"Türkiye...is a weird country": Weekend in Bursa

Hello all,
We went to Bursa this weekend.
Sounds pretty simple doesn't it? Well, that's the short version of the past 2 days. What follows is the long version of one of the most bizarre, enlightening, and rewarding weekends of my life; after 4 hours of travel today (it's about 6 now), I'm not sure I can adequately capture this weekend in a blog post, but here's what I got:
We first decided to go to Bursa about a week ago, at Prof. Shields' suggestion. She said she and William were going, and asked if anyone else was interested in tagging along. Bursa, the first Ottoman capital and a city of about a million people, is only about 3 hours away, so everyone who was available, the group minus Zoe, Emily, and Yekta, said yes. When we told our friend Murat (the one who lives in our building, and is from Bursa) we were going, he said he was going this weekend too, and he would love to put us up! Working out details is not Murat's strong point though, so over the next couple days the plan changed about 10 times. When we woke up on Friday, we still weren't even sure. (SIDENOTE: either no huge celebrations Thursday night, or we missed them. There were really cool signs strung up on the minarets of the Blue Mosque and Yeni Camii though:)
The rough plan was for us to take the 5 o'clock bus to Bursa, where Murat's friend Selman would meet us, and Murat would arrive later that night.
The trip to Bursa was utterly surreal. We somehow managed, with much help from Yekta, to get to the station and get tickets to Bursa, though we had to get the 6:15 bus.

Amanda: "Guys, Yekta looks worried. I think she knows something we don't"
Me: "Yeah. The language"

Which showed up at 7:15, prompting Edward to wonder if we had crossed, in taking the shuttle from Taksim to the bus terminal across the Bosphorus, into another time zone. Also, at one point Kelly tried to use her cell phone, to let Yekta know we were on the road, but was told to put it away. Apparently you can't use cell phones on buses, because Turks think they interfere with the brake systems. I don't know why this is a problem because Turks use their car brakes about as often as their cars grow wings and fly over traffic, which is to say never. We also made a friend, Osman, who told Kelly she looked like George Bush, and gave me the address of an old book store with 7000 books (??) in Sultanahmet. It pretty much felt like a reality show, 7 Americans sent into a strange city with a guide (Murat) who speaks about 50 words of English. We were already disoriented, so it made a lot of sense when the bus to Bursa drove onto
a ferry dock. Apparently the fastest way to get to Bursa is to drive to the Gulf of Gemlik, take the ferry to the other side, and then drive the last hour to Bursa. The experience of the ferry can be best summed up by Edward's observation: "I think we got on a gay cruise". In addition to our friend Osman, a guy named Ahmed decided to sit with us at our table. His English (maybe 25 words) was augmented by lots of gestures, including resting his hand on my and Edward's knees for entirely too long. Not good. Finally the ferry docked, we continued on to Bursa, and arrived about 11. Selman, Murat's friend, was faithfully waiting for us with two friends, Eyup and Taner (told of our travels, Selman replied "Türkiye...is a weird country"); we stayed in Eyup's family's house that night. We had such a fun night meeting them and their friends, drinking Efes and some kind of wine and Sprite mixture, and listening to music. The Turks loved, of all things, Elvis, and kept breaking out in Elvis songs. They know our pop culture better than we do, at least when it comes to 50s and 60s music. Two of them were in a band, Rollyzma:

Still not sure where the name comes from, and they do always refer to 'rock and roll'; also not sure what genre this generic term would translate to in America. As we prepared for bed around 1:30, it began to dawn on us: not only were we all sleeping in the tiny room (we knew that the 7 of us were going to be in one room) but three of the Turks were too; there was just nowhere else in the small house. I hope you can tell how small this room is:
It truly does not extend more than a foot beyond the borders seen here. And there were ten of us. The hilarity of it all was only heightened by our realization the next morning that it was shaped like a rhombus, or kite, or some shape not yet discovered by geometricians; the night in The Rhombus was an experience we will always treasure.
Oh, and we found out Murat wasn't coming. Selman talked to him at about midnight, and said he was coming in the morning; in what shouldn't have been a surprise, Murat canceled in the morning. Selman's explanation was that some moving company had taken all of Murat's money (this was aided by a Turkish-English dictionary and some kind of vacuum noise Selman made with his mouth to symbolize the Murat's total lack of money). Bottom line: we were 7 Americans in a large Turkish city without our ostensible host, thrust upon 3 utter strangers for 24 hours.

But lest you think we had only come to Bursa for the irregularly shaped living quarters, here's some pictures of a quite incredible city's most important sights:

First, Yesil Cami or the Green Mosque. Built in the early 15th century, it is an example of early Ottoman architecture, much less grand than the mosques of Istanbul. Still very beautiful though.
Then we went to see the mausoleums of the first and second Ottoman rulers, Osman and Orhan. These were particularly exciting for me, as you might imagine, though my enthusiasm was somewhat dampened by the fact that both mausoleums date from the mid-19th century, having been completely destroyed in an 1855 earthquake. This is Osman, from whom the name 'Ottoman' comes and who founded the Ottoman state in 1299:

His direct descendants sat on the throne for 623 years. More impressively, as his coffin indicates, he was about 15 feet tall.
Here's a view of about a fourth of the city; to the left of the picture it extends about as far as the eye can see, and is ringed by mountains:
Next we visited Ulu Cami, or the Great Mosque, built in 1399:
Its many domes and columns give it a completely different atmosphere than the huge, cavernous mosques we've been exposed to so far. Also, its main aesthetic feature was not tiles, but huge calligraphic designs that were on almost every surface.
Then we went to the hamam, or bath-house. Yes, we went to a real, live Turkish bath, in Bursa, famous for its baths. In fact, the bath-house we went to was built by Suleiman. The Magnificent. In 1555. So it was pretty cool.
Walking up, we couldn't believe it was the hamam; we thought it was a mosque. And it was 10 lira.
It consisted of a large central room with a huge pool about the temperature of a hot tub, side niches with faucets, and a room that was about 180 degrees. I can't even begin to express what it was like to be in the hot room; walking in was almost impossible, and breathing was literally painful. We were only there for about a minute, maybe two, and I thought I was going to pass out. The other men in the hamam were alternatively enormous or nearly emaciated (coincidentally, many of the former were strong contenders for the prestigious World's Hairiest Man title), but all very supportive of our American ignorance, showing us how to wash ourselves. Despite the reputation or images the word 'bath-house' conjures up, it was a much more comfortable environment than the gay cruise from the night before, and an absolutely incredible experience. Like William said, you really do feel like you're in completely new skin when you leave.
After the hamam, our hosts (who, by the way, could not have been more energetic or helpful on our tour through Bursa) told us they had a surprise for us. We were apparently going to stay that night at Taner's, not Eyup's. They took us to Taner's family's house, introduced us to dozens of aunts, uncles, and cousins, and took us up to the terrace. Here's the neighborhood:
I'm still stunned by how beautiful it was. But dinner was even more amazing.
They asked us to sit down at a beautifully prepared table under an arbor of grape vines. First they brought us a ton of delicious fresh fruit. Then some kind of hot tomato soup. Then sigara borek. Then karnıyarık, rice, and cacık. Just when we thought we were going to burst from the amount of incredibly delicious food and our growing sense of guilt, they brought out a towering platter of lahmacun, which we ate with salata. I just can't tell you how delicious the food was, how incredibly hospitable our hosts were, and how embarrassed we were. Their evident delight at our amazement, and out realization that our requests to help were futile and laughingly brushed aside, made us less embarrassed. The fact that this meal was prepared for 7 complete strangers is a testament to the true hospitality of the Turkish people. I ate as much as I could, and finally had to give up. I did have a cup of the famous Turkish coffee after dinner; I don't drink coffee, but I actually really liked it.
That night, we stayed up with our Turkish friends and some of Taner's cousins. His entire extended family lives in the same building, every family on a different floor ('like the Godfather', he explained). Most spoke no English, but we still had a great time, listening to Turkish music and communicating as best we could. This morning, we went out early to try to find a florist to get our hosts a gift; we returned empty handed to yet another feast. This is before the heaps of bread and hardboiled eggs were put out:

I don't think I need to repeat how delicious breakfast was, or how fun the company. Here's us with Taner's mother, the incredible woman who, as far as we could tell, organized all the meals with such joy.
We were so sad to leave, and our hosts were sorry to see us go:
Them, from the bus, bidding us adieu with their kerchiefs.

Remember what time I started this? I did break for dinner, but it's 10 now; I'm just about blogged out. Reading over, I can hardly believe how well it worked out, going from being complete strangers to welcomed guests and family friends in just 36 hours. We got their address, so we'll send them a thank you note (we also got them chocolate at the bus stop today), and hopefully they'll take us up on our offer to come to Istanbul sometime before we leave. I've left out so many little jokes ("Y'all....is this a dream world?" -Amanda) and stories, but I think you get the general sense- sorry it's so unruly. Miss you all, and I'll talk to you soon!