Hi David, nice to hear from you, long time since we have seen you. I missed the Monastery on my visit but most loved it. I did my "own thing" in Trabzon in local taxis. These were fun as and we stopped and picked up people and others got off, we had no idea where we were really going. The locals tried to talk English to us, some quite sucessfully and we had a wonderfultime. We did find some fantastic "only made in Trabzon" silver jewelry. Everytime I wear this piece someone comments so I have fond memories of Trabzon. It it is not that much as a town goes though really, just lots of shopping and some very old churches.