PART 4: Giresun: Birds, Castles, Lost Churches

Eynesil and Gorele are uninteresting except for the Genoese fortress of Coralla from which the town derives its name. The big attraction of this area is found inland, in the hill villages where the whistle language is practiced.
The custom of communicating over distances by whistling seems to be widespread across the hinterland between Tonya and Giresun. An excellent place to observe it is the village of Kuşköy ("Birdtown"), 28 kilometers above Gorele. This village achieved international publicity through the efforts of the local Mobil dealership and articles about its particular dialect of whistletalk appeared in such diverse sources as the New York Times and La Revue de Phonetique Appliquee.
Whistling is practiced widely in the village. Children learn it before school age and people are said to argue or even declare love in whistle. The basic vocabulary and grammar of the whistle language is probably of great antiquity and does not show any obvious connection with Turkish or any other spoken language. New vocabulary, on the other hand, is added by means of a one-on-one phonetic "translation" from Turkish. This suggests that the original language is in the course of being lost. Harşit, now renamed Dogankent, is another place where one can observe the whistlers in action.
The fortress of Bedrama, 15 kilometers inland along the Harşit River and easily climbed, offers a stupendous view of the wild river and the hazelnut forests down to the sea. It is one of the three strongholds built by the Genoese in the 14th century from which Tirebolu, the former Tripolis or "Tripletown", derives its name. The other two are the fortresses of St. John, located in the town of Tirebolu itself, and Andos, a little way past Espiye.
Tirebolu comes as a pleasant sur¬prise to one who has been inured to the consistent drabness of Black Sea coastal towns. This is an old fishing port with a picturesque harbor hugging the gently curving bay, complemented by the fortress on a promontory reaching into the sea. It is just about the only major town along the coast that actually opens up to the sea rather than turning its back to it-the "ideal" Black Sea port that one conjures up in the imagination. The back streets, too, while not up to a par with Akçaabat, offer some choice examples of fine old residences. At the harbor beerhouse one may chat with a fisherman while
the boats unload the day's catch before one's feet. For a sample of the haul, try the Park Restaurant on the other side of the bay, offering a pleasant view of the coastline. The fortress which stays closed during the day but turns magically into a tea garden after dark. It is a fine place to enjoy one's tea at a table looking out on the swirling sea.
A short drive along an excellent beach gets one from Tirebolu to Espiye, where a sign announces a historic church inland in the direction of Yağlıdere. Your writer, assured by at least a dozen interlocutors that it was a sight not to be missed, but getting a dif¬ferent set of instructions in each case, spent a whole day looking for the church. The quest resulted in the discovery of no less than four altogether undocumented ruined churches, but not the one in question. The search was abandoned at a gorgeous waterfall at the hamlet of Çaglayan, where a quick shower as naturel seemed infinitely more satisfying than the most interesting church in the world.

PART 1: Hazelnut Country
PART 2: Stately Houses
PART 3: Texas in Turkey
PART 4: Birds, Castles, Lost Churches
PART 5: Cherrytown
PART 6: Şebinkarahisar
PART 7: Ordu to Unye
PART 8: The Flatlands
PART 9: A Historic Metropolis
PART 10: Paphlagonia
PART 11: The Tail End