their fury on what look like jungle coverned mountains... It's a surreal feeling-- Look to the mountains and you feel like your in the jungle mountains of Venezuela... look down and you see a typical Turkish city... look north and you see the endless Black Sea...

I soak in the experience for a bit--along with a couple of other locals and Middle Eastern tourists, then decide I'd better head down the hill before the storm catches up us...