Eskisehir (Terry)

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.

 

This part of Turkey (around Izmit) is very densely populated and has extensive infrastructure.  Consequently, our progress was excruciatingly slow through city after city as we inched through ports and dockyards.

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 

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.
 

 

Horse racing, 300BC

The tomb of King Midas is a bit south of here, about 65kms.

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

 

There are about 13 of these - you get the idea.

 

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.