Black Sea Day 24-32: Kurucaşile!

Black Sea Day 24-32: Kurucaşile!

Finding Kurucaşile Beach

We had originally planned to leave our forest campsite just outside Kurucaşile and continue to Amasra. Our plans changed when a Turkish couple, camping for the first time, showed up at the site. The man needed to borrow my bike to get some fishing supplies from town and asked Selim to join him. He assured us that he was Erdogan security and that we wouldn’t have any problem sleeping there another night. Turns out, that wasn’t true. The Gendarma showed up again and this time said that “there would be penalties” if we didn’t leave, through Google Translate. Ok, we’ll leave. So once Selim got back from his bike ride into town, it was already perhaps 2 PM so we decided to go to just find another campsite close by. While he was in town, Selim had met a very kind man named Ahmet Abhi and his son, Yunus. The man suggested we camp at the beach in town and that there wouldn’t be any problem with that. So we we stayed the night… And after that, another eight nights. Evidently the Gendarma didn’t operate in the town, just the forests around the town. And the local police were fine with folks camping.

Our Camp Site

We stayed at the same spot on the beach for the entire time and were able to leave everything for hours without any problem. The camp site had everything we needed. There were toilets a one-minute walk away, a shower, a fountain nearby, trashcans, and a covered area for cooking and eating in bad weather. It was pretty ideal. Towards the end, there was even electricity for charging our phones in a nearby covered çay stand that we were allowed to use. It was pretty comfortable. We even had a lovely view of the sea, the fishing boats, and the mountains.

The People

Ahmet Abhi, Yunus, Etc.

  • Baby bear who got drunk on honey and then Ahmet Abhi reenacting it, the most theatrical man. Yunus his son.
  • talked about how pork is haram and other things are haram but really pork is what matters lol

Russian Couple

  • Russian couple gave us honey and horse sausage, halal, pepper, pears
  • talked about Kazakhstan. Evidently they speak Russian in schools there.
  • visa problem for russians

Communist Café

  • Pravda Café = communist café
  • paper for communist party
  • bella ciao song

Town (Fishermen, market, marriages, dogs)

  • Fish = 20 L for one, 100 L for 5
  • Boat house, glass factory, submarine
  • sandal repair with fisherman
  • marriage, lining up to put the money around the necks of the bride and groom, how ladies sit around and watch people dancing. Red sash symbolizes virginity
  • Infrastructure of campsite, chairs, bench, toilet, shower, swimming area, sand for Selim
  • wedding party from an other village
  • Schnitzel and other cats and dogs
  • friday market , amazing fresh cheese and bread

Random Notes

  • Clean beach, someone giving me beer
  • Listen to Bourlinguez
  • rainy day, first thunderstorm in tent, a bit scary

Food

  • restaurant tavuk durum that selim likes
  • nice Turkish man from Germany at the borek café
  • stopping to get pide most mornings
  • Kuru fasulye and pilav
  • cheese pide in lokanta
  • Selim getting sick maybe from cig kofte and what we did to take care of him

YouTube

  • filming youtube videos and making the English-language channel

Haircut

  • getting our haircut

Goodbye

  • café on last day, wife sat at bus station.
  • family waiting with us to say goodbye
  • abhe went inside the bus to check if we were ok
  • kamil koç to Istanbul, were able to bring our bikes for free. took off front wheel