Saturday/Sunday

Saturday

We woke up early today, ready to go explore Bursa, which I think took the tired Turks by surprise. None of us had gotten much sleep because we had gone to bed pretty late and, after all, there were 10 people sleeping in a 12 x 12 rhombus room. So we first headed to Yesil Cami (Green Mosque) in Bursa, which gets its name from the gorgeous green tiles that line its walls. After that, we went to Ulu Cami (Great Mosque). This mosque was so different from any other mosques we have seen before - it was almost cathedral-like. Instead of the ornateness of the tiles, the inside of the mosque was painted a beige-ish color. Bold, black calligraphy was splashed throughout the many columns, and several walls were painted to look like the view from a window. Different from the gorgeous colors of the tiles and gold inlay that we are used to seeing in mosques. It also seemed to be more partitioned than others, and there were tons of kids running around in it, yelling and screaming, which was definitely not an aspect of any of the other mosques we have been to.

After that, it was on to the tomb of Osman, the father of the Ottomans, where some kids were running in and out of his tomb tent-like thing. For the final resting place of the father of the whole Ottoman race, I was surprised not to see a little more pomp and circumstance. But then again, Turkey has been trying to shed its Ottoman image since the days of Ataturk.

After that, we walked through some bazaars with some gorgeous silks (Bursa is known for their silks, and apparently like 1000 other things like knives, eskender, and hamams). And then after about 3 cheese toasts, we headed to our first hamam trip! We got in the taksis, and headed out to the edge of town. The taksis dropped us off at this dirt road that curved down into a valley - it was beautiful. We walked down the hill and spotted this huge building with gorgeous domes - I asked Selmon if that was the hamam and he said it was! I was overjoyed and we excitedly went up to the entrance. The boys went in, and Selmon said that we had to go to the ladies' section. Amanda, the hamam expert because that's what her site project is on, told us that there was probably a women's entrance. Oh how wrong we were.

We were led to the back of this gorgeous building, built for Suleyman the Magnificent, to what looked like a penitentiary: the womens' hamam. It was a weird hybrid of sorts, because on the inside it looked like a mental institution. Lovely. Needless to say, it was definitely the real thing: we were the only non-Turks there, and got some very weird looks when we walked in. We think some people actually used the hamam as their real bath, because we didn't see a shower at Eyup's house, and the hamam was only 7 lira. Anyways, we played around a bit in the hot water, and when we ventured back outside, our Turkish friends told us that they had a surprise for us.

We were driven to a beautiful apartment, where Taner's adorable greeted us with excited smiles and "Merhaba!" 's. They led us up to their terrace, which had absolutely gorgeous views of the mountains and the city of Bursa. Then the feast began! We started with fresh cherries, apricots, bananas, erik (sour green plums), and Ayran - Turkey's national drink which is salty and yogurt-based. After that, we moved on to tomato corba (soup), cicek (yogurt and cucumber soup), eggplant pilaf, lahmacun (Turkish pizza), potato salad (which is literal - its salad with potatoes in it), and Turkish coffee to top it all off. It was delicious, and every time Taner's mom would bring us a new dish, she would say, "Afiyet olsun!", which is the Turkish equivalent of "Bon Appetit!"

After dinner, Selmon said we were going to Orhan's house, so we all geared up for another trek across Bursa, only to be informed that Orhan lived on the first floor of the apartment building. Taner and Orhan are cousins, and in the Turkish tradition, their whole extended family lives in one apartment building, with one individual family unit per floor. Again, we hung out and listened to music - earlier that day I had given my iPod to Taner and Eyup to listen to, and they loved the music on it. They kept scrolling through and saying things like, "CCR! Doobie Brothers!" with their thumbs up and huge smiles on their faces. Orhan's mom came in and brought us sunflower seeds and Coke on a tray - everyone here is so hospitable and as Selmon explained several times, "the guest is very important." Then Orhan and Taner's aunt came in and gave the three girls gifts of nail polish! They are the happiest, closest, and sweetest family.

At one point in the night, Selmon changed and came back in a muscle tee and shorts and said, "Now, I am very sexy. Everyone calm down." The language barrier always adds to the hilarity of Turkey. But it can also be a very poetic thing - Selmon also told me that I had "hair the color of evening sunshine."


Sunday


We had a great sleep, and woke up in the morning to an AWESOME traditional Turkish breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, bread with rose and cherry jelly, cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, sausage, and cay and Turkish coffee. After a lovely send-off from the families, including Taner's mom communicating that now she was our Turkish aunt, we headed back to the bus station and back to Istanbul, already looking forward to hosting Taner, Eyup, Selmon, and Orhan in Istanbul.

One more funny story from the bus ride to Istanbul - we got on a small shuttle bus to take us back to Taksim Square, and as we were waiting to leave, the bus driver came up to us and launched into a long string of Turkish. We thought he may want our luggage to put underneath the bus, but he pushed it away and continued his Turkish rant. He must have finally recognized the incredibly blank looks on our faces, because he stopped and said the first phrase that we understood, "Turkce yok?" which means, "No Turkish?" "Evet (yes)," we replied, "Turkce yok." He looked at us incredulously and asked "Turkce yok?" again. Again we replied. Then he went to his driver's seat, looked back and with a shrug of his shoulders at us said, "Turkce yok!"

Turkce yok is now our favorite phrase.