Blogs from Bursa, Marmara, Turkey, Middle East
May 26th 2012
After arriving in Istanbul the day before, we depart early in the morning for Bursa, but unfortunately catch the early morning rush hour. Istanbul, a city of over 10 million is on its way to work and we are caught up in the rush hour scramble. We leave Europe for Asia over the Bosphorus Suspension Bridge which was designed and built by the Brits and opened in 1973 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic. Our trip south involves a short ferry trip across part of the Sea of Marmara. We are on the way to Bursa, which in 1326AD became the first capital of the Ottoman Empire. We reached Bursa by noon and had lunch in the centre of the silk market followed, in the afternoon, by visits to the ... read more
May 26th 2012
Lengthy 400km drive south stopping off at the ancient Roman town of Sardis, which prior to the Roman occupation, was capital of the Lydian empire. We crawled over the ruins and remains of the Temple of Artemis, a Roman synagogue, bath, gymnasium and library. All very atsmospheric. Then on to Pamukkale, which is famous for its"cotton castle" being a dazzling white array of shaped travertine terraces. Adjoining the terraces is the remains of the ancient city of Hierapolis which was founded in the Hellenistic times. It was eventually ceded to the Romans but unfortunately the city was destroyed by an earthquake in AD60. It was eventually rebuilt but fell into decline with the fall of the Roman Empire.... read more
January 1st 2012
Traveling and living abroad is a lot about firsts. For my first New Years in Turkey I decided to also make it my first time snowboarding in Turkey. There are several resorts in the country, although the ones that sound really good are in the east, near the town of Van. I asked around at work to see where the other teachers and students go skiing. They almost unanimously voted for Uludağ. (Note on Turkish: the ğ is a silent letter that draws out the preceding vowel.) It’s one of the closest to Istanbul and my students agreed that if I want a place that has more than just easy beginner slopes, then Uludağ is it. They were right about it being close to Istanbul. It was a fun trip although it took longer than I ... read more
May 31st 2011
Drove into the ancient kingdom of Phrygia and first stop at Gordion. Here was the burial mound of its most famous King Midas, of golden touch fame. Also the place where Alexander the Great cut the proverbial Gordion knot. Then onto Bursa, famous fo its old mosque, covered bazaar and silk market... read more
May 22nd 2011
Just a little update on what we've been up to over the last couple of weekends. : Kulturpark (Culture Park): Last Sunday, we started the day off with breakfast at a patisserie around the corner. The selection of sweet and savoury delights was overwhelming! It all looked soooo good! We ended up choosing 2 savoury treats a sausage filled bread and an olive filled bread and 2 sweet treats which included a delicious cherry muffin and a chocolate biscuit. Obviously we completed the breakfast with the class Turkish tea or cay! Later on in the day we took a little trip to the park near where we live. The weather was nice so we decided to make the most of it and have a picnic in the park. After Mika's dismay at having to pay 50 ... read more
Bursaspor vs Besiktas....well what was sopose to be Bursaspor vs Besiktas...
Published: May 8th 2011Middle East » Turkey » Marmara » Bursa
May 8th 2011
So I thought I'd write a quick blog about my first Turkish derby experience....almost! A few days before the match I went with Asli to the stadium to buy my ticket for the match. At the ticket booth there was a ticket tout selling loads of cheaper tickets in the hardcore end of the stadium with the 'Texas' spporter groups (don't know why they're called that). So after sussing him out and deciding the tickets were legit, I bought one off him for 35tl; about £14. I thought that was a pretty good price for a derby match, especially with Besiktas having players like Guti, Simao, Quaresma etc. I was happy. So on match day I left Asli at home and started the short walk to the stadium. I got there about 90 mins before the ... read more
The first 3 or so weeks in a nutshell or a kebab wrap...
Published: May 3rd 2011Middle East » Turkey » Marmara » Bursa
May 1st 2011
So it's been over 3 weeks since we've been in Turkey and a lot has happened! We arrived in Istanbul on Tuesday 5th April and after A LOT of waiting around we were picked up by some people from the English Time branch and taken to our hostel! As Mika likes to say a Turks' 10 minutes is about 1 hour in our time! It was all pretty stressful and all we wanted was to get some food and relax!! Anyway we spent 2 nights in Istanbul walking around, eating plenty of kebabs, getting lost, discovering the Bazaar, paying ridiculous amounts for a Turkish tea but then discovering a cheaper place where the locals go, paying to pee, eating at Burger Turk and of course finding somewhere to watch the Man U game where we met ... read more
