Trabzon, Turkey 1966-'67 by Larry Jaffe

    During my 18 months in Trabzon I got the chance to visit Rize and the ruins of a Catholic Monastery inland from Rize. The actual road from Rize was an unpaved road like most were during that time. In the winter time you could go only so far and the rest was by foot. We would drive inland as far as we could and hike the rest of the way, it was pretty tough in some places. On the other side of the coin however, because we were Americans, people were usually curious to see us walking by, mostly because in the interior we were the only Americans they had seen.

    Trabzon, and all along the coast, wherever we stopped, people were very friendly and nice. I spoke a little Turkish and that, and a little sign language, was enough to get frequent smiles. We would stop in a town, the guys would sometimes eat box lunches prepared at the mess hall, but I usually dined locally. For a few Lira I could eat like a king, great food - most of which I did not know what I was eating, but it really tasted good.

     One day on one of our excursions, a truck driver in one of those big trucks that always seemed to be overloaded with stuff, came too close and we touched outside mirrors. I stopped in the next town to report the accident, as the other truck just kept on going. In so doing, I made great friends with the local Turkish Army garrison in town. One of the guys spoke a bit of English, and we had a great conversation regarding life in the military, Turkish vs USAF. As you can see by the picture we were all smiling.

     While I did not explore Rize as I did Trabzon, walking through the streets was just fun. The colorful shops and local people were a lot better than looking at seeing the same faces all the time back on base. I do remember one residential area we walked through in Rize on the way to and from the Monastery. The large houses, and the stream that ran in front of them, with small wooden walkways to the entrance doors are to this day a big impression. Coming home late at night in the winter could be a problem if you tripped. I'll bet that water was cold! Some other pictures of this area are in my first posting I did a couple of years ago, below.

     In the warmer months we drove up to the area, which as I recall is a national park now. The lush beautiful countryside, clean air and scenery made these trips really memorable after chasing ditties back at the base. I expecially remember the quietness of the countryside too. The tour of duty in Trabzon was probably one of the best I had in my military career. The two major cities, Istanbul and Ankara to me were just big cities when I visited them, but when I traveled in the interior, the true hospitality of the Turkish people came out. Everywhere I went people were so welcoming that even though I only spoke a little Turkish, I only encountered friendliness. I remember going into one town, seeing the local butcher shop, carcasses hung off trees, and wondered about how they lacked refrigeration among other things. We stopped for lunch and my travel buddies ate the box lunches from the club, but I found a restaurant and for a buck I ate like the aforementioned king. Yes, the meat in the stew was fully cooked, and tasty too. I had no problems later either, actually it was quite good. So much for modern conveniences.