West Black Sea Tour (Day 1)

We set off at 6pm last Saturday for our 2D/1N west black sea tour with Hey Travel Trends. We were the only Asians in the tour group and everyone wondered where we’re from and what we’re doing here. Well, holiday of course. Soon, I began to understand why they seem puzzled with our presence in the group. All the tourists in the coach are local Turks and the entire trip was conducted in Turkish! The tour guide speaks only Turkish and his co-guide Yusuf could only manage little English. So off we went again for another day of adventure.

We spent most of our time on the bus, slept so much that we were all having aching necks and shoulders. We couldn’t understand a single thing that the guide explained and there was no translation by Yusuf. Nonetheless, I made some interesting discovery about the people. I concluded that the Turks not only have a good appetite (they were eating almost non-stop in the coach) but they also have a strong bladder. The coach departed at 7am and the whole bunch of them did not answer nature’s call till 2plus in the afternoon. How did they do it? I don’t know but I know the 4 Asians rushed to the toilet when the coach stopped briefly at a petrol kiosk at around noon.

I think the Turks have a good sense of humor too. Knowing that we do not understand Turkish, the guide still passed us an itinerary which was in Turkish. Subsequently, the helpful Yusuf came over and passed me an itinerary in Korean. We told him we don’t understand Korean, we’re neither Korean nor Japanese but we’re from Singapore. Guess what? He went ‘ah…Singapore, do you speak Japanese?’ I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

After a long and tiring ‘bus-ride tour’, we ended the day at Baglar Saray Otel where we stayed for the night. We played guessing game thoughout the day, even up to the point when we reached this hotel. No one told us what’s going on whenever the coach stopped at a location. We had to keep asking Yusuf, who spoke so softly in English but full of zest in Turkish. We had buffet dinner at 9pm and retired early for the night only to be awakened abruptly at 4.45am by the loud prayer broadcasted from the mosque *faint*. I was so amazed when Karen told me that my mom slept throughout the deafening noise. She must be really tired but I’m glad she wasn’t woke up by it.

Oh yah, I almost forgot to mention that we spent the day/night at Saffranbolu. We visited some old cities, museums, went to some hilltop and heard a lot of explanation which doesn’t make any sense to us. But we self-entertain by taking pictures and cracking some silly jokes now and then. And here’s what we had for lunch today at Cevrikkopru (restaurant name). It costs us 13YTL each (approx S$16).There was bread and butter rice with mutton too. Karen and my mom tried the Turkish yoghurt drink Ayran but I chose to give it a miss :P

Some other photos that I took today…