Bursa in a day

Day #3 - Bursa, turkey

Today was such a an unexpectedly amazing day. I think it was the most memorable cultural learning experiences of my life. But, i will start at the beginning...

My day started off at 5:55 this morning after only four hrs of sleep.....



to get ready for our commute to Bursa, turkey, the fourth largest city in the country. First, cabs picked us up at seven on the dot to deliver us to the ferry station to catch a ferry ....


(view from ferry)
to catch a coach bus to bursa.....






(view from bus)

After arriving in bursa, we took the city bus to our hotel. So basically, after four modes of transportion, we finally made it. Our hotel ws nothing special, as with the one before...it is a (relatively) clean room with a delightful view of the building next door....



Our day in bursa started off with a walking tour to see the tombs of th past sultans, and then to the nearby clock tower for the panoramic view of thr city



(it appeare the pic shows up much smaller than it actually is, but u get the idea)
Its weird that before today, i never even knew of this city's existence, yet this very large and thriving city is here, with so much culture to offer.

We then headed towards Ulu Cami, which means great or huge mosque. During the period this mosque was built, all first mosques of each city was named the same thing. This mosque was absolutely beautiful. It didnt have the tiles like the ones in istanbul, but rather had beautiful caligraphy on the walls.


Its currently in the middle of ramadan, so there were many individual at the mosque praying. In the short time that i have been in turkey, i have been amazed by how religious and devout people here are. The call to prayer several times a day, the dedication to fasting, it is simply impressive.



I felt slightly uncomfortable for the fact that we were walking through the mosque as tourists, but everyone seemed welcoming and friendly. What wassssss kind of weird tho, was that this city has very few non-turkish tourists, we seemed to be a group of the very few. What was even more weird, was that aparently, even fewer oriental asians come...soooo a lot of kids were pointing and staring at me. Hah, the last time i felt like such a spectacle was when i was in flint, michigan, usa. Lol.

Anywho, my ultimate cultural experience deserves its own post