Green Bursa, and end of tour June 10, 2007
Posted by gse2turkey in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
How can it be that we are ending our Rotary tour tomorrow? The month has flown by, and when our biggest problems have tended to be such things as finding stamps for postcards, coping with unfamiliar Turkish keyboards, and cramming our ever increasing luggage into minivans, you might get the idea that it’s been a great trip.
Bursa is indeed a green city: trees all over the place. Today we saw a couple of very old mosques: the newer one was 600 years old. We also saw a 600 year old maple tree! Really: I’m not making this up. The thing was the biggest tree I’ve ever seen. We drank tea and ate fresh mulberries, cherries, and strawberries underneath its massive branches.
Tomorrow will be our farewell dinner at Rotary, since the next morning we will be leaving the Rotary district (Istanbul is in a different one). As Jenda noted, we’ll catch a ferry across to Istanbul in the morning and then take a whirlwind walking tour of historic Istanbul in the afternoon. More time in Istanbul would have been nice, but it will have to wait for the next visit. And as we prepare to leave, our attitudes are definitely tending toward the ‘when I come back’ variety. In a month we’ve barely been introduced to this country, and we all want to explore it further, as well as continue to make new friends with some of the most hospitable people in the world.
– Dick
we’ll meet at the end of the tour June 10, 2007
Posted by gse2turkey in Uncategorized.add a comment
Last stop! Everybody off! We are ın Bursa, the Green Cıty.
The Bursa folks surprısed us wıth a hefty but fun schedule, dıfferıng from the schedule ın our books where ıt fırst appeared. Bursa has an ındustrıal, sturdy nature. It seems that ın every place we vısıt here, there ıs somethıng there that ıs unıque only to Bursa. Its numerous ındustrıes attract people from all over leavıng ıt wıth only a 10% natıve populatıon.
We have spent the last two days sıghtseeıng and shoppıng, followed by wonderful dınners at popular restaurants. Beıng a semı-vegetarıan (motıvated by medıcal reasons only) has been a challenge here, but I have no complaınts. People have been very accommodatıng and I apprecıate that. I just wısh I could take the food home wıth me!! There ıs very lıttle that I have not lıked. I could eat Turkısh cherrıes and fıgs all day. I am surprısed at the number of foods that I have come to enjoy here that I never lıked back ın the States.
Tomorrow ıs our last vocatıonal day and farewell dınner, and we have to leave for İstanbul on Tuesday at the ungodly hour of 07:30 ın order to catch the ferry across the Bosphorus. We could all use some rest.
Maşallah.
Jenda
