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Weil here we are in Bursa. Big driving day today, about 6 hours on the bus but it was interesting scenery and Omer entertained us with firstly a history lesson and then just some stories.
After leaving the capital Ankara we head out about 40 minutes and into the middle of nowhere to Gordion. The are is largely agricultural, potatoes, onions and garlic, but the are also a number of mounds. These are burial chambers or tumulus. The most well known is that of King Midas. Yes, that King Midas. - so they say.
The tomb has been excavated and an entrance tunnel created. There is nothing in the tomb now but the wooden structure or bural chamber is still in place.
He was buried with any gold but the pottery pieces that were found at the
site are now in the museum we visited yesterday.
Back on the bus Omer passes around a newspaper written in Englsh that has details of the demonstrations that took place in Ankara last night as a result of the Syrian bombing over the Turkish border that killed a family of 5. There was a very heavy police and army presence in Ankara as we left this morning. The soldier and the police are all carrying machine guns!
Back on the road now we have a lunch stop at a shopping mall which is a bit different! It's almost like we are being rewarded for behaving ourselves!
Our next visit is to a small village just out of Bursa.
"Cumalıkızık is a village located 10 kilometers east of Bursa, at the foot of Mount Uludağ. Its history goes back to the Ottoman Empire's foundation period. The village is now included within the border of the Yıldırım district as a neighbourhood. Cumalıkızık was founded as a vakıf village. The historical texture of the village has been well protected and the civilian countryside architectural structures of the early Ottoman period are still intact. Because of this, Cumalıkızık has become a popular but still unspoiled center for tourists."
The streets of this village are cobblestones and very narrow, more like lane-ways. The houses are mostly 2 story and are mud brick houses. They appear quite rundown but the village is still fully occupied and outside of the houses the women are selling their baklava and preserves, fruit etc.
Onto Bursa now. The traffic is horrendous again but as usual Turgay gets us through. The hotel is located adjacent to a Turkish Bath house. Some of the group opt for a Turkish Bath but we have already experienced this o we go for a walk up to the street and risk our lives crossing the street. Not much to see so we go to the shop, but some beer and go back to our room to enjoy a drink on the balcony.
Tomorrow, we are on the road early again to return to Istanbul. Our Turkey experience is drawing to a close........
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