My last day in Istanbul was fascinating - starting off with the great massive breakfast at the hotel and then off I went to Sophia - a short walk from the hotel. I trotted on up there and marveled at the frescoes and the true mixture of East and West. So funny to see massive christian frescoes - virgin mary - jesus - etc. mixed with tiles and the cool arabic script - there were a few stained glass windows. I was awed by textures and colors and so my pictures consist of this.
On my way back to meet Zeynep, I stopped to get my name and "accesstango" in arabic script lettering - had a nice conversation with this man who was a calligrapher all his life and so was his father - very very cool!!!!
Then Zeynep and I went across the way from the hotel to have some food and wait for the time to go to the boat we would take to Bursa. We sat outside on the terrace overlooking the Marmara. As we walked in the music playing was "Por una cabeza"! Irfan met us there and in the middle of our meal - or maybe towards the end he asked me to dance - there was some Turkish/Armenian type music playing and he cleared out a table and in our sneakers we danced! Totally fun!
Zeynep and I took a cab to another Boat/Ferry "station" and hopped on! We arrived in Bursa (or close to it) and Olca (Oljai), Z's other cousin picked us up. She lives in a really nice apartment on the 18th floor looking out over the city and to the mountains. Jamie and Afet had missed their transport and arrived later. We ate out on the porch and slept in!
Today we went into Bursa and wandered around. We went to a small "costume" museum - more like "what our ancestors wore" museum - very very cool! There was a pomegranite tree, plum and fig and grape vine - all waiting to ripen for the fall!
We then went to Bursa's version of the Grand Bizarre - All this shopping is crazy - and since this is the place for textiles - can we say beautiful silk!!!!! OH my goodness....
We left and traveled about 1 hour out of Bursa towards the coast to have fish on the water. What a great restaurant...
it''s now super late - and i'm super tired and we are supposed to wake up super early to run off to Izmir by car ... I don't know how much of an opportunity I will have to internet so I'll have to catch up maybe when I return - we'll see...
I have really enjoyed my trip - all the sights, smells, tastes - I"m SO FULL!
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