BURSA

This past weekend, I took a brief trip to Bursa where I met up with a fellow Fulbrighter and sought out adventures. I must say how fortunate I am to be located in Bilecik, which is close to so many points of interest, Bursa being one of them. Unlike the town of Bilecik, Bursa is a booming metropolis. It's famous for its role as the first capital of the Ottoman Empire, and in a more contemporary context, it's role as an important commercial center.

I can't say we toured any businesses, or got a sense of Bursa's business district, but we had ourselves a wonderful time exploring mosques, a bustling indoor/outdoor marketplace, and the most beautiful cafe area I've seen. I was recently informed that it's a remnant of the glorious silk-trading days, and functioned as a spot for the silk-merchants to mingle, deal, and compare silks (?). Today, it's home to four or five individual cafes, and provides the perfect place to sit, drink chai, and chat for hours in a tree-laden court yard of sorts.

But that wasn't the best part of my trip to Bursa. Oh no, not even close... The experience I'll likely never forget was dipping into my first Iskender Kebab - a disorganized amalgamation of bread, meat, tomato, yogurt, and butter sauce. Words can't describe... All I can say is that, should I find myself on death row some day, my final meal will be a heaping portion of Iskender Kebab with a side of lobster and maybe a slice of cheescake, or two, or three if I'm trying to eat myself to death before the guards do me in via lethal injection. The meal was outrageously decadent and cost a pretty penny too (we were told our restaurant was the place that invented the stuff way back in the mid nineteen-hundreds). It was easily worth it, however.

I really can't neglect how beautiful this country is. Bursa itself is a city partially on the slope of a mountain. It's characterized by old, multi-colored Ottoman houses that just scream foreign romance film. I've heard the region is popular for its skiing, and I can believe it. The mountains are prominent and powerful. A skiers paradise, really.

Bursa was a blast. My friend and I took a quick look around their famed shopping plaza, Zafer Plaza, complete with giant blue pyramid indicative of a project with more money than they know what to do with. The mall was nice - I mean really nice. I resisted a trip to their Starbucks - a nicer Starbucks than any I've seen in the States.

That's all for now. I'm running on empty after a long day of teaching. I believe my students (all 180-200 of them) have been having fun. Stay tuned.