It's warm inside

Some cold weather has arrived these days. Many houses use wood for heating, especially in the old part of town.

"in Bursa some streets actually most of them are very narrow especially in the town center..we have lots of cars and traffic so sometimes it is better to walk....you can see from the photo the cars,people old buildings and a tree trying to survive:)"

Sun Express

There is an airport in Bursa but the only airline that flies there is Sun Express. It is a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa. For the moment the only destinations are within Turkey - Trabzon, Erzurum and Diyarbakır. This poster is advertising seats at 49YTL (€22/$33).

Bursa has a lot of inhabitants from other parts of Turkey who came to find work, so these flights maybe let them visit their families more easily. Travelling to these cities by road would take well over 18 hours.

There are a lot of international businesses here though and the ferry to Istanbul is always filled with people travelling to the airport. It is strange that Bursa's airport is not more used.

Bursa as it is now

This is the modern day view of yesterday's photo of Bursa in 1977. The mosque is still there, although it's almost obscured by the road now. This was a quiet moment for traffic - usually the roads are a lot busier than this.

Bursa as it used to be

Many thanks to Elaine for this photo. It was made from a slide taken in 1977. Tomorrow we will post the view as it appears nowadays.

Cumhurriyet caddesi

""

Palm Trees

How nice to live in a place with palm trees around. Even if it gets quite cold here in winter so I am quite surprised they can survive.

Every kind of t-shirt

Another part of the covered market in Bursa. You can still buy just about everything in this market, it is more functional than the one in Istanbul which has become more of a tourist destination. The market is arranged into different areas for different goods - this is the clothes section.

Kafkas

This is one of the newer branches of Kafkas, maker of the cakes we wrote about earlier. This branch also has a restaurant and coffee shop.

Iyi Bayramlar

Next week is Kurban Bayram in Turkey and we will be back on december 15th. Iyi bayramlar!

Memories of summer

Another view of the Ataturk statue at heykel. It was taken a while ago but it's nice to see some flowers now that the weather is getting colder.

Hitching a ride

This photo isn't very clear (blame it on the dirty windscreen) but is the best I could get. This kind of sight is quite common on the edge of Bursa but I never seem to have my camera at the right moment to snap it properly. From the looks of it the sheep aren't going hungry.

Cake, anyone?

These delicious looking cakes are for sale in the Kafkas shop. Kafkas is more famous for kestane şekeri (candied chestnuts), a Bursa speciality. But their cakes are not bad either. Here it is very common to take a cake like this when you are invited to someone's house for dinner.

Abandoned

They made an area for sitting inside the cinema at the Korupark shopping centre, but I have never seen anyone sitting in it. The empty chairs look a bit lonely.

it doesn't seem that after the movies someone is sitting there and discussing about them....

Silk Road International Film Festival

This weekend is the 'International silk road film' festival in Bursa. There will be screenings of films from different countries including Japan, Mexico, Bosnia, and even the USA :-)

I don't know if we will be able to go to any screenings because apparently it is difficult to get tickets, but we will be hanging around in the town to see if we can snap any celebrities!

Balibey Han

A new han in the town centre which has recently been restored. Inside there are some shops and cafes. Above on the hill behond you can see part of the original old city walls.

British style phone boxes

The famous red post box has made an appearance in Bursa as well. These are inside the Carrefour shopping centre on the Izmir road.

Ikea opens in Bursa

The new Ikea which just opened in Bursa. It was quite strange seeing it here.

Watermelon Slim

Another photo from last night's blues concert, this time of the imaginatively named Watermelon Slim.

Blues festival

John Lee Hooker Jr playing at the Efes Pilsen Blues festival in Bursa Suare (pronounced soirée!). Bursa is near enough to Istanbul to benefit sometimes from musicians who play in Istanbul and tag an extra night onto their tour. It means they usually play on schoool nights though, because Istanbul gets them at the weekend.

Autumn colours

Autumn colours are starting to show. This is one of many peach orchards on the fertile plains just outside Bursa.

We never milked a cow before

"This is the publicity campaign of a turkish telephone operator....they have a campaign for the children in Turkey...They chose last summer some children who were studying in the big cities and took them to the east part of Turkey ...gave them a chance to pass their summer vacation in the villages...Also for the ones who were living in the villages and got use to the village life had the chance to see the big cities...

so the photo of the pub had taken in one of those eastern villages..you can see the children with the cow ...they are going to drink their first milk DIRECTLY from the producer:)))  instead of buying from the city's big markets...

nice idea isn't it...."

Turkish style scaffolding

As we mentioned before there is so much building going on in Bursa at the moment. I don't know anything about how this scaffolding compares with the metal sort used in some other places, but I think it looks nicer.

Iznik medresa

"it is the peaceful part of one of the medresa in iznik(it is situated about 100km. to bursa,it was the capital of Byzantin Empire  1204-1261)..it is renovated of course..there are some doors inside ..these were once the classes for students who came here to study religion..nowadays they are shops selling pottery and you can have a nice cup of tea or coffee in front of the shops.."

Walls in the old city

This wall is on the edge of the covered bazaar complex, facing onto Cumhuriyet (Republic) street. It seems like there used to be more of it, possibly it was removed to make room for the street.

relax..

"relax during the daytime in front of this little cafe..the men on the right they are playing backgammon...nice game to pass time...in turkish it is called -tavla-...there are some shops around..probably the workers come to pass time and drink a fresh lemonade!!"

inside the market

"this is the decoration of the ceilings in the covered market...there are some shops selling special things for the wedding party...actually it is before the wedding...the groom's family should buy to the bride and her family some presents..so the shops in that part of the market are specialized for this reason..."

Entrance to Ulu Cami

"the second entrance of the big mosque(Ulu Camii)...you have to leave your shoes outside the mosque ...it is forbidden to walk with shoes inside ..there is a huge carpet on the floor...before everybody was leavng them outside,nowadays they are giving plastic bags to put the shoes in because they might be taken(stole) by somebody..."

Back soon

I snapped the postman's bike while he was off delivering letters. Looks like the postal service is modernising with these new scooters.

Underground fountain

"this historical fountain is very inside of the bazaar...the covered market in Bursa has got so many little roads inside..you walk through one of these and you can come to this old fountain made of marble...you can drink clean water from the mount of Uludag.."

Shoes for sale

"COME COME TO BUY THE CHEAPEST SHOESSSSSS:: the man was yelling...these are colourful summer shoes for women...the are selling them near the road...if somebody likes and wants to get one please send us a message we will ship you.....hahaha"

Devlet Tiyatrosu

"this is Bursa's main government theatre..they have given one of the famous turkish poet's name..the season has just opened.... "

Religious Books

"In the entrance of the bazaar near to the main Ulu Camii there are some religious book sellers...the ones on the top are Kur'an ..the other ones' are little prayers for daily life.."

Fried sweets

"these are fried sweets ...they are natural bombs for energy...it has a taste similar to churros (spanish sweet)...i think it is origin is coming from syria but i am not sure...it is very very sweet indeed...it can warm you up quickly in a cold winter day...yum yum.."

Egg shop

So many eggs for one little shop!

Ikea comes to Bursa

This post is for anyone who thought Bursa was not on the international map... that's right Bursa IKEA will be opening soon! Bursa has been flooded with advertisements like this one for the grand opening on 13th November. The caption says 'Uludağ (mountain) is in Bursa, and a mountain-like bookcase is in one box'

We are also very pleased to add Elaine of Willits Daily Photo as a new author on BDP. Elaine has kindly offered to help us with potential logistical difficulties over the next weeks (or months, if it goes anything like the Wordpress ban)

Pideli Köfte

Apologies to vegetarians for this post...

When we sat down in the restaurant they asked if we would like one or one and a half portions. This is the small version!

The dish is a bit like the famous Bursa kebab - cubes of pide bread with tomatoe sauce eaten with yogurt on the side. However instead of sliced lamb as in the Iskender kebab, it is topped with meatballs (köfte). Yum!

last summer sun..

"come along to drink a glass of tea in the last sun of the summer...which they call here "the summer of pastirma" ...pastirma is a kind of dry meat..and definitely Lamia i mean me should learn why Turkish people use that term. so keep watching later you will find the answer coming soon..."

Diving Suit anyone?

One of the more specialist shops founds in the centre of Bursa. I think you can buy everything here, if you know where to go!

Blocked

A lot of renovation work is going on in the town centre at the moment. This is one of the houses that have been restored.

Blogger and all blogspot blogs have been blocked in Turkey from this afternoon, so please bear with me if posting is a bit erratic until it comes back - it's not very easy to get into the site at the moment.

Flying Saucer?

here's another shot of the spaceage Korupark, this time from above.

Korupark

Korupark is one of two large shopping malls to open in Bursa over the last year, and has become a favourite weekend activity for a lot of people. Inside are international chains as well as Turkish shops. It's not bad as shopping centres go, but the town centre is more atmospheric.

Autumn Leaves

The leaves are starting to turn autumnal these days. I like these colourful red ones.

Olive Groves

Outside Bursa towards a small town called Gemlik are olive groves which produce olives and olive oil for consumption all over Turkey. By the side of the road around Gemlik there are shops selling delicious olive oil, soaps and other olive oil products.

Getting ready for Christmas

Now that seker bayrami (the holiday at the end of Ramadan) is finished, the shops are already looking forward to Christmas. Christmas is not a holiday here, but there are still Christmassy things in the shops and the odd tree.
There are a few Christmas designs among these colourful slippers.

Fresh from the oven

Hard at work baking bread in time for iftar.

This will be my last post for a few days as for the rest of this week we are celebrating Eid.

New motorway

This was taken on the new motorway that runs around the top of Bursa. At the moment it doesn't go anywhere else, but they are working to extend it and hopefully at some point it will connect with Istanbul and Izmir. It would certainly shorten the journey times to have a good road.

You can probably tell from the photo, we are having a lot of rain at the moment!

Popcorn

I had never seen a popcorn machine like this before, although I'm sure they are common in other places. The metal pan is making the popcorn and when it is ready the lids at the top open and the popcorn jumps out.

Dolmus

The dolmus is a very convenient way of getting around. It is a type of shared taxi which runs on a set route (the sign on top of the car says what route it does). You pay a set fare generally, but you can get in and out wherever you want by asking the driver. The fares are comparable with the bus and they are very frequent so it works very well.

Bursa plain

This photo was taken looking across the plain from Çekirge. A lot of new development is taking place in the far distance of this photo, but there is still some green left in the middle for now at least.