Samsun - Sinop - Kastamonu - Iğdir - Safranbolu

This weekend, I was looking for something funny...and I found !!!

The aim was to visit Sinop, Kastamonu and Safranbolu. But not anyhow... by hitch-hiking !

So I took a bus on friday night ( there wasn't for Sinop) and I was in Samsun on Saturday morning. The plan was to come back to Istanbul by hitch-hiking...

In Samsun, there was nothing to see and after half -hour I decided to leave.

Direction Sinop (165 km)...

After 30 minutes, the first car stopped and picked me up...and left me at 30 km from Sinop. I did the end with a minibus for free... I was there at 12 am... The first stage was achieved...

Sinop and the Black sea coast...

That picture is not mine but I show you that to make you understand why this city is interesting... This peninsula has, for me, a real touristy potential... Unfortunatelly, at the moment, there is nothing else really interesting to see... and it's not possible to take a panoramic picture due to a military base on the top...

This is on the west side, the Black sea coast...

The west side of Sinop...

After Sinop, there is a bit of land but we cannot see the whole peninsula due to that military base... This is the east side...

The main street...

The east side... The port...

In the middle of the afternoon, I decided to leave to Kastamonu (177 km). After 10 km by scooter, I found someone who took me to Boyabat... When he left me, it was the night and it was on a road out-of-the-way... 100 km remaining to do... Nobody wanted to take me (due to the night maybe...) so I walked 2 hours long on that road and finally someone take me and left me in a house where lives a old man who waited with me to take a bus...

There (80 km from Kastamonu), I failed in my goal and I took this bus to Kastamonu. I was angry but maybe it was the wise decision to not sleep on that road...

In Kastamonu, I found a cheap hotel to stay for the night...

On Sunday, the weather was sunny... After the breakfast, I decided to reach that Castle on the top of the city... I asked to a policeman what was the best way to go there... and he took me away... Hich-hiking works also with the police, that's good to know... :-)

Kastamonu, view from the castle...

The city center...

Then I left to Safranbolu (110 km)...

After 45 minutes by walk, I take a car which left me in Iğdir, a tiny village where only the mosque is new... All the people on the street were surprised to see me... I don't think that a lot of tourist crossed that village by walk but it was nice...

At the end of the village, I found a car within a nice Turkish family was going to Safranbolu...

Here are the children...

And the car...

Here, it's Safranbolu. Beautiful cıty where the houses are classified by UNESCO...

The time was flying and I wanted to be in Istanbul on the evening... It was time to leave...

A truck took me and after some minutes I understood that he was going just near Istanbul... Perfect !!!

Kind of view...

And this is Mustapha Bayram, truck driver for shell with who I did 330km until Kocaeli at 70 km from Istanbul... Then I found a car wich left me at a bus station in Istanbul...

Finally, I had a great weekend with a lot of experiences, meetings and visits...

In two days, I did 800 km by bus, 780 by hitch hiking... I saw 5 cities and I met a lot of people...