Blogs from Bursa, Marmara, Turkey, Middle East

Nach dem Frühstück heute bin ich etwa 100 Meter vom Hotel zu einem Platz, von dem aus kostenlose Shuttle-Busse zum Otogar (Busbahnhof) fahren. Darauf hat mich gestern der Reiseführer aufmerksam gemacht. Dort angekommen habe ich beim Warten einen Kaffee getrunken und meiner Familie ein frohes neues Jahr gewünscht. Dann bin ich in einen Bus mit dem Schild "Bursa" eingestiegen, aber es war der falsche. Zum Glück habe ich das noch bemerkt und bin zusammen mit anderen Reisenden in einen Bus mit dem Schild "Istanbul" eingestiegen, aber eben dieser Bus machte dann später einen Stopp in Bursa. Auf dem Weg hat es etwas geregnet und wir sind die neue 3-spurige Autobahn Izmir - Bursa - Istanbul gefahren. Also eine weitere wichtige Infrastrukturinvestition. Erdogan geht auch in anderen Bereichen vor, so wurde z.B. in den letzten Tagen ein ... read more

ANKARA TO BURSA, TURKEY—Tuesday, May 14, 2013 KentHotel, Ankara, Turkey It continued raining off and on today as we left the city of Ankara. We spent a lot of time in traffic this morning working our way out of the downtown area and into the countryside passing newish apartment buildings, government buildings, shopping malls, hospitals, businesses, a major university, and many, many, mosques---the usual, in sprawling suburbs. King Midas’ Tomb After driving about 50 miles, we drove into a small community in the middle of nowhere to tour a museum and to visit a tomb purported to be of King Midas. King Midas was a real person or persons (there may have been three different Kings named Midas) and lots of myths and legends surround him. In this area there are several large mounds of dirt ... read more

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

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

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