Another relatively uneventful ride today. The weather was overcast but the wind behind us. We pounded out the kilometres, this evening we wanted to be in Trabzon where we had found a Couchsurfer to host us. Trabzon was 130km away which would normally be a sizeable ride but on the straight and flat with a tailwind it went by pretty fast.
We had lunch in a cafe at a town called Akçaabat where we were joined by a curious local kid for a while who was full of questions that we didn’t understand but answered to his satisfaction, as far as I could tell.

 

 
We got into Trabzon just as it was getting dark. Trabzon is a sizeable city on the coast with a big university that gives the place a youthful energy. Right off the coast the land rises quickly so the whole city is built on a pretty severe slope. We found a spot with wifi so we could contact our host,and after waiting a while he got back to us and we rode off to his place.
We were staying with Ömer, an enthusiastic guy from the city of Adana (same city that Ozgur, our host in Istanbul was from). He was probably one of the most talkative guys I’ve met. He always had story to tell. We arrived late that night. Next day we went to look around Trabzon during the day with Ömer. There was an election coming up in Turkey in a couple of weeks and Trabzon was decked out with posters, flags and all sorts of campaigners. We wandered for a bit, went down to the coast for tea and then in the evening joined Ömer for the English lesson he was giving a local kid so he could hear some native English. 

 

  
 According to Ömer the apartment he was renting was built for some Arabs as a holiday time share kind of thing. It worked out then that he had a whole spare bedroom with two beds, which was great as we were both feeling a bit run down but two nights in a nice bed sorted that all out.