He's King Midas in reverse...

12 March 2012

It snowed a little overnight. We remain hopeful to actually witness some snowfall.

We depart a little earlier this morning to miss the peak hour Monday morning traffic in Ankara. Today is the longest stretch of road that we have to cover. We are going to Bursa.

I guess it goes without saying that, if you put a whole bunch of people together on a bus, it would only be a matter of time before personalities start clashing. On organized tours like this, they like people to rotate the seating on the bus. Every day, you are supposed to move along two seats. It's not a law, but a friendly suggestion. Fortunately, we are always one of the last people on the bus, and so we miss the seat fights. We hear from various sources that these can get quite personal. I'm pleased that we are never part of this. There really are better things to do than bicker about a seat on a bus. In general, we quite like our traveling companions. There are the two refreshingly friendly sisters from the east coast of Canada,  a very nice lady from Florida, who seems to spot al the spot-worthy things and then ensures that we get to see them too. Amongst the Australian contingent, we have Peter, who calls himself Peter the Pebble, because he is way too small to be called Peter the Rock, with his very sweet and sincere wife. Peter's brother and his wife are also on the tour, equally friendly, but you would never say that these two varying-sized men are related. And then of course there are the jovial Portuguese/American contingent. And let's not forget the Kiwi's, who so badly wanted his team to beat us  at the cricket. Pity rain prevented us from proving him wrong.

On the way to Bursa, we stop in Gordion at the burial mound said to house the tomb of King Midas. So now here you should recognize two things. Gordion, as in Gordion knots. And King Midas, as in the legend of Midas, whose touch turned everything to gold. It seemed that the greedy Midas did not really think clearly when he got to choose what special powers or miracle could be bestowed on him. At first, he was quite impressed with his special powers, but very quickly, he realized that he had a bit of a problem. He could not eat, as the food would simply turn to gold. He could also not touch his family or wife (or girlfriend). Greed seldom pays off…

In order to get to Bursa, we have to head over some mountains again, and once again, we see lots of snow. We are told that by now, most of the snow should have melted already, yet, the scenery around us seems to turn whiter and whiter. Eventually, after our lunch stop, the scenery is so beautiful, that we ask for a special stop to take some photo's of the snow-laden trees around us. And then, finally, the universe obliged. It started to snow. Personality clashes or not - a busload full of people can very quickly turn into a bunch of kids when presented with these conditions. Excepts, of course, for those who are used to snow. But they patiently understood our foolishness, and allowed us our fun in the snow.

Bursa used to be the capital of the Ottoman Empire. It has more mosques and tombs than any of the other cities in Turkiye. Our first stop here is the Green Tomb, the tomb of Mehmet I. The one thing you can be sure of in these type of buildings, would be the exquisite mosaic tiles.

We also visit Ulu Camii, the Great Mosque. This massive building was built between 1396 to 1399 - a mere three years. We arrive at the mosque in time for the afternoon prayer, and we feel a bit awkward invading on these private moments of the local people. From what we understand, Muhammed preferred for mosques not to be decorated with elaborate paintings. Fortunately, the Arabic language lends itself nicely to the art of Calligraphy, and this is used extensively inside the mosque. Even though I don't understand any of the writing, I find the way it is used to "decorate" the mosque just so beautiful.

Next to the Great Mosque is a bustling shopping area, and more specifically a Silk Bazaar. Silk is one of the things that Bursa is famous for, and they are very proud to have had Queen Elizabeth doing some shopping here. We were able to spend some time in this bazaar. We found it quite astonishing to see one scarf shop after another. It is almost impossible to pick one, and if you just remotely look like you want to look at something, you very quickly end up with a mountain of scarves draped over the shop counter. They do have some beautiful products, though.

We opt for a quiet late afternoon. It's cold and wet in Bursa, and we figure that we should rather get some rest. Tomorrow, we get to go to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. We will need all the strength we can get!