Day 10

This was another long traveling day with nothing of interest to report. Mark and I said good bye to Yusufeli about 10 a.m. (and from the way we were sent off, you would have thought we have been living there for at least a year) and caught a dolmus back to Erzurum. The drive was just as beautiful as it had been three days earlier, and even Erzurum seemed a bit more interesting. A gathering of horse-drawn carts just outside of town made it feel like we were going back in time to the wild west. Many people were out, with most of the women in full chodor (the black dresses that go from head to foot) with their entire faces covered. And the market was bustling with activity, fruit and vegetables spilling out of the stalls. But we couldn't stay as we had a plane to catch, so we made our way to the airport for the flight first to Ankara and then to Izmir on the west coast. We arrived in Izmir late and managed to find a good hotel at a decent price without too much hassle and settled in for the night.

Erzurum, Turkey