Sinop

Sinop was another suggestion we got when chatting with the guys at ATTA Moto in Istanbul. So far, their recommendations have proven very helpful. Here we lucked out again and rode right to the center of the old town. Motorcycles are in that regard infinitely handier than cars. Parked right on the waterfront, we were lured into a deserted restaurant by an owner desperate for a few paying customers. After consuming freshly caught fish, we started to look for a place to stay. We quickly ended up at what probably was the hotel with the best view. The two shots below were taken from our balcony. You couldn't be closer to the water with unobstructed views. Sinop is located right in the middle of Turkey's Black Sea coast.

Our activities here were a bit more stressful, in that we spent most of our time sipping tea in the shade. It's a tough life. The three pictures below were taken while sipping said tea.

A few restaurants have floats protruding into the harbor, nicely set with tables and chairs. Eating here was an obvious choice.

The water is exceptionally clear and a large part of the shore was converted into a walkway.

So far, we have encountered nothing but exceptionally friendly people in Turkey. When you buy something, they will try to charge you a "tourist" price, but a short pause and knowing smile will quickly lower the price to the regularly charged one. 4 loaves of freshly backed delicious bread set you back 1 YTL, or about 50 Euro cents. Tea is 0.3 YTL or less.

In Sinop, I needed to fix an over-tightened screw on one of my carburetors*, resulting from the one and last time I let someone else work on my motorcycle, and proceeded to the local scooter repair shop. Motorcycles over 250 cc are a rarity and showing up with my beast at the shop caused the necessary interest. Sadly, they were unable to help me, as their screwdrivers were all either rounded out or too small. As I was about to reassemble things, I was led to a real machine shop. There we took a closer look at things and before I knew it, the obviously skilled machinist produced a thin hollow rod of aluminum. Out came a welder (yikes!) and in no time the rod was welded to the pesky screw. A few twists with an impressive clamping tool loosened the screw and I proceeded to lower the needle. I was presented with a slightly shorter screw with a new slot filed in it to complete the repair. Somewhere during all this, one of the onlookers present pointed out a crack in my side stand, most likely from dropping the bike in the Netherlands, and promptly the thing was removed, welded and repainted. To top it all off, all compensation was refused and I returned much happier to the hotel to sip more tea and contemplate the good of man.

* For those familiar with the topic, I needed to remove the needle screw in the carb piston to lower the needle from the 4th to the 3rd location.