After a Turkish breakfast we took the barge across the river and went out through the back of the other hotel. Here we came straight into fields and farms, though still with signs of construction which makes me think that Agva will not be as pleasant a couple of years from now and it is already less pleasant now than five years ago (though the near complete absence of people and vehicles certainly improves it). In any event, we strolled down the paths making roughly for the sea. The geography here is small enough that you can really see it: you are in a valley, in a bowl, on a hillside and there is the next hill. Again, wildflowers everywhere, though it was still cold and grey but it is supposed to stay thus all weekend.
At the top of one hill we came to what looked like an older settlement, where some of the houses had upper stories made of wood and there was one particularly fine derelict with the roof fallen in and everything inside covered in moss. It did not seem to be a pissing spot as such places often are, so didn’t have a feeling of uncleanliness. We ended up on a beachside path, over scrubby sand, and then walked down to the water for a bit but the sand was so fine here that we soon returned to where it was easier to walk. We only saw one person here, swinging high on a cliff, looking out towards the Crimea.
Eventually we arrived in town and went to one of the cafes we’d spotted earlier. There was an old woman, with a flowered Mediterranean headscarf, a printed shirt and a loose shalwar as the older women in the country seem to wear here, and she was making manti. So I ordered manti.
Dinner at the restaurant again and this time I was a bit uneasy as it was a large but closed and very hot room with a massive fireplace (though the source of the heat was a large stove), and there were other diners there.
An early night, and I finished my book. A really fine resolution to it.