A Day In Green Bursa

Before I do my little piece on my day trip to Bursa, I want to get this out of the way:

Today is the general election in Turkey. If AK Parti wins enough of the vote, it will gain the power to change the constitution. I've never lived in the place of such an important election; even when the government collapsed while I was in Italy, it wasn't nearly as devastating as a huge AK Parti victory might be. I'm holding my breath.

Now, on to Bursa:

Yesterday I left with a fellow teacher, Paola, at 6:00 am to catch an early ferry to Bursa. I've always been interested in the birthplace of Iskender Kabap, and it's close enough to Istanbul to be able to see in a day trip. However, Paola wasn't going to sight-see. She's an oral examiner for Cambridge, and she was going with a group of examiners and ushers from British Side, a language school and organization that administers English exams. I was just tagging along because I don't know how to take the ferry to Bursa.



It turned out that they needed some help ushering the students to the examination rooms, so I decided to work for them for half the day before heading into the city and being a tourist. It was a gratifying feeling to earn my passage to and from Bursa and to work in very tangible way for that day's trip - There's something special about working for that day's dinner, so to speak. Plus, Bursa is really beautiful. It's built crawling up a huge mountain, Uludağ, which is about 8,500 feet tall and is a national park famous for skiing in the winter. Bursa's nickname is Yeşil Bursa (Green Bursa), and you'll see why in the pictures:


The historic clock tower that looks out over the city.



Inside the Koza Han


Inside the Grand Mosque. This is an incredible mosque for two reasons. The first is those amazing and huge calligraphy tablets that are everywhere, on every wall and every column. Most of them seem to point upwards.


The second reason this mosque is so special is the ablutions fountain, actually inside the mosque. The dome it is under lets in an unusual amount of natural light for a mosque, and it gives both the feeling of openness and welcoming.


This was not so welcoming: a sign showing which way to the women's prayer area, which is tiny and only facing a couple of the amazing calligraphic tiles (or whatever those things are called).


Another example of how big those things are.