Noeliniz Kutlu Olsun!

Weirdest Christmas ever.

Although, considering I've spent all of my previous Christmases at home with my family, it's no surprise that my Christmas in a Muslim country was a little different.

I spent all day shopping with Lisa and Laura in Ulus around the Citadel. I am done Christmas shopping. I am done souvenir shopping. No more! I think I'll go broke!

Heck, I spent 40 YTL on nazar boncuk (evil eye) related junk.

I got my first "Christmas feeling" as we were sitting on the second floor of a half-timbered cafe in the Citadel. It was red-tinted inside with little nazar boncuks hanging from strings above the window and tealight candles on the tables. You could see people walking on the street below and the snow-covered roofs of the Citadel houses. Our çay came with little gingerbread cookies on the side. (And I had the most delicious muesli)

We returned, and I got ready for Torben's dinner party. I waited for Clement outside for 10 minutes, while he waited inside for me. Very productive.

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A blurry shot from the dinner
The common room floor was covered in pillows, with two short tables to eat at (eating a la Turca again). The "Christmas tree" was really pine tree branches cut off, stuck in a pot, and decorated with epilepsy-inducing Christmas lights.

Torben and his flatmates had prepared a very Turkish meal: onion soup, handmade mixed pide, cous cous-like rice, various salads, fried potato things, something drowning in yogurt, and chicken.

Clement had brought two bottles of wine from home/France, so that was nice. Anton was drinking cola mixed with orange Fanta. Weird.


Clement and Torben playing tavla/backgammon. Torben is lost in strategy...or completely miserable. One can never tell with him.
After dinner, we exchanged (our "unisex and uni-nation") pollyanna presents- German style, I guess. We all got a present, and then for 10 minutes we rolled a die and passed it to our neighbor. If you got a '6' you were allowed to exchange your present with someone else's present. When the 10 minutes were up, we could open the presents.


My fincanlar
For once, I actually did well! I mean, I bought a small tavla/backgammon board, and lots of people were playing it throughout the evening. And I got a set of two fincan (Turkish coffee cups) and saucers...in Christmas colors. Buysan, one of Torben's Turkish flatmates showed me how to make Turkish coffee. So my body was half drunk and ready to sleep, but my mind was wide awake.

Hannes read my fortune from the coffee remains. He said "It's dry." Michael determined that I "will go on a journey and cross a large body of water."

Other people didn't do so well with presents. Anton had run out of time and bought a neon pink beret and scarf. Clement ended up with it. Someone hadn't brought a present, so we wrapped up a bottle of gin that someone brought. Laura ended up with it (she and Marta were the ones who had brought it). Other gifts included a fake human skull, a dart board, two crazy hats, a normal winter hat, a bottle of red wine, a small box of chocolates,...

After gift exchanging we sat around, drank, and played tavla. I eventually fell asleep and woke up to find my two German neighbors playing backgammon on my head.

And...back to sleep it was.

The music for the evening went from some German music (the largest number of the dinner attendees were German, 6 of 16), to good 'ole hokey American music (the first time I've heard it in a year), to Santana (we all made fun of Jan for it), and then back to assorted Torben selections.

Oh, and I learned a new German word: "Yein." Slang for something in between Ya/Yes and Nein/No.

Dessert came. It was *delicious* ice cream, cookies, small pastries, and a box of chocolates. So much we couldn't eat it all.

Around 2am a bunch of us walked back to campus. Anton slid all the way down the icy hill. It was pretty funny.

So in conclusion, a Turkish Christmas includes lots of exchange students, tavla, dessert, and gin mixed with apricot nectar. Being the only American in attendance is not necessarily a requirement, but suggested when celebrating Christmas on the 24th instead of the 25th.

Bursa - Gün 2

We woke up early and took showers. Laura commenced complaining about how she didn't sleep well. I slept like a log. I haven't been sleeping very well recently, but these past two nights I've just been knocked out. It's nice.


Am I the only person frightened by the sight of a nuclear power plant?
After checking out, we had to catch a dolmuş back into town. Bursa dolmuşes aren't like the Ankara ones- they're cars instead of minibuses. 'Work just as well. It shows how the dolmuş started out as a "shared taxi."


We got off at Heykel and transferred to Emirsultan. The Emir Sultan Mosque (above) was actually a very simple mosque- simple for "Ottoman style" anyways. Bursa was the original capital of the Ottoman Empire, so it is where this style first developed.


From there, we walked to Yeşil Camii and Yeşil Türbe (Green Mosque & Tomb). The Yeşil Türbe actually had blue-green tiles covering the coffins.

We pressed on westward and back to the bazar for some shopping. Sadly, the bazar was closed. So, I couldn't finish off my souvenir shopping. I was severely disappointed. Had we been able to take an overnight bus on Friday (or even left Thursday night like normal people), we would have had plenty of time to go shopping on Saturday. Oh well, I guess that means I need to fit in a day trip to İstanbul sometime.

Another young Turkish man helped us by leading us to another scarf shop. I no longer need scarves. *Argh*

So, over lunch (another iskender kebab) Laura decided that she felt a cold coming on. To be safe, she wanted to leave early so she doesn't get sicker- something about finals next week. I don't know. I planned on staying until our bus left at 5pm, and I wasn't going to leave 3 hours early.

I dropped Laura off at the bus stop and proceeded to hike through Bursa by myself.


I (once again) got off at the wrong stop, but it was a good mistake this time. I was able to catch a full rainbow over the city.


I walked the downhill kilometer to the Muradiye complex, wandering through small streets lined with early-Ottoman houses.


Above you see the tombs of the Muradiye Complex. When a new sultan came into power, he had all his brothers killed (to avoid civil wars). So, my tomb visits included seeing several little baby/childhood coffins.

After seeing the Sultan II Murat Mosque, I grabbed a taxi back up the hill to the Orhan Gazi and Osman Gazi Tombs. These are the tombs of the founding sultans of the Ottoman Empire.


Central Bursa, including the glass pyramid of Zafer Plaza. Bursa is really close to a large mountain, Uludağ, which is famous for its skiing.

By this time I was tired and hungry. So, I grabbed some random Turkish dairy/pudding dessert and headed back to the otogar where I bought more Turkish sweets (kestane şekeri, pişmaniye, and walnut-filled marshmallows). I once again slept on the bus ride home.