Please don’t make me leave!

16.10.25

Sometimes a place just grabs at your heart strings. This was definitely one of those times. I’ve totally fallen in love with Gölyazı.

John says I’d soon get fed up with the untidyness, but this is so different to blatent littering. It’s crates, boxes, farming gear etc etc and essentials for day to day life.

I could live there. What would I do all day? Just enjoy the ambience, chat with the friendly locals and watch pelicans.

We had a stroll all around the little streets and alleyways and I got totally carried away with taking photos.

Feel free to skip past, but if not I hope I’ve captured the essence of this special place.

It was only 35km to Bursa. As we got to the outskirts we realised what a massive city it is.

We had chosen to park by the 1323 Panoramic museum which gives walkable access to our list of must sees.

The traffic was mad, people switching lanes, pulling out of junctions and just general lunacy.

Our planned car park was full, second choice involved Google just randomly saying turn left, turn right, continue straight, turn left. It was horrendous, tiny streets with cars both sides and one point where there was no way John could swing round, luckily going right was an option but Google just kept rerouting and ranting.

Driving along the tram tracks and praying was a terrifying experience.

After a lot of drama, we found a gravelly space next to some lorries around the corner from the museum.

We tried doing a walking route on Google maps, epic fail, and there was so much all around us that it was good to just enjoy wandering.

I iimmediately fell in love with Bursa, it’s very busy and has a fabulous atmosphere. The amount of history in the main centre is just crazy.

Everywhere there was another mosque, a han, a historic hamam, a grand bazar, city walls and burial tombs from the Ottoman Empire. Just incredible.

At the first bakers I bought tahini pides. A new and very delicious experience.

Shops, hans and bazaars:

Fabulous Ulu Cami (mosque)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Mosque_of_Bursa

Bursa is famous for İskender kebab

Castle area

Tophane clock tower and Osman Gazi tomb complex

The Muradiye complex was quite a long walk away, along windy roads with limited pavements.

Before being able to face more culture we sat in the little garden opposite the complex to have coffee. I was presented with a really nasty cup of milky ‘Nescafe’. Unable to drink it I swapped it for a çay.

The complex was vast, with many individual buildings housing various important people from the Ottoman Empire.

We walked back a different way, our target was to find the Green Mosque, apparently a 45 minute walk.

We stopped along the way and had some very nice ezogelin soup. It was way past lunch time but still a while before dinner.

We spotted Irgandi bridge soon after, another tick off the list.

The final push.. My feet were burning although we hadn’t walked as far as we did in Edirne.

The Yeşil (Green) Tomb and the Yeşil Cami.

Stunning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sultans_of_the_Ottoman_Empire

It wasn’t too far back to Naz van.

As soon as there was a space in the museum car park we moved to be on a flatter surface.

Made dinner, schnitzels, corgettes, mushrooms, onion and sweetcorn fried with a bit of curry powder.

We watched a programme on ch 4,Worlds Apart, a treasure hunt around Japan and some more Destination X.

Periodically we turned the sound down to watch and listen to a fight via our side mirror. 2 men physically fighting behind a coach parked next to us. They continued arguing for over an hour.

John took Maisy out and walked past them twice. There’s 3 men now but seemed to have calmed down.

It’s almost 10pm and all is quiet… They’ve either gone or killed each other.

Before this trip I asked Google “Edirne or Bursa’

I’m surprised that it swayed towards Edirne.

Bursa definitely gets my vote. I’d go as far as to say it’s now one of my favourite cities.