Day 8 – September 8 2024 – Bursa – Eskişehir

… yes, from the city on the hill,

where it began and where the founders of the Ottoman Empire are buried, to the old city … first, breakfast,

the unsurpassed buffet at the Royal Termal Hotel, making up for absence of thermal baths.

At the bus stop outside the hotel:

the bus to the depot where we caught the minibus to Iznik, now to catch Camel Koç to Eskişehir.

At the depot,

out through the security clearance,

Then, later on the Camel Koç, the drinks trolley,

this, water of life, from Uludağ, where the water for the sherberts of the sultans came from.

And on arrival in Eskişehir, we searched for the ticket station to buy our tickets to Ankara … but it was not to be found… and so, followed a throng through the sweltering carpark, down the road, to the nearest tram stop. And hopped on,

and hopped off somewhere we hoped to be approximately where we ought to be,

but which it turned out was nowhere, nowhere near,

luckily a taxi stand was close, dropping us off in the pedestrian zone, past the bicycle,

and that’s how we got here,

La Vie Konak.

And out into the world, the old quarter,

to see Odunpazarı Modern Museum, J referred to as the world’s biggest Jenga,

otherwise known as OMM,

the three main exhibition floors focused on different combos of biological & human arrangements, plant and animal and human biomorphs, like,

a sneak preview,

and geological,

another exploding tapestry,

these are 3-D prints,

Tanabe Chikuunsai IV’s site-specific installation for OMM (link here),

…the gift shop held many temptations, stationary, OMM branded stuff, fun but surplus … and meanwhile outside,

Kangals the most common street dogs … most commonly seen soaking up the warmth, rather than in Orhan Pamuk’s report, roaming the streets of Istanbul in packs … the presence of cats and dogs (and to call them street animals or strays is to miss this) humanises or mammalises the environment. The animals are people too, the humans not so special. And that animals are respected, fed, cared for by all and not owned, that is owned by themselves, seems to make them respect their environments more: no dogs pissing on everything in sight, having to mark territories; no shit everywhere, in fact, in Eskişehir we saw a cat, balanced on its rim, peeing into a rubbish bin.

the number on the wall showing the number of cats we met,

ekmek,

halva,

I went on a bira hunt and found the old quarter where we were staying was dry,

over the lane from us, where our house host usually sat, smoking, drinking çay (you say drinking for both in Turkish, you drink a cigarette), was recommended as an eating spot, so we did,

over-ordering börek, which were good, but too much for our rebellious insides … a state of affairs which worsened the next day …