Istanbul to Bursa

Today we receive a rental van delivered to our hotel. But it has no map. I finally convince the driver to go and buy a map for me. There is no way we will get to Gocek with out one. After looking at the map and the route out of Istanbul the day before I booked passage on a car ferry across the Sea of Marmara to Yalova. So after we settled our hotel bill with a combination of Euros, Turkish Lira and Dollars (they didn’t accept credit cards) we loaded up the van (minibus) and found our way down the twisty side streets to the highway that runs along the shore and along to the ferry terminal. There were cash machines so we loaded up on Turkish lira since few people were accepting Euros. Only my bank wouldn’t give me money. Hmmm! Not good. Then I remembered that these are the days they are turning the last of Wachovia into Wells Fargo. I hope it works in a few days!!!
Winfree had a small Turkish coin she found and wanted to spend it. We walked over to the snack bar and with some help from my pocket book she was able to buy what turned out to be a chocolate granola bar type thingy. She enjoyed it and a guy started talking to us. He is Turkish but lived in Norfolk, Virginia for a while. He also drove through Florida all the way south to Key West. He was one of the ferry captains but unfortunately not for our ferry.

Too bad, as it would have been fun to get Winfree and Estill up on the bridge during the crossing. His bat came in so we said goodbye and walked back to the van and soon we were loaded on the ferry and grabbed a table on the first deck. But we soon realized that contrary to what I had been told people were sitting in their reserved seats. We were displaced by a family and their two daughters spent a lot of effort helping us find our seats which were scattered all about. They were fairly devout Muslim women in scarves and long coats and so the girls had a long conversation with Martha, Pippa and the girls. Winfree, Randy and I went out on deck to take some pics but a rain squall ran us back inside. So I sat and dozed and soon the announcement came to return to our vehicles. So we made or way below to the van and the two gals were waiting for us with a gift of wonderful thin sesame bread sticks.

We worked our way off the ferry in Turkish style pushing our way into the traffic and decided to drive to Termal which is a little town famous for it’s hot springs. It must be a tourist favorite as it was marked with big brown tourist site road signs. In about 30 minutes we arrived and the parking man let us park free and showed us were we could swim. Randy, Father the girls and I paid and were issued towels and
keys to two changing cabanas and told to shower well when we got out. They pool was in a very pretty little valley surrounded by trees next to a nice hotel. The pool was pretty warm and there were pipes along the sides that were jetting very hot water from the springs into the pool. We had a nice swim and sat in the sun for a while then showered and turned in our towels. We realized towards the end that everyone else was walking around in blue crocs from a rack by the entrance. The pool deck was marble and quite slippery. So I think the shoes would have helped with slipping.

After our swim we met up with Pippa and Martha and walk up to café on the hill for lunch. We ordered some yogurt with cucumber and Turkish pizzas and bread with melted cheese and salad. Turned out to be a lot of food. The bread with melted cheese was excellent and the pizza had ground meat, salami, tomatoes on them and were really tasty. We left stuffed and got back in the minibus and headed south to Bursa. The turks don’t post a top speed limit so people pretty much drive as fast as they can. They as a rule pass on the left and will false their headlights at you to get you to move over if they are in a big hurry. We drove back out of Termal and found a highway. Fill the tank with diesel and were on our way. They road was divided two lane most of the way except where they were working and they would send the traffic to the other side. There you had to watch carefully for vehicles passing in your face. They did on occasion and the vehicles on our side would move over as far as possible. It was about 4 hours to Bursa over some pretty mountainous terrain with some good curves with the turks moving at high speed. Took a bit of getting used to. It began to rain just outside of Bursa but stopped as we entered the inner city. We had a hotel but no directions on how to get there. Bursa is a large city with lots of traffic going every which way. I pulled off the road and luckily my brother was able to get the GPS to work on his phone and after driving around for a while we found our hotel on the hill inside the wall of the old city. Ketap Evi is a beautiful boutique hotel. We got settled and had a cup of apple tea.

I read online that Bursa had a large community of the Mevlevi Order which is small sect of Islamists who worship love and a better know as whirling dervishes because the men wear long full skirts and they spin as they pray. I was hoping to see them in action but was unable to find an address and really didn’t want to get back in the car and fight through the traffic!

Then we walked around and looked over the wall and dodged thunderstorms and walked down what seemed like a thousand stairs until we found a café at the base of the wall. They didn’t serve alcohol so we ordered Fanta (orange drink) and Aryan which is a salted yogurt drink and a couple of big cucumber and tomato salads. Followed by a bunch of desserts. Tiaramisu, chocolate pudding, and pistachio ice cream. I was so tired that I kept falling asleep at the table so when dessert was finished and the bill was paid, I staggered up the stairs and fell right into bed. I finally slept a full night and woke after dawn and felt fresher than in many days.