Amasra-Safranbolu

Fri 22/12/23

We started our day today 8.30am with the Turkish breakfast set, which is inclusive with the room rate. We checked out after breakfast and drove downhill to the town centre and parked at the same spot as yesterday. The parking charge is the same i.e. 40 TRY for 3 to 6 hours. 

Turkish breakfast set

From the parking lot, we walked to Kemere bridge,  a Byzantine-era bridge built in the 9th century CE, which links to a small island with accommodation and café by the cliff. However the café was closed when we went there. We climbed further up to near the lighthouse and was rewarded with a panoramic view of Buyuk Ada island. 

parking charges at Amasra

Kemere bridge

Buyuk Ada island

on the Kemere bridge

Amasra town by the Black Sea

Amasra town centre

We then went back down to walk by the seaside and around the small town . There is a market nearby selling fruits, vegetables and spices. It is a small town so we finished walking within 1.5 hours

Amasra market

We then proceeded to our next destination - Safranbolu which is about 92 km away and took us about 2 hours of leisurely driving as we enjoyed the scenic views of the pine forest along the way. We stopped by at Petrol Ofisi to fuel up which cost 1168 TRY (Kursunsez 95 costs 35.46 TRY per litre or RM5.5 per litre).

pine forest view from Amasra to Safranbolu

mountain view from Amasra to Safranbolu - no snow yet

mountain view from Amasra to Safranbolu - no snow yet

Petrol Ofisi

We arrived at our hotel Arifbey Konak which is an Ottoman style mansion built in 1880s and restored in 1990, at around 3pm.  Safranbolu is lined up with the traditional Ottoman style houses which makes up for a gorgeous view from up the Hidirlik hill terrace which we would be going tomorrow. We booked our room through booking.com and it costs RM 275 with breakfast for 2 nights (EUR 27 per night) which we had to pay by cash.

Arifbey Konak Otel

our room at Arifbey Konak otel

room is upstairs

antiquities at Arifbey Konak otel

After refreshing ourselves, we walked to the old town centre which is just 400m away, about 5 mins walking. It is indeed a charming little town with the old bazaar selling Turkish sweets such as baklava, saffron- which is what Saffranbolu is known for as it was a trading place and a center for growing saffron, soap made of saffron and the usual fridge magnets. According to Wikipedia, there are 1008 registered historical artifacts which consists of  a private museum, mosques, tombs, historical fountains, Turkish baths (or hammam), caravanserais (a rest stop for traders along the Silk road), a historical clock tower, a sundial and hundreds of houses and mansions. We would be exploring more of Safranbolu tomorrow. 

Safranbolu illuminated at night

Safranbolu at night

Safranbolu bazaar

Today we had dinner at Safranbolu sofrasi where we ordered peruhi (ravioli filled with specially cooked yogurt) and rum mantisi (dumpling with meat) for TRY 370. It was delicious! After finishing dinner, it was already sunset at 6pm and the shops were starting to close for the day. So we made our way back to our hotel and rest for the day.

peruhi

rum mantisi