On Friday, we woke to a sunny day and could see the monastery on the rocky promontory from our cabin. We went to the park restaurant and had our Turkish breakfast which as usual was included with the room. In addition to the normal stuff, I was able to get an omellette and Bob ordered menemen. To make menemen, I think you sauté peppers, onions, and tomatoes and then scramble some eggs in. I liked dipping my bread in Bob’s menemen.

After breakfast it was time to tackle the Sumela Monastery. The monastery was first a rock church built under an overhang high up on the face of a cliff in the 4th century. Over the years it was added on to and became of complex of several buildings and a large aqueduct system. It was a Greek church and it had many rich patrons that visited. Bob and I decided to walk up. It was a very steep climb through he forest and we ended up going through patches of snow here and there. We got a couple of great views of the monastery on our hike. We made it in 35 minutes, which is good because Lonely Planet said it was a 45 minute hike. We were only able to visit part of the monastery because much of it is under renovation. I already knew that, so wasn’t disappointed. The best part was the original rock church, painted inside and out with colorful frescoes. Most of them seemed to portray stories from the bible. We weren’t allowed to use flash photography, but I got a lot of great photos by setting my camera on the floor and using the timer. I got a great Hail Mary shot of Mary! Bob and I managed to have the whole church to ourselves after a tour group breeed in and out. I love traveling in the off season. The rest of the molnastery was interesting, but the views were some of the best parts.

After visiting the monaster, we continued up a path for quite a ways. The snow got thicker and thicker around us, so we finally turned around because I was afraid it would be tough going down the snow-covered patches. I did take the time to toss a few snowballs at Bob, and I made a little karadam or snowman. When we descended back down to the monastery, we decided to hike the 3 km road instead of the trail to enjoy some different scenery.. This gave us some different views of the valley and monastery, with the added bonus of following a mountain stream with severak waterfalls. I don’t think we would have seen most of them from a car.

We got back to our bungalow and had a scotch before going to the restaurant for dinner. Bob had fried trout—as usual, the live fish were kept in a tank right there at the restaurant. I had Sac Kavurma which is sautéed lamb, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and garlic. Both meals were great.