I woke up feeling much better after having slept something like 14 hours. I don't think I can remember a time when I have slept either so long or so well. Full of energy I decided to set of for the gruelling task of changing some travellers cheques. It may sound odd that this should be so difficult, but despite what the clever Swiss banker had told me in Geneva when I bought them, it was extremely difficult to change the cheques. Most banks simply looked back at me confused by what on earth they were or else the commission was around 25%. I began to regret having ever taken them as they seem to be pretty useless. Nevertheless I did eventually find one bank willing to change them although the process was most confusing to the cashier who had also never seen such a cheque and took 45 minutes to finally give me my money, commission free as I reailsed later!

I had a quick brunch nearby and then headed off to do more sight seeing. You can see why Erzurum is not a tourist hotspot by the fact that there isn't a huge amount of interesting stuff to do or see, but it whiled away the hours. Indeed the further east I have become and the more the faces and dress have changed. In Istanbul I hardly saw a headscarf, but here they are commonly worn, thouh for the most part they are colourful and the women wear makeup and jewellery. Occassionally a woman in a full black chador will pass, but still the atmosphere is not too conservative.

Sadly throughout my stay in Erzurum it has been raining pretty solidly and I have had little chance to see the surrounding snow-capped mountains, but what I have seen make for a spectacular view. In order to take advantage of a brief spell of sunshine I walked up the hill to the citadel. Most of the streets that lead off the main street are simply mud tracks which makes for hard work. Having made it to the top I hardly had time to admire the view before a couple of children (who I throught really should be at school) came and asked the usual questions in broken English of "mister, what you name" or "Where you from?" and I duly answered. Before though more and more children seemed to appear from nowhere until about 30-odd children had gathered round me all wanting to shake my hand and ask the same question. It wasn't too long before one of them, who was dressed in miniature suit and tie, shouted the annoying "money, money" phrase. I decided it was time to put my hands firmly in my pockets and try and push my way out. But the children just kept surrounding me and the demands for a mere "1 million" lira kept coming. At first I was shocked, most people in England ask for 50p or a pound, but a million! Of course, not long after I realised that it was indeed just one lira but the government only recently knocked six zeros off their money and so it was just 1 lira. But i knew that if you give to one, you end up having to give to all and I certainly didnt have 30 lira to spend to get myself out of the situation.

Still more hands were thrust for me to shake and I duly did so if it let me make one step closer to the main road. Before long my patience had been thoroughly tested and I decided the best thing was to use the one phrase in Turkish I had been saving for such a moment. "Geet Bashum Dan!", I shouted angrily trying to get them to leave me alone. To my surprise it worked and the children, half stunend by the fact I could speak sonme Turkish, scarpered. Fresh from this success I continued wandering round town just taking in life before retiring back to the hotel to pack.

View of Erzurum from Citadel