Trabzon

Trabzon, the fortress of "uşak"! (Stop! No offence! By saying “uşak” I mean the male children in Laz language). Trabzon has always been the hardest, and at the same time, the most enjoyable away game. Although there are several planes to Trabzon, I always travel to Trabzon with the team one day before my actual date. This time I found the opportunity to travel with the team because the game was supposed to be played on Sunday. I visited almost every museum and historical places of this city; therefore I just focus on the food. In fact, recently I can say that I just focus on "mezgit". I love this fish so much!

 Anyway, let me speak of the team and not let your mouth water.  Recently our relationship with Trabzon have become a little ‘sour’ because of the latest transfers; and with the arrival of Burak Yılmaz, these relationships have become really tense. Selçuk İnan’s contract had expired and Umut Bulut had gone to Tolouse and then back to us; and they had sent Engin Baytar and Ceyhun Gülselam; and they had written “Who brings €5 Million, gets this player” on the contract of Burak, whom they get angry mostly. You take a risk by signing this contract with the most important player of yours and then you get annoyed when we buy him.

The people of Trabzon have seen us as their main problem instead of getting back the cup which had been taken away from them after it was proven by the court that there had been a “match-fixing”; and had given the signals that they would make special (!) preparations for Burak.

When we landed on the Trabzon airport, such an atmosphere welcomed us before the team fans.   

I can’t say that the same welcome is true for the fans of the team as well. About 100 Trabzon fans had been de-grouped before we landed by the police. Another 10-15 people insulted Burak. Unlike many “chief managers” I am very much in favor of any kind of protests unless there are any bad words. Therefore I did not get angry with those people. They had missed their beloved top goal scorer, this is not easy. 

Hey! the fans of football! Can you now understand Jenifer Aniston who lost his beloved Brad Pitt because Angelina took him away from her? Or let us be more ‘local’, can you now understand Demet Akalın who lost İbrahim Kutluay because Demet Şener took her beloved away? I hope Trabzon fans do not sing “being left” songs to Burak for 10 years like Demet Akalın. I became worried a little when I saw the melancholy and startling expression in Burak’s eyes when he got on the bus. Do not say “He is a professional, he shouldn’t care about it!”, it’s not that easy.

I forgot all my worries when we went out for dinner after arriving at our hotel. As we always did when we came to Trabzon, we went to Galanima. http://www.galanima.com.tr/

Galanima serves us delicious Karadeniz dishes as well as its own menu. This time we had the fried beans;

"mezgit" and "hamsi" with no oil at all although it was fried in a pan;

wonderful Laz patty;

and halva dessert;

and many other black cabbage and fish which we could not take any photographs before we finished without feeling any disturbances in our stomachs. There was a music, which I can say that you cannot find even in İstanbul. Can you believe that this music was performed by only two musicians?

One would want nothing more if he has a beautiful food and music with his lover waiting for him the following day after a good night’s sleep in his warm room. Honestly, I would say ‘food’ again. Because although I had slept late the night before, I still felt hungry at noon and this time I went to the pide house I always visited. "Rüştü'nün Fırını" is a fine place located in Moloz, Pazariçi district which dates back to 1920's. I looked at other blogs and saw that people had taken many photos from inside, outside, upside, front side of this beautiful bakery. I forgot to take pictures as I was so hungry and now I share last year’s photos.

As a person with a sensitive stomach, I ate "pide" with half a kilo of meat and I still can’t say that I had any stomach problems. This statement can help you understand the health of the food if not the quality. After I had my late breakfast at Rüştü’s, I was ready for the famous Kalkanoğlu Pilavcısı (=Rice Restaurant) www.kalkanoglupilavi.com Kalkanoğlu is a rice restaurant that has been active since 1856 at the same place in Trabzon. They sell the rice here in grams in this historical place in scales so as not to be responsible for any rights of human beings. I eat at this place whenever I come to Trabzon, but this time it was closed as it was Sunday. I was sorry to see that, however, I also appreciated this European attitude.  

And now the game…

As I said at the beginning, this game was expected to take place in a tense atmosphere, and so we took all possible precautions. By precautions I do not mean stones and sticks to fight with. We removed the GS logo in front of the minibus, and our GS batches, necklaces, etc. and we put on our camouflage trousers and our protective vests and did not speak loudly not to draw attention. OK man, I just love action movies, right? Trabzon spectators had started to ask Burak how he was when teams started to warm up. Oh man, it was obvious how much they had missed him(!); they did not stop during the game. 

It would be more effective if they had chosen to whistle instead of swearing when the ball hit their feet each time during the game. Interestingly enough they had funny banners as well.

As I said banners, I must tell you that there were other funny banners as well. Although it was out-fashioned and it turned the stadium into a wedding palace, all in all, it was a good idea.

I don’t know what Sümeyye and Seda told; but, I love these wedding proposals that are made in front of millions of people. The one who should understand it should understand, what more can I say?.. The game ended in a boring football atmosphere and with a free spectator support without any scores. Before the game I had tweeted saying that "the one who had the right should win the game". Both teams played so badly that no one had the right to be the winner, and so my wish had come true. As the famous quotations says, “Beware what you wish!”. As I stated in my previous article, can you look at the posters when Trabzon became the champion last time. It has been a long time, hasn’t it?

Although we speak of Trabzon in this manner, but Schake 04 in Germany, which we choose in the second phase of Champions League, was regarded as the 2^nd biggest team in Germany, it last became the champion in 1958. However, it beat Inter and won the UEFA Cup in 1997. Now let us think, which one is a greater success, being a champion or getting the cup in Europe?

Yeah, as I have just said, let me think, but do not disturb me please…