Bursa Day Trips

Cherry Tree and Me

This weekend I went on two short trips to places outside the city.  Saturday, we went to a restaurant with an outside tea garden part of the way up Uludag.  The area was surrounded by fruit and nut trees and shrubs with fresh red cherries, plums mulberries and currents ripe for the taking.  These orchards were spread all the way down the mountain side and it was unclear whether they were once part of private farms or if they grew wild.  Local people picked the fruit and sold it by the side of the road to visitors.  After the heat we had been having here, the relatively cool mountainside was a very welcome change.

Sunday, we went to a popular seaside getaway called Mudanya, located a short distance for Bursa city on the Marmara coast.  During Ottoman times, the town was home to a large local Greek-speaking population.  During the population transfers that occurred after the post-WWI war between Greece and Turkey, in which Turkey won its independence and established sovereignty over most of the territory that now comprises the Republic.  All Greek-speaking Christians in Anatolia were relocated to what is now the Greek nation-state and in turn, most of the Muslims in Greece made the reverse journey.  Start here to learn more about the population exchanges between Greece and Turkey.  This article outlines the slight thaw in the tense relationship these two countries have with their shared heritage and gives a sense of the losses the cultural and human losses that have occurred due to this mutual ethnic cleansing.

Mudanya also has another connection to world-changing events of the First World War.  The Armistice of Mudanya was signed here in a seaside home.  The Armistice, between the victorious Turkish military and the First World War Allies, Britain, France and Italy established Turkey's territory in Europe.  The first floor of the house is now a museum and we were able to have a look around.

I love the fishes 'cause they are so delicious.

The sea breeze, beautiful views and Ottoman houses were charming and we had a great meal fresh fish at one of the town's many fish restaurants.  Bony fish are much more popular here and most "seafood" restaurants do not serve shell fish.

Turkey is full of tasty foods and dinner at home is always good.  My host mother is especially proud of this dish, icli kofte.  The outside is made of bulgar wheat and the inside is stuffed with meat and vegetables.  Many of you may know that I love ice cream.  Turkey has some very yummy but slightly different takes on my favorite food.  Traditional Turkish icecream has a chewy, almost taffy-like consistancy due to constant kneeding via a long metal ice cream scoop.  The other night, my host family took me out for ice cream which was not only especially chewy, but made from goats milk.  I still think I prefer cow's milk ice cream but it was certainly something I never have seen in the US!