We had bought tickets for 30 lira per person one day before departure to Bursa. At first you get a handwritten piece of paper with the travel details. We had to ask several people just to make sure if that’s a correct ticket. They all said it was, but when we took the shuttle bus to the bus station, we had to exchange the piece of paper for real tickets. Why the hell aren’t they clear about that in the first place? Those people didn’t speak english very well which is strange since they work in tourism. They should be able to inform with basic information at least.
It was going to be a long bus ride of 5-6 hours. Luckily they have enough pauses to stretch your legs, go to the toilet or buy food. We entertained ourselves with watching True Detectives, reading Lonely Planet of Turkey and Georgia already.
We arrived around 5 pm in Bursa and had to take the local bus again to get to our hotel. We had booked an apartment and it was really awesome for the price we had paid. I must say it was not easy to find good apartments for a cheap price, in contrast most of them were really very expensive. Why don’t we try hostels? Well, when we can find apartments with a private kitchen and bathroom for 15 euros per person, then why would we bother to get a hostel for just a bit cheaper? We did try to find people through couchsurfing who could host us, but since we were a bit late with that we couldn’t find a good match. Luckily one of them replied that he wasn’t able to host us at the moment, but he wanted to be our guide and show us around in Bursa. Great!
The day after we met him, Unsal Gorucu. He told us a lot about Bursa, its specialities and showed us some of the highlights of the city, like the Ulu Cami mosque, Kapali Carsi, Eski Aynali Carsi & Koza Han. We also walked up the hill to see Citadel & the tombs of Sultans Osman & Orhan. We talked further on a terrace with a view over Bursa while we sipped on a cup of Ottoman cay (very sour by the way!) After that we just walked around the neighbourhood, visiting the musicians café where there are several music instruments hanging on the walls and random music lovers can borrow the instruments to play their favourite music. We ate together and before our pleasant day came to an end he wanted to show us one last thing: The whirling dervishes in Bursa! We were very excited to experience that and after witnessing the whole happening we were amazed.
In short terms, it was a great experience to meet a local through couch surfing. It is such a genius idea. We got to see places with him which we wouldn’t read in lonely planet books or on the internet. Places which only locals know. We loved it all and we are definitely going to do it more often. We took our goodbyes with Unsal and promised to meet somewhere in the future again.
Recommendation? Definitely yes. Bursa is one of our favourite cities till now. It has its own magic and charm. It has everything we had been expecting in Turkey but yet didn’t experience yet. Authentic city, with its colourful old houses from way back, its cozy musician cafes and local busy markets where the old owners scream for attention to sell their products. And experiencing the whirling of dervishes made it all even more perfect.
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