The Lovely Town of Bursa

This weekend I ferryboated across the Sea of Marmara to check out Bursa, early Ottoman capital and home of the famous Iskender kebab. Bursa should also be famous, I think, for the formal wear sold by a disproportionate number of its windowed stores. In such windows, it's a 50-50 split between poofy-skirted dresses (including but not limited to wedding dresses) and sequined-and-feathered white outfits for boys ages 6-12. In this context, "outfit" means pants, shirt, vest, turban, cape, and scepter. Lucky boys get a sash indicative of royalty or a high school homecoming court nomination and those afraid of looking like a powder puff are appeased with a Spiderman cape.

Tourists, like myself and the Japanese, haven't spoilt Bursa nearly as much as Istanbul. It has the nickname "Green Bursa" for it's parks, but is largely an industrial city now, which doesn't attract as many crowds. We weren't hassled in the market, prices weren't as inflated, and people obliged our picture taking.

This happy town will doubtless continue operating this way until 2012 when the Mayan calendar predicts that the poofy dress district will produce a terror imaginable by only the Japanese tourists who don't even go to Bursa: BRIDEZILLA!

(Dun, dun, duuuuun.)

Holy See of Gelato

The Great Italian Gelato Tour: Guidance for the Journey

--In accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church and the travel goals of Jessica Nelson--

1. You shall never repeat a flavor.
2. You shall always order a triple scoop. 
3. You shall never spend more than 1 Euro per scoop.
4. Remember to record the name, flavors, and an image at each establishment.
5. Honor the gelato by eating it before reduced to liquid.
6. You shall not buy gelato at a gelateria with a giant cone outside. 
7. You shall not not share with your travel partner.
8. You shall make every effort to be near a landmark when eating gelato.
9. You shall not have more meals than gelato. 
10. You shall not buy gelato from somewhere that also sells pizza; you shall not buy from somewhere that also sells spaghetti, nor calzoni, nor cannoli, nor biscotti, nor espresso, nor anything that is not gelato. 

This was all part of a pilgrimage--a hajj if you're into syncretism--to tour the gelato of the Italian country side, eventually building up to the Pope's favorite gelatoria.  When the Powers that Melt brought us unexpectedly to Il Gelato Di San Crispino we were still holding a triple scoop of torroncino, zab aione and zuppa inglese.  But as it was by the Grace of all that is Good and Creamy, we downed the Caffe Ai Tre Tartufi-1896 production in accordance with commandment 5 and went in.  

The Pope is a bit of a charlatan, I think.  The gelato was overpriced (commandment 3 violation) and massively undersized. But we aren't Catholic so maybe that's what went wrong and if it was, it's the most convincing argument for conversion I've heard.  Still Lutheran, still a good tour.

Soon to be enshrined in St. Peter's Basilica: The Great Italian Gelato Tour Photo Album 

Magic Carpet Sellers

After a weekend's fruitless search for karaoke, five friends and I had our need of cash mistaken for an interest in purchasing a rug and were ushered into the carpet store behind our chosen ATM. Turkey is big on rugs.

Over the course of 4.5hours, a brother-sister, third generation, carpet-selling duo unfurled rugs, adjusting the size, type (cotton-on-wool, cotton-on-silk, wool-on-wool, never cotton-on-cotton), and color in response to the non-worded noises made by the six of us, sitting on a silk-on-wool-covered couch.

We were taught about the different rug types, how most Istanbul dealers would try to sell us nylon rugs, where the "secret messages" were in each rug and what they meant in the context of the nomadic woman who made it, how long it took to make each rug, how the price was justified, and how our grandchildren would be able to inherit the rug.

A collective 1600 TL ($1100) was spent. Having only 5TL and an expired drivers license with me, I didn't make a purchase. My lack of means was quite timely because after the fourth hour the price of my purple wool-on-cotton Bahtiyari flat woven, double knotted, and embroidered carpet dropped from 750TL to 600TL to 500TL, or 550TL if I also bought the smaller Kilim rug (underneath) that I also liked.

I'm hoping for more rumors of a military coup, causing the Turkish lira to fall further. If it does, I will email Hassan and Asude.