A Day in Bursa

Assalamualaikum all! I am back yet again with another travel post! Picking up where we left off, we awake to our first day in Bursa - and the racket from the strong wind outside.

After the morning prayers, we had breakfast of fried noodles brought from Malaysia. We planned to go to the top of a snowy mountain, Uludag. Everyone pulled on thick socks and packed the winter gear and went on the move to the bus station, where bus number 20A or 21 would bring us to the cable car, which would escalate us to Uludag. However, things didn't go our way. The cable cars are closed for the day due to strong winds, so we couldn't get up there. Thus, from the bus station, we backed off to this little town where we saw two long lines lining up for simit from two different shops.


Somehow we found ourselves lining up as well, naturally behind the longer line - they mut have good simit! We ordered a pair of simit and two pairs of other baked delicacies, all fresh out of the oven. The environment was very pleasant! Despite the wind, everyone ate their brunch on little tables in the open air. Waiters asked for drinks; we ordered for tea and took a seat with our food. I love this kind of surrounding. It was lively and reminded me of a scene in Beauty and the Beast. We enjoyed our food and took some pictures, even after eating as we made our way back to the hotel to change out of our winter gear.

We stayed in for a bit as my parents searched for where to go next. After a while, we went to another bus station,, Sehrekustu, and stopped at Mihrapli 2. It was a city. And the first thing we saw was a huge mall. After walking down the street a bit, we arrived at the car rental and got our car - now we can go anywhere we want!

And so we did. With the car, we travelled for over an hour to a town called Iznik. The town had old ruins from the before Christ era. Before going there, we stopped at an ancient mosque which had been built in the 4th century BC originally (thought rebuilt after an earthquake and now renovated a few times; still, it looked just a ancient), and there's even what I assumed was the original design of the flooring. It's called Ayasofya Camii and it was a a church built from the ruins of a temple before being turned into a mosque.

The path to the ruins was lined with colourful shops, rows of ceramics, and a bunch of big dogs. We did feel intimidated by the number of dogs, but thankfully they didn't inflict any harm. We passed what must have been an old toilet or bathhouse at the side of the road a we drew closer to the ruins and took a picture in it. It looked a little creepy, with holes in the floor and entirely made of rocks. We also passed some graves of Ibrahim Pasha, apparently a grand vizier during the Ottoman Empire.

The ruins, as I understood it, was actually The gate of Nicea. It explains why it didn't sprawl far, or else it would've been a castle once, right? Anyway, the pictures we took were all great! People could climb up the arc but we didn't dare - it was far too high. Yusuf really wanted to go though. There was  graveyard beyond the ruins, possibly of other important people during the Ottoman Era (or not, we didn't go there). We exited through another side of the ruins and Yusuf finally got to climb up somewhere a little higher with my father. They took a few pictures and then we headed back.

We went on the hunt for food. It was around 5pm already and we didn't have a proper lunch. After venturing around the corner, we decided to try the restaurant right in front of the mosque. I can't remember what it's called, but it serves great Turkish pizza! My mom ordered the Islander Kebab she was craving for. We had a lovely meal! As we finished, Maghrib azan  sounded from the mosque, and it warmed my heart when the dogs outside howled with it - subhanAllah!

When we're done, it was finally time to had back. We had hope of going to Uludag the next day, because we don't need the Teleferik now that we can drive the car up there. And there's also a chance of light snowfall!

It's already 12am as I'm writing this, so please excuse me of the writing sounds halfhearted. Stay tuned for the next post! Assalamualaikum!

 Some photo shoot extras!