Day 159
8 hrs, 7 .2 kms

My ultimate goal is to visit every province in Turkey. Turkey is very welcoming for my style of travel, so why not experience it fully? With this in mind, I figure I might as well start hitting a couple of the off the beaten path provinces.

Cinkiri is one of them. It's just a little ways out of my way, a bit further inland from the Black Sea, but there are no buses that go there from Giresun, so I have to go all the way to Ankara, and then backtrack again to Cinkiri. That's fine... if I reall want to visit every province, I might as well get used to making a little extra effort.

So I take an overnight bus to Ankara, then hop on an early morning bus to Cinkiri.

Yep, it does have an out of the way feel. back in the arid mountainous area away from the Black Sea, with no major road coming through, it's a very different feel from what I've experienced along the Black Sea .

It's not long and I walk from the empty bus station into town, where I stop for my menemen omellette. The owner of the restaurant is eager to chat--one of the first restaurant owners I've met that speaks English. He has relatives in America and his dream is to open a restaurant in the USA--he even tries to coax me to go 50/50 with him on a project!

I continue on, across town to check out a castle/park area perched high above the city. It's a pretty long hike all the way around it to follow the road to the top, but I figure it'll be worth it. Looks like a new project to spruce it up and create a pleasant relaxing area for the locals (doubt any tourists make it to Cinkiri!)

But from the top I'm struck by a very different image: rather than the dull, lifeless apartment blocks I'm used to seeing in Turkish cityscapes, I see a sea of red tiled roofs. Could it be? Does Cinkiri have a preserved "old city"?

Sure enough . I head back down... and I walk block after block through a large neighborhood preserved in the traditional style. There's a mix of beautifully restored half timber buildings with freshly painted wooden frames, and shabby older buildings... All I care is that there's still a traditional feel here. Still a feeling of timelessness in this neighborhood--this is how Turkey used to look a 100, 200 years ago... a look that has all but disappeared from most of the country.

Yep, Cinkiri was definitely worth a detour to come check out. Maybe these out of the way places are the best places for discovering traditional Turkey... as the more cosmopolitan Turkey has been swallowed up by fast pace--and often sloppy modernization.