Most trees are not green yet but, as you can see on the pictures, some trees and plants were blooming. Although Sunday, it was neither crowded nor noisy. Later we found out that most families with kids were in the adjacent Zoo :-). It was so good to be in a park surrounded by trees and plants and hearing the birds chirp. I had missed that so badly. In Germany, I was living in a very green city. I just had to walk out of the door ...
In the Botanical Garden, you can rent bikes, you can picnic, play table tennis, jog (on special lanes), or just relax watching the scenery. There are cafés, restaurants, and, of course, a mescid, a place where you can pray the Muslim prayers. The Garden is really huge. Every year, there is a tulip festival for which they plant up to 250.000 tulips. I hope I can find out when that is.
By the way, tulip is a word that is Persian in origin and entered English via Turkish. In the original Persian it means "turban" from the shape of the expanded flower. Interestingly, in Turkish, we use this word for a kind of head covering of women and use the word lale for tulips. In Turkey, we even had a lale devri – a "tulip era". In this time, tulips were very fashionable. And if you look at those typcial Turkish plates motives or tiles in some mosques, you can see the tulip has been often used. I can tell you more about that when I have visited the festival.
Anyway, my mom and I decided we will come the Garden once a week. Next time, we will bring some food along and a good book and stay the whole day! I'm already looking forward to it.
4 comments:
I would love this place! We have some wonderful parks here in the Washington, DC area, but among the best are the National Arboretum (a kind of tree museum on a large piece of land), the US Botanical Gardens (a conservatory) and the Aquatic Gardens (also outside, a place for water lilies, lotus and other such water-dwelling plants. The famous cherry blossoms are blooming this week down around the Tidal Basin, and in April the place will be full of blooming azaleas--a riot of color!
When you live in a city, such places are escapes from the noise and crowd. In Germany all the city was green. I really miss that. I can imagine just how beautiful the blossoming trees look. I like water lilies a lot. Whenever I see some, I have to take pictures...
salam dear Nergiz,
reading your report about the botanical garden made me think of our long walks in spring and summer in Freiburg earlier. It sounds beautiful and it really made me missing these walks with you. Here in Copenhagen spring doesn't really want to come this year. The trees just started waking up veeeery slowly and the sun is still hiding most of time. I found out that there are many parks and big gardens in Copenhagen too, but its not very funny to visit such a place when the sun isn't shining and the trees still look grey and dead. But I look forward visiting you one day in Bursa and if I come you just have to show me this beautiful garden.
Salam my dear friend,
How could I forget? I miss those day a lot, the walks the chats and everything. I'm glad that we used the opportunity we had at that time. I'm sorry that I coudn't visit you in Copenhagen while it was so close. I'm sure it is a lovely place in summer. You are always welcome to come an stay here as long as you want. I'm already looking forward to our excursions :-)
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