Troy and Bursa, Turkey - 9 November

We left Canakkale this morning at 8:30 after a pitiful breakfast of toast and tang. Too cruel! We drove directly to Troy which was only ½ hour away. Along the way Bora gave us an overview of the site and how the myth of Troy was interwoven with the reality of the city. He did a phenomenal job of capturing the essence of both and then concluded by telling us not to expect too much from the actual site of Troy. It was going to be a full-fledged archaeological site where we would find ruins and such.

Our first stop at the site was at a Trojan horse designed by an architect in the 1990s. Definitely not my vision of what the Trojan horse looked like but it served its purpose of getting everyone excited about seeing the site of Troy. Bora then led us to the ruins of Troy and the real excitement began. Despite the fact that there are substantial ruins to look at there are still enough there to give you a sense of what used to exist. I never realized that there over the period of several thousand years nine cities were built on the same site. It was such a valuable piece of real estate with respect to proximity to an important section of the sea that when the city was destroyed by war or something else, the next group of people would build right on top of the old city. Helen of Troy occupied the third city of Troy (if that makes any sense). Bora led us around the area for about an hour telling us stories about the different civilizations and efforts by the archaeologists to interpret the site. The photo shows several of the nine layers that have been uncovered by researchers at the site.

We drove for five hours to get to Bursa after Troy. We had a terrible time finding a place to have lunch along the route because the tourist season is over and the restaurants aren’t prepared to feed a horde of 45 people all at once. We finally resorted to driving into a city that the bus driver was familiar with. It was perfect. We were dropped off in the center of the city and given one hour to find something to eat. Eileen and I were the first off the bus and were eager to get a few minutes away from the students. But alas and alack that was not to be. Apparently, we are the Pied Pipers of Trip Leaders and at least half of the students followed us into the restaurant that we chose. Grrrr! The poor restaurant workers looked quite overwhelmed at having 20 Americans come into their restaurant at the same time but they did a magnificent job of serving us and getting us all fed. To make matters even better, the food was delicious! We had shaved beef on a bed of rice that made my taste buds do the happy dance. We had ½ hour to spend walking around the city after that and then back on the bus for the rest of our drive to Bursa.

As we were driving into Bursa, Bora was giving us the usual tour guide spiel about the area. He said, “What is important about Bursa? Nothing!” I think he is the first honest tour guide that I have ever met! We loved him!!! He went on to say that Bursa is a fun city to visit because of it’s proximity to the ski resorts and some markets although he did tell us that the soccer team was horrible. If Bursa has a Chamber of Commerce they would probably want to strangle Bora but we enjoyed his remarks.

Before we went to the hotel for check-in we were given an hour in the silk market before it closed at 6:00. Eileen and I made the circuit around the shops and fell in love with the pashmina scarves. They were so soft and cuddly yet so outrageously expensive! This is an expensive country for us because the dollar is tanking. Five months ago the exchange rate was 1.7 lira per dollar. Today it is 1.17 lira per dollar. After deals we were getting in Vietnam, Thailand and India, this is incredibly painful.

After the window shopping excursion, we went to the hotel and checked in. Dinner was in the hotel restaurant and it was quite good. Afterwards, Eileen and I were invited to join some students who were walking to a nearby mall. We agreed (when do we ever turn down a shopping opportunity!) and walked to the shopping mall. It’s not as fun as going to a market but at least they have bookstores and such to browse. I went into the bookstore and found the British version of InStyle magazine which is one of my favorite guilty pleasures. It was the November issue which I hadn’t read so I went to the counter to buy it thinking it would be about 4 to 5 lira. WRONG! It was 16 lira (approximately 14 dollars)!!! I think I was in shock because I actually bought the damn thing! A $14 dollar magazine. Am I insane? I have to be! I told some of the students what I had done and they looked just as amazed as I felt. I told them that they had to read the magazine after me so that I would get my money’s worth out of it. I think the entire bus will have to read it to achieve that!

After that, all the fun had gone out of the shopping so Eileen and I headed back to the hotel so that I could read my pricey magazine. I made sure that I read every ad, caption and article in that thing. After that and a few minutes of Turkish television I was ready for bed.