A video promoting Bursa

I'm sorry that I haven't written here for so long. Although there is so much to write about and I have many drafts and ideas, I simply can't find the time to update this and my professional blog. I really hope this will change one day.

Anyway, I've just found out about this video promoting Bursa and wanted to share it.

I'd love to hear what you think about it. Would it make you want to visit Bursa? Why or why not?
Would it, at least, make you curious and would make you search for more information?
What else would you like to know before considering a visit to Bursa?
If you visited, how long would you want to stay?

Thanks!

It's Ramadan

Ramadan (or Ramazan in Turkish) was always very special for me in Germany. I had rarely dinner at home and was always with friends. We had iftar (the Ramadan dinner) together, prayed and read Qur'an, chatted and had a lot of fun.

I miss that a lot but I am also very happy to be with my family after so many years, 17 to be exact. This Ramadan is also special because it is the first time for many years that I don't have to work. I do have a lot of work online but I can arrange my schedule in such a way that Ramadan has priority. I'm enjoying this a lot.

Ramadan customs

During Ramadan, Muslim have dinner and a pre-dawn meal. In the pre-alarm clock era, a Ramadan davulcusu (drummer) walked through the streets and woke people up in time for the pre-dawn meal. These drummers still exist and I think it is a nice tradition to keep. However, some people would rather see them go. They argue that not everybody wants to wake up for the pre-dawn meal and there are alarm clocks for those who do. There is also some conflict with modern technology as the drums often set up car alarms, which makes the wake-up call even more effective ;) but certainly less pleasurable. The drummers don't have an easy job, having to get up early and walking the streets every day no matter what the weather conditions are. Here is a nice traditional picture of a drummer. Ah, and in the 21th century, we have an online drummer now.

During Ramadan, bakers make a special Ramazan pidesi (bread) which tastes delicious but after a day of fasting even the simplest of food tastes delicious :)

There is also a traditional Ramadan prayer in the mosque called taraweeh. This is not an obligatory prayer but during it often the complete Qur'an is recited within the month of Ramadan. It can be performed at home, too, and this is what I often did with my friends.

Traditionally, people invite each other for iftar and breaking fast is really so much nicer with friends, family or neighbours around. Sadly, modern life style seems to have taken it's toll once again in Turkey and there are less of these visits now, which was truly shocking for me because as I said at the beginning, we always got together for these meals in Germany.

In Bursa, there is a traditional way of alerting people of the end of the fasting day. I remember, as a child, we would wait eagerly to hear the top (the old canon on top of the hill in the city centre) so we could start to eat. We were not fasting but the food on the table looked so tasty that it was difficult for us to wait for dinner to start. As soon as we heard the sound, we would rush to the table and shout "iftar başladı" (iftar has started). The top was, of course, not necessary in the past and is not necessary today, as the call for the evening prayer indicates the beginning of iftar at the same time. But it is a nice tradition to keep.

Ramadan is the month of the Qur'an as it started to be revealed during this month. Therefore, Muslims normally spend this month reading the Qur'an and worshipping more than in other months, especially at night. However, people always seem to be eager to celebrate and have fun. So, there are often many Ramazan şenlikleri (Ramadan events and festivities) all around the city.

Ramdan is also the month of charity. Although, we should engage in charity throughout the year, there is more of it during Ramadan, as it is the case during Christmas time. People give more in charity and iftar tends are set up in front of mosques or in public places, to provide food for the poor or for travellers.

Ramadan is meant to be a time of restraint (not only from food) but if you see how much people shop during this time, especially the first days of Ramadan, you would think it is not a month of fasting but a month to celebrate food :) Very similar to Christmas time. If you gain weight during Ramadan, you did something wrong obviously. Btw, you shouldn't loose (much) weight either if you fast correctly. Personally, I try not to overeat but I've never been a person who eats a lot of food anyway. I do, however, eat more consciously during Ramadan with more vegetables, fruit and liquids. Having said that, here are some Ramadan recipes :)

Noise pollution – this is not funny!

I was sitting here and preparing lessons for my Second Life class tonight when some neighbours started playing extremely loud music. I had the feeling I was sitting right next to the loud speakers. I don't like much of the popular music anyway. So, being forced to listen to it made me very angry and as it didn't stop, I decided to find out who was causing me this "pain".

It was the neighbours two houses further down the street. I asked politely if they could turn down the volume a bit as I couldn't concentrate on my work. Their reply was "But we are having an engagement party tonight on the street and we are only testing the sound." Oh, my God, they are going to do this for hours tonight?! And I have an online lesson in Second Life!

I asked my sister whether this was normal and she said "Unfortunately yes." They are allowed to party on the street and make such noise until 0.00 :(( How can people start out their lives together by annoying their neighbours?? Or is it only me who is annoyed?

There were such parties in the past, I remember, but then it didn't seem as noisy as now with such powerful amplifiers. Or maybe I have changed. Most such engagement or wedding parties take place now in düğün salonu, special halls for such purposes. Even then, the music is so loud that you can hear it in the neighbourhood. And the worst thing of all is that people take their little kids to these events. These little kids have to endure this torture to their ears for hour sometimes. Somebody should make people aware of the risks. Would it stop then?

I'm sorry, I really am a tolerant person but this is an issue that makes me very angry. It's hot outside but I will have to go upstairs (where it is warmer) into my small office and close all windows and doors to at least reduce the noise a bit so that my students will be able to hear me. I am not looking forward to this.

A chorus of muezzins

Yesterday morning, I woke up to a chorus of muezzins calling to prayer (azan or adhan) in canon. This was so beautiful. Now, you will say, what is so unusual about that? Don't you have muezzins' calling for prayer five times every day? Yes, we do. And this is one of the reasons I like about living here. This is much nicer than having to check for the times on a calendar.

However, some years ago (I don't know when exactly), they decided it would be better to unify the call for prayer. So, now, there is only one muezzin, though each time a different one, who calls from the main mosque, the Ulu Cami (see picture) and this is heard all over the city through the loud speakers of the mosques. OK, I agree, this is not such a bad idea, mostly because you get to hear different styles of adhan. In the past, it also happened that a sleepy muezzin (who was usually the imam of the mosque) was out of tune or some might have even overslept and started late :). But somehow this was nice, very endearing. It was your imam after all.

I wonder how it is in other Muslim countries. Unified or individual adthan? Are there still places where they do not need to use loud speakers? Do you have any memories connected to the call of prayer?

Click to see source of picture.

Queen Elisabeth II in Bursa

Last year I visited London and saw the Buckingham Palace but the Queen was unfortunately not at home. Today, the Queen visited my city together with her husband, Prince Phillip. Bursa has been preparing for this for days. One visible sign of this were the many hortensias, the Queen's favourite flower as I learned, that were planted at prominent places.

The Queen wanted to visit Bursa, because it was the first capital of the Ottoman Empire. She is also interested in Silk, and Bursa is famous for it's silk production and silk products. This is why she had lunch and went shopping in the Koza Han, the historic Silk Bazaar of Bursa. Finally, she wanted to see the Yesil Cami and Yesil Türbe, the Green Mosque and Green Tomb of Sultan Çelebi Mehmet, because of their famous Iznik (Nicea) tiles. The mosque was built in  between 1413 - 1420. All of these places deserve a blog post of their own but here are some pictures I've managed to take. I'm sorry for the quality but it started raining in the afternoon and I could not get closer.

The picture above shows the Koza Han court where the Queen had lunch. I took this picture last week actually when there was another important event in Bursa. But it looked pretty much the same today.

In the Yesil Cami, the Queen listened to a recitation of the Ar-Rahman chapter in the Qur'an and to it's translation. You can listen to it here:

Those of you who are interested in more pictures and listening to some more information about the historic sides that Queen Elisabeth visited today, listen to the Voicethread that I've prepared (you can leave a comment after registering):

If you can't see the voicethread box above or want to see it larger, click here.

Goat milk and eggs from happy chickens

What's so special about this picture? It's a special market for villagers, mostly from the small mountain villages around Bursa, where they sell their produce. So, if you are looking for produce that is not mass-produced, this is the place to go. You can also find things that are normally not easy to get in the city, like fresh goats milk, fresh eggs from chickens who have never seen a laying battery, dried fruit which does not look perfect because it hasn't been treated with chemicals but is tasty, and all kinds of other organic products. 

The market is located right in the city centre, in the historic Tahtakale quarter, where it has a long history.

Tomorrow morning, happy-chicken eggs for breakfast :-)

City Walk - Pınarbaşı

Today, my mom and I went for a city walk. We plan to go for such walks more or less regularly to explore the city's old and new face. There is so much to see and discover that it amazes me.

Pınarbaşı is one of the places I've always been curious about because my mom told me that when she was a child they would go there on religious or national holidays. There would be vendors along the street and in the park selling all kinds of toys and tasty food. Children would wear their news clothes and families would walk to their to meet others and have fun.

When my mom tells me about those times, I always get the feeling that they had more fun and everybody was much happier than today. Today, families often use the opportunity to escape on a short trip during such holidays. Or people just pay quick visits to their relatives and go back to their daily routines. Somehow the spirit seems to have gotten lost.

But back to Pınarbaşı. This place, which has always been a place for people to come together during festive occasions, has a significance beyond that. Pınar means spring. This is one the larger  springs that provides Bursa with water. The actual spring is under this dome structure and next to it is the reservoir. Next to it is also a beautiful park with fountains, ponds and water faucets to drink from. I've fallen in love with this place and thought I would immediately buy a house and move here if I could. There are some traditional houses around and there is another extremely significant historic place just at the other end of the park: the Fetih Kapısı. More about that in my next post.

Here are some impressions of the place:

Balibey Han - The first three-storey hotel of the Turks

A han was an Ottoman or Seljuk inn. In Bursa there are many historic hans. None of them, of course, is used as a hotel anymore. Most of them have been lovingly restored and are used as shops, cafés and restuarants with gardens. They are mostly built around a court where in the past travellers and trades people would ride in with their horses or donkeys packed with the goods they wanted to sell in the city. 
Balibey Han was the first three-storey han and it seems to have had a different layout. It was built right across the covered bazar in the city centre. At that time, in the 15th century, Bursa was an important trade centre. The Silk Road and the Spice Road were leading through it. Bali Bey, the builder of the Han, used the income from the inn to build a mosque and a medrese in Yenişehir, a small town near Bursa.

Balibey Han was in a very bad shape for a long time. But the present city government has started taking care of the city's history and historic buildings and the Balibey Han reconstruction is among many other projects that have been successfully carried out.

Balibey Han now houses two cafés and many smalls shops and small galleries. At the moment, there is an exhibition of traditional handicraft and paintings made by women who completed free courses at BUSMEK, a kind of trade school which the city has founded to help women learn a trade and earn an income. Here are some examples of the beautiful work they have accomplished.

Some critical voices say the original Han has been hidden now under the new reconstruction so it cannot be really called Bali Bey Han anymore. Personally, I can only say that the new structure is a combination of old and new and it looks good in my opinion. And I can just imagine myself sitting in its café with wifi Internet connection and writing blog posts while observing the people on the street. I do agree that it does not look very historic anymore, like the old city wall that is being rebuild at the moment. But I'm not sure I would have liked the old structure to stay as it was either. Should ruins be left as they are or should they be rebuild?

Picture sources: old and being renovated 

IKEA is coming to Bursa!

Source

Anatolium is the name of the new shopping mall and entertainment complex that is being built in Bursa at the moment. It's going to be the largest one in Bursa and some of the buildings will be build in typical Bursa style. One of the main businesses in the centre will be IKEA, the fourth one in Turkey. And the location is near to our home next to the coach terminal! IKEA will also be the first shop there to open it's doors to the public in fall 2008.

Some people hate IKEA and others love it. I tend more towards the second group. In Germany, I had furnished my flat partly with IKEA furniture. The main reason I like IKEA is that the systems are flexible and you can still have your own style and be creative. Of course I do not like everything they offer but that's true for other shops as well. I also like to just go to IKEA and "shop" for ideas and buy small accessories. 

I remember that once a friend of mine and I spend five hours there and only after the  announced that they are going to close, we left — we had to :-) It's great on a rainy Saturday afternoon. When you are tired, you can go to the cafeteria and have a snack, lunch or coffee and cake for reasonable prices. If there is one thing that I don't like, it's waiting in those long lines. I don't know why, but although they have a long row of cash desks, you always have to wait (I'm talking about IKEA in Freiburg, Germany. Don't know how it is elsewhere). 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to it. It was part of my life in Germany, and it's good to have something familiar back in my life here.

Here is a link with news about the Anatolium and IKEA.

And here is the link to IKEA Turkey.

23 Nisan - April 23 Children's Festival

Pictures taken by Carrie Akkelle ( canmom ) - http://www.flickr.com

Thanks Carrie!

23 April is a national holiday in Turkey - it's Children's Festival and marks the day of the opening of the first National Assembly after the Turkish Republic had been established.

Children dress up in different costumes, parade, sing songs, recite poems and perform dances and theatre plays. Schools and the streets are decorated with flags and families go out together and enjoy the day.

On this day, children in Ankara also take over the National Assembly, form the parliament and symbolically govern the country for one day.

Since the 90th it has become a custom to invite children from all over the world to participate in this festival and celebrate diversity and help establish peace between cultures.

Jewish and Christian Sites in Bursa

Because there is often the misconception that non-Muslims cannot build their churches and synagogues in Turkey, I wanted to share some information with you. There have always been churches and synagogues in Turkey the number has significant

ly decreased. In Bursa, all churches had been closed down because there were no (significant) numbers of worshipers anymore. One church has been renovated and re-opened to the public for worship in 1996. It's the French Protestant church. It had opened in 1881 for the first time and was used by Italians in the 70th, who had come to Bursa to work at Fiat/Tofaş.

Most Jews left for Israel I believe. But at least one synagogue has always remained open. I was once standing in front of its door but didn't dare open it :-) The only time I was in a synagogue was in Instabul. I'm more comfortable with churches because I lived in Germany and know how to behave in one. One of the synagogues was established when the Ottomans conquered Bursa in 1326, another one was build for the Jews who came from Spain at the end of the 14th century. Here is some information about Jews in Bursa: 

http://snipurl.com/jews-in-bursa

http://www.allaboutturkey.com/jews.htm.

Now, that more and more people from Europe and other places move permanently to Turkey, new churches are being build. 

Conquest of Bursa - Mehter, oldest military band in the world

I learned that today, 6 April, is the anniversary of Bursa's conquest. It was conquered in 1324 CE by Orhan, son of Osman, the founder of the Ottoman Empire after whom the Empire was named. Bursa was the first capital city of the Ottoman Empire. That's why Osman, Orhan and many more of the Sultans and their families have their tombs in Bursa. There are many historic building in the city, too.

Unfortunately, I missed the celebration and the parade. But one of the groups participating was the Ottoman style military band, which is very popular. It is said that it's the world's oldestor first military band - not these guys, of course :-). Here is a link to their website with many downloadable marches, a photo gallery and you can also watch some videos. I have embedded one here.

http://bursamehter.com/

To school again

I went to an ELT (English Language Teaching) seminar on Saturday. The venue was a private primary school. It felt good to be in a school again — as teacher :-). In Turkey, I rather avoid schools as state-owned schools are not very appealing to me. But this school is private and has a very friendly atmosphere, the Nilüfer Özel Ilkbahar Ilköğretim Okulu. There are several private schools, or kolej as they are called here, in Bursa. The next two Saturdays, I will have the opportunity to see two other ones who also host ELT seminars. Private schools in Turkey are extremely expensive but there seem to be enough parents who can afford to send their children there.

On my way to the seminar, I thought it's a weekday, because the bus was full with school children. Then I remembered that in Turkey children have to go to dershanes. These are a kind of preparatory schools who prepare children for the many entry or transitional exams they have to take about three times in their lives as students, the last one being the university entry exam. They only exist because the state schools seem not to be able to prepare the kids for these exams. Everybody seems to believe that the kids cannot pass those exams without the help of the derhanes. Which means two things: either the kids go to school twice a day, first to their normal school and in the afternoon to the prep school and do homework for both in the evenings and on weekends. Or they can attend regular school on weekdays and go to the dershane on the weekends, which means they go to school seven days a week!! There are so many chains of dershanes now, that it has become a huge economy. 

I attended the last two years of lise in Turkey. In the second year, I registered at a dershane because everybody else did. I had opted for the 7-day version but after about two months I gave up. It was too much for me. I bought a couple of prep books and studied at home, which was a good decision. I could concentrate on what I had problems with most, had a good time and I passed the university exams with a very good result.

Here is a picture of a state-owned and the private school I went to, guess which is which.

Botanical garden

Today was a beautiful, warm and sunny spring day. Perfect day for a visit of the Botanical Garden! The last time I was there was in 2001. That was also my first time there. I knew where it was but I didn't know how exactly to get there. We went to the main street and after some waiting caught a dolmuş. These are minibuses that don't only stop at bus stations; you can hop on and off where ever you want - on their route. The driver was so kind as to drive us a bit closer to the entrance of the park although it was not on his route. That's one of the nice things about a country like Turkey. People bend rules if it helps (Well, sometimes, it doesn't help but today we were happy about it). 

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.

Turkish bath

A picture from a traditional hamam. This one is for men. What else did you expect? :-)

Today, my mom and I went to a traditional Turkish bath or hamam (from Arabic) in a historic domed building, and soaked in the hot water, bathed and relaxed. Hope it will help my cold go away. As this hamam was still an old one and hasn't been "modernised" yet, it looks very nostalgic and is inexpensive. We only paid 7 YTL (€3,69) each for as long as we wanted to stay.

Hamams or steam baths exist in many places but in Turkey many of them have natural thermal water. In Bursa, most hamams get their hot water from thermal springs and are thus very healthy (the water is suitable for drinking and bathing). This is not astonishing as our "house mountain" — the Uludağ is a (hopefully) inactive volcano.

Talking about volcanoes, Turkey is a major earthquake zone. And tonight in the news I heard that there was an earthquake in Istanbul today. It was "only" a magnitude of 4.8. When I told my mom, she just said "Ah, yes, there was an earthquake here just now." Well, I knew this could happen anytime before I moved here :-( I will try to console myself with the positive side of it … hot, relaxing spas...

Here is a poem about Bursa's spas by the Ottoman poet Arif:

Those who enter remain
Bathing in the life giving water
Cures the ills of many
At Bursa’s spa.

Helmut von Moltke, a German  military teacher who was in Turkey in the 1830s, wrote in a letter to his father: “I have already told you of the pleasures of the Turkish hamams. In Bursa the water is not artificially heated, but is by nature so hot that at first one cannot believe that one will live to survive immersion in the large, clear pool without being scalded. There was a wonderful view from the terrace of the hamam which we entered and it was so comfortable that we were reluctant to leave.”