The Wanderer Series
Hello, my dear Honey Pörçüks,
Here I am with the first leg of our Wanderer Series. Our destination was Giresun, Tirebolu. We visited because my fiancé is from Tirebolu, so we went there for a visit. As working individuals, we only had two days, but we tried to make the most of it. On Friday evening, we took the 18:40 flight to Ordu-Giresun Airport. Fortunately, the plane took off promptly without any delays. We barely made it to the plane by just 10 minutes. The flight took approximately 1.5 hours.
Upon landing, we were greeted by a rainy Ordu. The moment you step out, you can instantly feel the freshness of the air. It’s a real treat for us since we live in Istanbul, where clean air like that is a luxury. We drove to Giresun, which was about a 1-hour ride, and it was absolutely beautiful. The view was incredible, with the sea on our left and forests on our right.
The next morning, our first stop was Giresun Castle. It’s a place filled with history, though I must admit I don’t know much about its background. Turkey has so many castles already. That day, we explored Tirebolu, visited some village houses, and had a barbecue. By the way, the Akçaabat köfte we ate in Istanbul doesn’t even compare to what we had there. It was beyond amazing, and I can say I never wanted to stop eating. Later, since Görele was nearby, we went there and had some ice cream. That ice cream was the real deal, just like eating frozen milk. It was natural, with no artificial flavors. I don’t particularly like the smell of milk, but I couldn’t even sense it in that ice cream. Speaking of Görele, it’s a small place, and I saw some surprising things there. For instance, cherry pickles! Apparently, people from the Eastern Black Sea region prefer easy meals in the summers due to their hazelnut harvesting work, so they make pickles out of everything. I learned this there, and it was quite a revelation.
When you come to Turkey and the Black Sea region, don’t be surprised to find pickles for everything. That’s the reason behind it. Since the day was quite exhausting, we headed back home and relaxed with some tea and conversation. By the way, they consume an incredible amount of tea there, and the best tea factory in the Black Sea region is in Tirebolu. It was the best tea I’ve ever had. Thankfully, now we’ll get Tirebolu 42 tea delivered to us. As you know, my fiancé really loves their tea, and now I love it too.
The next day was spent packing our suitcases. Our flight was at 9:00 PM, but it got delayed by an hour. But I’ll get to that later. This time, we decided to take the plane from Trabzon. Tirebolu is conveniently located an hour away from Trabzon and Ordu. The road to Trabzon was like the fairy-tale carriage paths, with the deep blue sea and lush forests all around. When we arrived in Trabzon, there were so many Arab tourists. Most of the signs were in Arabic. Unfortunately, we couldn’t explore the market thoroughly as we had limited time. We stumbled upon an amazing fish restaurant. My favorite was the sea bass, calamari, and fish with tomato sauce. And I even fell in love with their sütlaç (rice pudding), despite not being a fan of it usually. I highly recommend it. The restaurant was called “Bordo Mavi Balıkçı” (Bordo Mavi Fisherman). The fish was fresh and simply the best I’ve ever had in my life.
Now, you might say I’m exaggerating, but I’m really not. When most of the things we eat are not natural, having something natural feels like the most perfect meal of your life. After that, we sat in a seaside tea garden, but unfortunately, the tea was terrible. Without lingering too much, we headed to the airport. Our flight was delayed, as I mentioned before, and we almost missed our delayed flight due to chatty us.
This was the first stop in my wanderer’s journal. I hope you enjoy reading about it. May Sirius’s energy be with you.
