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PART 1: Hazelnut Country

The 271 kilometers that stretch between Trabzon and Ünye are a constant progression of seaside harbor towns squeezed on a narrow ledge of land between the mountains and the beach. Brightly colored kayıks and jaunty takas, the unique Black Sea fishing boats with a superstructure that makes them look like they are about to capsize, ply the sea and bring in loads of hamsi, palamut and istavrit. The wealth they generate has radically changed the face of the coastal towns since the quaint panoramas seen in faded turn-of-the century photographs. One gets a sense of what they might have once looked like in the back streets of a few places like Akçaabat, Tirebolu or Giresun.
Deep valleys cut across the mountains, bearing torrential rivers. Each valley hides a world of grandiose panoramas, isolated villages, wild waterfalls and an unknown fortress or a forgotten monastery in some far-away corner of the forest. Where there is no forest the mountains are covered with endless stretches of thick, tangled hazelnut bush. When the nuts are harvested in late July, a trip turns into a continuous feast on the addictive molar-breakers. By August every available flat surface in the land gets covered with enormous heaps of nuts left to dry in the sun. Entire families rollick barefooted in them, shelling, selecting and packing the thousands of tons that go toward supplying the world's chocolate manufacturers.

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