After spending time with our new friends Serkan and Kamal and their families in Bursa, I can happily declare that I have more Turkish friends than I can count (but my difficulty with the Turkish language may have something to do with it).
We were guests in their homes, but they made us feel like family. They fed us, served us copious amounts of tea, and gave us many gifts. We were overwhelmed with Turkish generosity and hospitality.
Here I am with Kamal's sister and mother eating fresh chickpeas right off the pod.
While no one around could speak much English, both parties knew enough language basics that most of the time we understood each other, although occasionally we did resort to Google Translate, drawings or wild gesturing to get our point across.
On the second day we got to see a lot of Bursa, the old silkworm market where years ago you could witness fierce bargaining over the valuable silk cocoons, a famous museum of Ottoman shadow puppets, an old Ottoman village, and even a house where a well-known Turkish soap opera is filmed.
Famous Ottoman shadow puppets.
Our hosts would proudly announce that we were visiting from Canada to just about everyone we encountered. The person at the ticket office, the waiter at the restaurant, and even the man singing the call to prayer in the Mosque.
Our hosts wouldn’t let us pay for anything. One time when Shane tried to reach for the hesap (bill) and our hosts whisked it away, our new friend Penar summed it up by saying “In Turkey, everyone is a gentlemen.”
The highlight of the day was a trip up a nearby mountain where we stopped for lunch. Fresh from the oven sesame bread was served with honey, cheeses, a red pepper spread, butter, salad, olives, cheese-filled mushrooms caps, fruit, tea, and cold water from a nearby mountain spring.
Beautiful 600-year-old tree.
Exchanging flags.
After Bursa we hopped a ferry back to Istanbul and took in a few more sights.
Beautiful patterns in the Blue Mosque.
Aya Sofia showing its age.
The "weeping column" in Aya Sofia. Supposedly if you stick your finger in the hole and it comes out wet you will be healed of whatever ails you.
In Istanbul we met up with more friends we had met in Olympos, Umut and Emre. We spent a night with them exploring the lively İstiklal Avenue.Emre's family hails from the Black Sea region so he stopped to dance with some people that were playing Karadeniz (Black Sea) music.
Emre (in blue). Emre also has a wonderful singing voice and serenaded us a few times.
The whole crew hanging out at Taksim Square.
Hanging out with our new Turkish friends and their families was the perfect way to wind down our trip to Turkey. Truly unforgettable Turkish times.
While I will miss our friends the most, there are other things I will miss about Turkey.
Baklava.
Delicious frothy Ayran. A slightly salted yogurt drink.
All our sleeping critter friends. This one was catching some Zs in the Ankara bus station.
This one is a modern day resident of Ephesus.
Backgammon. Shane and I played at least four games a day. This was a particularly good game for me.
Hoşçakalın Türkiye!
Lovely!
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