Aya Sofia in Trabzon

Aya Sofia was built in the 13th century in a lovely position above the Black Sea, and now overlooks the coastal highway but is still beautiful, with a tea garden, cats and chunks of inscribed marble in the grounds. This is the narthex and like the Church of the Rock in the Sumela Monastery, it is or rather was full of rich Byzantine frescoes. It was later a mosque and a WW1 hospital; I don't know what they did with the frescoes but they are intact where out of reach (and were restored with the help of the University of Edinburgh) and are overlaid with ancient graffiti, which is destructive but always interesting.

Trabzon is a long strip along the shore, climbing up and down slopes and hanging off cliff faces, in an untidy mix of old and new buildings. The bus station is at the east end, the hotels (scabby and otherwise) and the fabulous (literally) bazaars are in the middle and Aya Sofia is at the west end, with views down the coast towards Samsun, which I realised by teatime is actually a tedious six-hour bus journey away.