The taxi ride from our hotel to the Turkish border was an uneventful 20 minutes. However for me that was about to change. After a tasty breakfast we walked into the Georgian immigration area. The queue I had joined was being held up by an argumentative local so I went and stood behind John. He was processed fairly quickly and I was expecting the same. I'm not sure what happened but the immigration officer took an an exceptionally high level of interest in my passport. Not the stamps of the countries I had been too but the page with my photo and details and the one before i which has all the fine print on it. She flicked back and forth between them and when I asked if there was a problem she tersely replied "one moment". I realised the smart thing to do was to shut up. Then she fossicked around in her bag and came out with a magnifying glass and proceeded to read the fine print put there by the Australian Government. I'm sure she read every word and it took about 10 minutes. She then headed off with my passport in hand to have chat with one of her colleagues. By this time I was getting more than a little worried, and John's enquiring looks in my direction were not helping. Finally she decided to stamp my passport, with all the charm she had displayed so far, and I was on my way. Never was I so relieved to have got through an immigration process. What a contrast when I reached the Turkishi immigration. A cheery good morning, a quick check of my visa, stamped and on my way. From here the transport situation was a bit confusing but we happened to stumble across a mini bus that was heading our way - Trabzon. A very pleasant 2 hours later we were there. The differences between Turkey and Georgia were quite noticable. There is no doubt that Turkey is a more developed and affluent country. And Trabzon was a hive of activity. But the friendliness and willingness to help was still there. We chose a restaurant for dinner but then discovered they didn't serve alcohol. As we were leaving a guy came out and walked with us to the next street and pointed out a bar where we could get a beer. Amazing! We couldn't help but feel comfortable here and were looking forward to the next day. We had booked a bit of a "magical mystery tour". It included Sumela Monastery which was our objective but apparently also included some other sites as well. The details we weren't sure about. But nothing like a surprise!