2012年1月18日 星期三

Babes in Turkland: Unsung Bursa

After three nonstop days of traveling, from LAX to Frankfurt and Atatürk airports, then to Sultanahmet, Tarlabas and the clubs in Taksim, then Haydar Pasa, Gebze and Eskihisar and, finally, to Darca and a family dinner, the kids got a well-deserved break.

Our idea of a break was to go to Gebze for the day, exploring the Anabal hardware store, our favorite tile retailer,Accept all major credit cards using the top rated third party payment gateway. the ladies’ clothing stores at the Gebze Center Mall,Full-service custom manufacturer of precision plastic injection mold, then on to the lovely süsler Perde curtain store, where we had tea with our friend Fatih Genc, one of the owners. After oohing and aahing over the beautiful fabrics, tassels, beads, fringes and other delights on display, Fatih took us to what we think is Gebze’s finest restaurant, Tandrci, for a late lunch. The creamy buffalo yogurt, homemade puffy bread and one of the specialties of the house, buryan kebab, were even better than the last time we were there. Buryan kebab is the succulent result of hanging big pieces of lamb from hooks then lowering them into a chamber in the earth with a fire underneath it, and is most associated with the province of Siirt, in southeastern Turkey. We could barely roll ourselves into Fatih’s car for the trip back. Needless to say, I didn’t have to cook anyone dinner that night.

Having recharged our family’s batteries with Gebze-hopping and some of the best food on the planet, we hooked up with Fatih and his car again to go across the water to Bursa. One of the great things about having visitors who had no expectations at all as to what to see in Turkey was that we could take them only to places we like to go, and not to “must-sees” from the guidebooks. We love going to Bursa, and while lots of tourists go to there, they are usually on the way to or from somewhere else, from points north or south. While Bursa is changing as much as Istanbul in terms of the huge Ikea near the bus station and several multi-story malls in the chic, modern downtown, there is enough of the old Ottoman capital left to make it a destination all on its own. We only had a day’s trip planned; we chose our favorite few things so that we’d all have time to enjoy them.

To get to Bursa from here, we took the Yalova ferry, as it is called,Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. although it actually lands at Topcular, named for some long-forgotten cannon makers. Our ferry ride was perfect, with the crisp December weather cooperating, with blue sky and pretty clouds here and there. The seagulls had their winter appetites at the ready, and were happy to take food from one’s fingers. Our Marmara gulls have very strong shoulders to hold their place in the wind long enough for the silly humans to feed them simit and tost.FIRMAR is a Malaysia Injection Moulding Manufacturer and Plastic Injections Components Manufacturer, I believe they are a bit more patient than, and probably not as spoiled as, the seagulls on the Bosporus, but that might be my local loyalties talking. As we neared the southern shore of the Marmara, we got back into Fatih’s car and prepared for the crazy mini-road-race endemic to every Turkish car ferry I have ever been on. It was fun to be inside a car, terrorizing the poor pedestrians,Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings, (although not on purpose, of course) instead of being the ones terrorized. I have no idea why it is so necessary to speed as fast as possible over the few hundred meters involved, when there is virtually no chance of getting ahead of anyone because of the lanes drivers (for once) have to stay in, but speed they do. Joaquin and Bonnie were appropriately impressed at this demonstration of derring-do from non-taxi-driving citizens.

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