Black Sea Day 8: Ordu -> Samsun

Let’s Talk Breakfast

Before getting into the rhythm of cycle touring life, I didn’t really eat breakfast. I had a few cups of coffee followed by yogurt or kefir a couple of hours later. This changed 100% after a few weeks of cycle touring. When you’re cycling with another person, it’s important to synchronize meal times, sleep times, rest times, etc. to a pretty large extent. For this reason, it was important for me to start eating breakfast with Selim. Like many cyclists on the road, he recommends a big bowl of oats and dairy. He adorns his with dried fruit, nuts, nut butter, and cookies (biscuits). I do my own take which is a kid’s carton of milk with cereal or granola, some nut butter, and maybe some dried fruit on the side. It works out well because in the morning, we only need to heat water for coffee. The milk is shelf-stable until opened so that’s also perfect as we have no refrigeration. For someone who isn’t a big breakfast-eater, it was a bit hard to eat a filling breakfast in the beginning. But over time, I realized it was better for managing my energy and hunger levels throughout the day.

It’s Not Easy Selling Simit

If you’ve been to Turkey or googled “Turkish food,” you’ve probably come across a photo of simit. Many describe it as a Turkish bagel though please ignore this as this expectation will just leave you disappointed (speaking from an East Coast girl). The word comes from the Arabic word samīd سميد. It is a circular bread product covered in sesame seeds and sold on the street as well as in bakeries. It is very popular as a breakfast food or just a snack here as it is cheap and filling. One simit costs 4 TL though there is the rare 3 TL simit or bougie 5 TL variety, as well. In USD, your average one is 22 cents. Just like anything, the quality varies widely and it’s definitely best consumed as fresh as possible. You won’t have trouble finding one as the simit salesman (I’ve never seen a woman), yells “simit” or “taze simit” just like the Fudgie-Wudgie Man at the Jersey shore. For those who don’t understand that reference, please check out this article from a local paper in Philadelphia.

Selim and I have eaten simit more times than we can count. We have bought it directly from simit sellers, from gas stations, grocery stores, bakeries, you name it. We have had delicious simit and awful, stale simit. My recommendation is to eye the simit before purchasing it. If you feel like you can get away with touching it, that helps too to determine if it’s fresh. The best one I got was at a bakery in the North. I bought one, ate it, then went back and bought another for later. If you are cycling, it’s not the worst thing in the world to buy a bad one as there will soon be another snack or meal. If you’re not cycling, it’s a little sadder to eat a bad one as your next snack or meal is further away.

Our relationship with simit climaxed when we started selling it. You might be asking yourself how two tourists started selling simit. Is it legal? Did they partnership with a bakery? Do they even speak Turkish? I’ll paint you the picture. So Selim was cycling ahead of me and saw a nice bench in the shade and decided to stop and wait for me. As he was waiting, he noticed an elderly man selling simit to passing by trucks and cars on the highway. He was doing a lot of running with the result of zero successful sales. As I approached cycling, I saw the same thing. I decided to go buy 2 simit from the man. He was very intent on selling me 4 and I was very intent on only purchasing two. I took the two and met Selim. He attempted to eat his but it wasn’t so great. All the while, we were watching and the man hadn’t sold one simit. I decided, how hard can it be? Fast forward an hour later… I, as well, didn’t sell one simit. Though I did get tips that obviously I gave to Abhi. Selim was more successful particularly with folks with a “D” (Deutschland) license plate. Abhi figured out that Selim could speak German and sent him to convince the German-speaking Turks to buy. This worked. We were on a section of road with a traffic light, an incredibly fast light. We could only sell when the light was red so we had just a few seconds to convince folks to buy, to get the money, give change, etc. Sometimes we lost sales because the light changed too quickly or we didn’t have the appropriate change. Overall, it was a humbling experience. I think we helped Abhi earn a little bit more money that day and definitely entertained a good number of Turkish drivers. We even got videotaped by a reporter with a press badge as he drove by. This was a super fun experience that we never could have planned or expected would happen before it did. Thanks Abhi for teaching us a few things about simit selling 🙂

Vendors often balance large piles of simit on their head and walk through the streets yelling to advertise their product

Selim enjoying simit at a gas station, Turkiye Petrol. This was a great one as there is free çay and seating available for folks

Simit and iced coffee for breakfast from Migros before we bought our camping stove

This is the simit I bought from Abhi selling on the highway

Tunisia + Turkey = Arkadaş (Friend)

After we sold simit, we pedaled a bit further until it go to be the hottest part of the day. Time for a break in a guyscafé. When we go to guyscafés, guys usually ask us where we are from. Selim responds “Tunus” which gets smiles, nods, and arkadaş assurances. This means friend in Turkish. If I can’t just avoid responding, I say “America” to which I have never heard arkadaş. Sometimes, someone might ask me if it’s güzel (beautiful) to be nice but usually they just change the subject of the conversation back to Tunisia. We have many conversations about similarities between Turkey and Tunisia with Turkish folks so here is a partial list.

Café culture. Men in Tunisia and Turkey spend hours in the cafés chatting, playing games, sleeping, or just people watching. It’s not so much a space for women especially the guyscafés.
Islam.
Shared history including but not limited to the Ottoman Empire. I’ll talk more about Tunuslar (an actual village in Turkey) and how it was founded by Tunisians in a later post. We learned about this place from another Tunisian cyclist, Ben Yagoub Samir.
Flag. The Tunisian and Turkish flag are almost identical. The Turkish flag is all red with a white crescent moon and star. The Tunisian flag is all red with a white circle and within that, a red crescent moon and star.
Language. There are many shared words and phrases. Maybe I can get more into this in a later post but I’ll need Selim’s help.

Selim enjoying tea and cake at a guyscafé. Does this look familiar? When I was in Tunis, I often found him drinking a small “express” and slowly nibbling away at a small chocolate cake just like this one.

Mosque and Turkish flag near Antalya, Turkey

Turkish flag in the Black Sea region hanging above a roadway

Bread, bread, and more bread

While Selim was resting at a guyscafé, I decided to stretch my legs and stumbled upon the largest loaves of bread I’ve ever seen. I immediately brought Selim over to take a look. We learned that it’s sold by weight. The baker weighed it for us to explain and it was 9.9 kilos or 22 pounds! Selim tried to ask if the bread was for “marriage” and the baker explained that no, it’s for eating. Sorry Selim, one day you will find bread that loves you as much as you love it. <3

The huge loaf of bread weighs 9.9 kg or 22 pounds.

He said he made bread himself though he looks very young.

Later that night, we bought bread from a different bakery. Here is the work surface and the oven.

Can we sleep here?

After a day full of carbohydrates, we found a piece of empty land next to a mosque. Selim approached the closest neighbors to ask if we could sleep there. They refused to engage with him saying they don’t speak English, though he was asking in Turkish. We decided that we would stay until someone asked us to leave. We ended up cooking dinner, sleeping, and heading out in the morning. Problem yok.