Bursa - Gün 1

So, I overslept 15 minutes. I was behind 15 minutes in packing. I was behind 15 minutes in getting dressed. I was only 10 minutes behind in getting to the dolmuş station to meet Laura for our shopping journey to Bursa*.

Laura, however, wasn't there. So, I waited until 9:15 (a half an hour later than we had agreed). She still wasn't there. I went to her dorm and called her room. No answer. I went to my dorm and asked Sharon if she was on Skype. She wasn't. I walked to the other dolmuş station on campus. She wasn't there. By then, it was too late for me to catch a green bus to the otogar and I had to settle for a taksi.

At ASHTİ I finally found her.

She was a bit late, and since I wasn't at our meeting place she had figured I left without her. Ugh. After all that running/stress that morning? Urgh. There's a reason I medicate my anxiety on travelling days.

We began our 6 hour bus trip at 10 am and I slept most of the way there (that's what you get for staying out until 3am). We arrived in Bursa and caught a city bus into town. Seeing a busy area, we decided that it was a good stop to get off at. So, we spent the next couple hours trying to figure out where we were. We were several blocks West of where we had thought.

Somewhere around Zafer Plaza a young Turkish man offered to help us. He guided us to the bazar and left us there to shop. By then it was 6:30 and most shops were closed already, so we decided to come back the next day.

We wandered around Central Bursa a bit, found our chosen restaurant (Hacibey) had gone out of business (another young Turkish man helped us figure this out), and settled for İskender. We sat down and the waiter asked us what we would like. We asked for a menu, he told us they only served iskender kebab.

The menu wasn't what you eat, but how much.
It was, however, some of the best İskender kebab I've ever had. Bursa is famous for it. İskender is basically döner (thinly sliced lamb cooked over a vertical spit), coated lightly in tomato sauce and then topped off with melted butter. Delicious.

After dinner, we drank çay and ate cake at a nearby cafe. Our backs were beginning to hurt from lugging our backpacks around all day, so we headed to our chosen hotel- Atlast Termal Otel.

It was in a completely different section of Bursa, so we decided to have a taxi drop us off. Our driver didn't know where the place was either. It was mildly amusing. Especially when he tried to drop us off at some 5 star hotel. I don't think so.


Yes, that is a wood covered ceiling. Now we all know why the Atlas cost 90 YTL a night. Or maybe it was because we didn't haggle. Or maybe it was because it included breakfast. Or maybe it was because it had a private mineral bath.

Either way, the room was nice and the mineral bath was nicer.

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* Note: We had to leave Saturday morning so Laura wouldn't miss Friday class. We had to leave Sunday afternoon so Laura isn't too tired to attend Monday classes. That resulted in exactly 24 hours in Bursa, plus 12 hours on a bus.