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.
