My First Days in Bursa

My first few days in Bursa have been a blur. I haven't been sleeping well because I am wide awake until 3 am because I still am on Ohio time, 7 hours behind. Reaching Bursa was an adventure. There was no one waiting for me at the Istanbul Airport, so I took the Istanbul Metro with my luggage to Istanbul Otogar, the main bus station. I bought a ticket to Bursa on a coach bus. Part of the bus trip was on a ferry over the Sea of Marmara. I wish I wasn't so tired at this point to have watched from the top deck because the scenery was so beautiful. Once I was in Bursa, I saw that traffic does not stop for pedestrians in Turkey. A man from a small flower shop helped me drag my luggage across the street to the AIESEC office. I was picked up by an AIESEC trainee from Columbia that had lived in Bursa for over a year. I went with her and another trainee from Kazakhstan to the home of several trainees for dinner. A Moroccan AIESECer made us a wonderful dinner with rice and tomatoes and we played cards until it was time to meet my host sister, Derya, and go to her home.

My next day in Bursa I had breakfast with my host family and went with Derya to the hair salon, just trying to take it all in. We met Erhan at a cafe where we had tea with lots and lots of sugar. I love the tea in Turkey, and I plan on drinking it as often as possible! With Erhan, I had a chance to see Topane, a fortress of the Ottoman Empire, and walked around the city a great deal. I learned about Ataturk and saw the AIESEC office in Bursa. It overlooks busy Altiparmak street, a main artery of the city, and you can see the clock tower on Topane right across the sreet and up a steep hill. Bursa is an incredibly unique city, as it grows and curls up the mountainside. There are no skyscrapers that interrupt the view. Clusters of colorful buildings with terra cotta roofs encircle countless numbers of mosques. The call to prayer for the majority Muslim population is heard 5 times daily from the delicate minarets that appear over the rooftops. That evening, I went to watch the Eurocup soccer match between Turkey and the Czech Republic at a large outdoor cafe. I now understand the soccer phenomenon in the rest of the world. Turkey was losing 2-0, but came back to win 3-2 in the last 20 minutes of the game! There were celebrations in the street with people yelling "Turkiye! Turkiye!" throughout the night.