Western Black Sea 3
Like all good guides, Volkan left the best until last. Our final two days on the Black Sea saw us tour a castle, visit a fantastic hat museum, enjoy a spectacular boat trip along a Norwegian fjord-like river and wallow in the history of Ataturk's rebellion against the Allied nations that led to the War of Independence, all started in the port city of Samsun. We stayed overnight in Kastamonu, and after breakfast took a stroll around the castle. In the 10th century, the area around Kastamonu was under the rule of the Byzantine commander Manuel Erotikos Komnenos, who built the castle that bears his name: Kastra Komnenon, "Castle of the Komnenoi", a corrupted version of which later became the name of the city in Turkish, Kastamonu. The city and the castle were later captured by Çobanoğlu on behalf of the Greek Seljuks. We expected to get on the road but Volkan had other ideas, taking us to a superb museum, with a captivating collection of hats, dolls, lace and weaponry. The...
