21 August, Bayburt
Bayburt Hotel 80TL

Yesterday’s pass so exhausted us that when the alarm went off at 05:00 this morning we both rolled over and went back to sleep awaking three hours later, which decided us on an extra day in Bayburt. Charl cycled to the castle on the hill overlooking town while I chilled in our comfortable hotel room. We have not seen many pretty towns in Turkey. Most are a little dilapidated, many are downright ugly. Obviously, the wealthier a place, the more likely it is to be attractive. Parts of Antalya, for example, are quite lovely. Bayburt came as a pleasant surprise, therefore. It has a wide, shallow river flowing through it to a hill with a castle on it. Along the river are strung çay evis and restaurants, and some new apartment blocks, and one or two modern edifices. Outside every town and many villages are new or relatively new residential apartment blocks, testament to a growing middle class in a growing economy and probably to urbanisation. We were totally amazed at the number of new apartments being built on the outskirts of Bayburt. We must have seen at least 50 new blocks already built or being built, housing for thousands outside a town whose population numbers only 37,000.