Sunday, July 5

Today was a different sort of day. We left Bursa about nine, stopping only for two mosques and then out on the road. Not just any roads but mountain roads. We began to go south across the mountains that form a ring around much of the interior plateau. Just for scale, Turkey stretches about 1000 miles from west to east and about 400 from north to south. There is not a huge amount of coastal plain around much of it, but beyond whatever coastal plain there is, it rises with mountains that are pretty rugged. Those mountains made it sort of hard to conquer the area, though many tried and damaged it, from Alexander the Great to Genghis Khan to the waves of Mongols and Seljuk Turks and those who formed the Ottoman Empire... that's random, by the way, not totally chronologically correct. To defend, one just had to be aware there were only so many passes that would allow entry to the interior. But the land is/was rich, so it was worth the attempt.

At one set of royal tombs, our scholar told us something pretty interesting. The last time she was there they were selling all sorts of scholarly books about the Ottomans, etc. Now the only books for sale were rather ra ra nationalistic/patriotic things about how everyone was always picking on Turkey. I am including a picture of one exhibit... you'll see shutters with bullet holes in them.... and a sign attributing this to Greek attacks in 1923. There does seem to be a nascent resurgence of nationalism. Our Turkish guide tells us this is driven by very conservative elements of the nation. Interestingly enough she says Turkey has become geographically politicized, with people living in the interior more conservative and those on the edges more liberal. It is a country where there is palpable difference in the lives of those who have and those who have not; between the urban and the rural;and between the religiously fervent and the secularly fervent. It is a wider set of extremes than it used to be

The earliest part of the drive was through areas that you might compare to Washington's Yakima Valley... orchards, fruits of all sorts, berries, nut trees, mistiness. As we climbed, our first stop was an old Ottoman Village that is still much like it was a hundred years ago (remember the Ottoman Empire didn't end till after WWI, even if it was a bit tired the last few decades. The village is a bit of a tourist attraction now, even for Turks.... think of it as Tombstone or Williamsburg or Rothenburg ab der Tauber.... except with fewer modern conveniences. Many of the villagers display foods for sale or handicrafts.... I shopped a tiny bit. One lady who was selling knitted stockings and beautiful lace insisted on giving us little miniature gloves she had made, even to those who bought nothing. The bread was wonderful and the raspberries were the best I've ever tasted.... the blackberries were way tart, however.

After our village we climbed some more. Or the bus did. Our driver is tremendous.... and very nice, too. He takes our 29 passenger buses in places no bus has any right to go...the roads we were on were two lane only by virtue of having a white line painted down the middle. Somehow Allah provided a second lane when it became imperative.. since apparently many Turkish drivers are wildly inspired to pass when they see a no passing sign, particularly if it is on a blind curve on a mountain side. One pass degenerated into dirt and that was when I decided an impromptu nap and prayer would be the best thing going. It worked.

It was a weekend for wedding. I think I mentioned a wedding in our hotel last night. Today we had two weddings to see and they were very different from the very expensive and western style party we saw and heard last night. (Heard very late, too, I might mention!) The first happened as we were going thru a village and there were people clogging the street. We stopped (somewhat surprisingly.... pedestrians or anyone in the street for long don't seem to have much chance to survive even though we have not yet witnessed someone being run over. I think it's just a matter of time. Anyhow, the driver went to see what was going on and came running back to tell us to come with him. There was a military band.. about 10 or so men in old traditional costumes, playing rather stirring military music. We were told they were there to help the groom's family escort the bride away from her home for the wedding. An imam was there to bless her and her life with her husband and any future children. Our guide was a bit impressed that he did the blessing very fully and in Turkish, rather than in Arabic, since that is more customary. Then the bride emerged to quickly get in a car with ribbons and flowers all over it. She was in a long frou frou white gown and veil with a red lace veil over the top of the rest. I presume the red was in honor of Turkey since that is its color for everything.

By the way, some trivia... Mozart, when he wrote his military music, took inspiration from the Ottoman army (he lived in Vienna, just across the street so to speak,from the Ottomans.) We were told by our scholar that the Ottomans regarded a band with drum and trumpet like instruments as absolutely necessary for any military endeavor. As a matter of fact, when a new military commander was chosen, he was notified of his selection by being given a drum and a flag. (Eddie Izzard got the flag part right!

The second wedding was at our last stop in a little town called Sogut. Imagine dots over the o and u and an inverted hat over the g and you'll pronounce that "sao-oot" Of course you'll still sound like a foreigner, but a foreigner who's trying hard.
It was an early early Ottoman center and we went to see the tomb of the father of the first real Ottoman emporer, Osman I. It was on the top of a hill above a little mosque with more stuff. As we were leaving, the wedding party arrived.... with a whole group of friends, family, etc. The bride's gown was a western style white one, her groom was worriedly wearing a shiny sort of suit in the style of some misguided high school prom goers and all the other women were wearing their formal salvar (the salvar are country dress... long divided skirt that is tight again at the ankles. Great for working in the fields, except these were made of velvet and shiny satins and had much sparkly decor. Very chic. They let us take pictures and then began the trek up the hill to pay their respects to Osman's papa, apparently a local custom.

We were told that weddings are civil matters in Turkey. Only a civil official can marry couples. Those who are religiously inclined may add a religious ceremony but it is not necessary and it is not a legally recognized marriage if the civil ceremony does not take place.

The vegetation also changed from the Mediterranean types of agriculture we had been seeing. Now there were fields of sunflowers, fields of various grains, still some fruit trees, but mostly the other things. THey follow a European style of land allocation... all the farmers in an area live in the village and work plots at varying distances away. The plots seemed very small, but well tended and fruitful. Everything was growing. Where it wasn't farm fields it was tangles of wildflowers and vines. At lower elevations there were seeming acres of hydrangea and hollyhocks. As we climbed we saw bright red poppies and Queen Anne's lace and other things I can't identify.

Tonight we are in Kutahya... it's a bit larger than the villages,the hotel is nice, the internet works. Life is good.

More tomorrow if the internet works wherever we are landing!