We arrived in Eskisehir very late at night.
Our bus was late getting into the massive Otogar at
Bayrampasa, where we had been waiting since 10am. 10am bus - full, same for 11am bus so 1pm it
had to be. It was supposed to be there
at 12.30 but didn't arrive until 1:30. Traffic
out of Istanbul over the bridge was horrendous - took an hour to go 7km.
Then first opportunity the driver had to leave the traffic
behind, he went down a hill without looking ahead and got the bus jammed
between two sections of road - front jammed down, rest of bus still on the
road. Then he tried to jack it up -
? You get it up in the air, it still has
to go either forward or back, eh? Anyway,
after over an hour of pissing about, two different tow trucks coming, plus a
crane truck, and a small forklift, which only managed to lift its own wheels
up, a big forklift came and lifted enough to get some planks underneath. Off again.
We finally arrived in Eskisehir around 11:30pm and caught a
taxi to a hotel Carol booked online as the bus was pulling into town. We were
at the “Madame Tadia” and what a superb hotel it was.
We only booked for a night as we wanted to find out about
our train on to Kars. We walked to the station in the morning and found out the
first sleeper berth to Kars was the next Friday, a week away! Oh well, travel at the end of Ramadan, expect
to be in considerable company. We
researched Eskisehir a little and found to our great joy that this city is a
Gem of the first order. We decided to
stay until Tuesday, and to go to Ankara for a few days on the bullet train,
then go on to Kars, have a few days in Kars and return again on the sleeper. The return will be a little different -
Turkey's new high speed link from Ankara to Istanbul begins tomorrow and the
new train will do the trip in 3 1/2 hours at 250kmh.
It was supposed to begin on the 11th July but there were
several incidents of cable theft (Gypsies in the area! and before anyone gets all P.C. about it,
read the National Geographic article of September 2012 about them and "metal trading")
Eskisehir.
Eskisehir is pronounced “Eski” as in what you put your beer in for a bbq, “sh” as in be quiet I’m watching the footy, and “here” as in where are you? - I’m right here.
The city is home to two universities, with the Anadolu
University being the 2nd largest in the world by enrolments (nearly 2m, mostly
external, served by 88 student centres).
The mayor of the city is a folk hero here, particularly among the young
adults. He is an Economist, of course,
who has created a superb municipal vista, with wide leafy promenades, great
facilities and a series of useful quirky initiatives. For example, all the city streetsweepers use
brooms made of birch twigs. Free,
biodegradable, have worked well for thousands of years. Why not? There are gondolas on the city canal that
runs through town. The gondolas are made
in the city workshops. The gondoliers
all promise not to sing. Every street corner and intersection has a statue of some sort.
New Orleans Blues in the middle of Turkey
A city character, immortalised
Gondolas on the Porsuk River
A city character, immortalised
We visited the Archaeology Museum first, as we usually do,
and we were touched by the grave stelae there - memorials by simple citizens
for their husbands, wives and children.
One was for a chap who died when he was struck by lightning, which said
"Well, enjoy yourself while you can because you don't know what's around
the corner." Another said"
Live your life to the full because you can't bring anything you own here (to
the tomb). Another was put up by a lady
for her husband Mytine, and her three sons (Polykronos, Phosphorus and Bubba -
don't remember the last one) who were all "taken suddenly".
A circle of grave Stelae
They have a chariot set up in front of an interactive
screen, like a race car video game, with leather reins that guide the
horse. You can drive around the ancient
city, but it's a bit hard to control because the horse goes quite fast. Lots of mud houses got bowled over and there's a very pissed off blacksmith in town, too.
We found a nice bar, “Sleepless” in “Bar” Street, and took
up a position each night on the street tables, having a beer and a wine before
our dinner. Beer was cold and the wine
Carol was served was more than just generous, it was about two normal glasses
and only 10TL. Whatever time Happy Hour
was, we seemed to be there for it.
Bar Street, Sleepless on the right
There is no Big Red Bus in Eskisehir so we got on the
electric light rail. According to the
map, there are two lines, the red and the blue.
As we were heading to what we thought was a visit to Kent Park, with the
Mayor’s latest innovation, an artificial beach, the tram took a righty when it
should have taken a lefty. We were
greatly surprised to find we were on a third route which hadn’t made it onto
the maps as yet and off to the furthest points of town we went. Luckily, on the very last stop, a security
chappy got on and took one look at us and thought “I don’t think they’re locals”. He offered to show us where the closest
crossover point was for the two lines and even got off the tram to guide
us. That’s Turkey all over.
Eskisehir's Beach
On the Sunday, we went for a wander along the canal/river to
look at the bridges. We found about 13
of these and whilst ordinarily you would pay heed to The Bridge of Sighs, Tower
Bridge, Ponte Vecchio etc, and have scant regard for bridges in small cities,
these are different. In fact, each is
different from the one before. They are
painted different colours, quite strikingly, have different ornamentation and
also each has a different span method – and are supported in different
ways. Another Eskisehir tradition.
The Turquoise Bridge near our hotel
The Blue Bridge, next one up.
The White Lace Bridge
The Purple Bridge
We also went up to the old Ottoman quarter - a great tourist attraction here and full of visiting Turks and their families. In the large mosque, there are workshops for artisans who carry on an old tradition of carving Meerschaum, found in the area (I always thought it was found in the Netherlands)
Ottoman houses in Odunpazari
Many are being restored completely
The biggest Meerschaum pipe you've ever seen.
Mostly we ate at the Lokantasis we found, but on our last
night we dined in some splendour in the garden surrounds of Meze, a Lonely
Planet recommendation. It was very nice
indeed and even though it’s one of the city’s best, it was still only TL70 or
$35 for the two of us (no alcohol as we’d already had our drinks over at
Sleepless) Breakfast in our hotel wasn't to be dismissed lightly, either. I was reliably informed that it was something I am not used to, healthy.
Madame Tadia's prepared breakfast
Monday a.m. it was off to the train station and our first
journey on a rocket train. We had
Business Class seats and they were very comfortable, with lots of space around
them and an in-flight TV system.
Unfortunately, all the movies were dubbed into Turkish, not subtitled,
so I was a bit lost.
Off to Ankara in 1hr, 10mins it was.
FANTASTIC! You do a wonderful job.
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