Monday, January 23, 2006

inadaily.com | A sleepy port town on the banks of the Black Sea

"A sleepy port town on the banks of the Black Sea
The ancient town of Sinop in northern Turkey, with its mysterious cultural references and excellent fish, offers a fine example of historic parallels

The Daily Star Middle East | Paul de Zardain

Beirut

SINOP, Turkey: When it is low on batteries, the human brain is a bag of tricks. One of these is the sleep-induced hallucination, which can be visual or connected to an audio input. Some might argue it can be olfactory. On a trip through northern Turkey last week, I was the object of peculiar visual effects.

Tired from a succession of bus connections that began in Istanbul's station of Esenler, I had left the freezing town of Boyabat at 7a.m. My final destination was Sinop, a town on the Black Sea coast (pop. 70,000). Technically it was only 94km away, but fog and ice conditions along the way made for a gruelling ride. The Dranaz pass, which separates the Northern Anatolian plateau from the coast, lies at an altitude of 1,336 meters. In the dead of winter, everything above the village of BŸrnŸk was snowbound."

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