22.10.2011 – 22.10.2011  16 °C

(This blog is named especially for Malia, Jacqui and Sue!!)

Another early morning this morning as we headed out on a bus to Bursa. Bursa is about 4 hours drive south of Istanbul near the Aegean Sea. We firstly headed over the bay on a ferry for about an hour before we boarded a bus for Bursa. The bus ride was very uneventful and saw us arrive at Bursa about lunch time.

Bursa is a famous silk growing area so we spent some of our afternoon trawling the silk markets before heading to a thermal hammam (Turkish bath). I went with three other ladies from the trip and we were certainly in for a treat! It cost us 25 dollars for us to enter the baths, have a loofah scrub and a massage. The soak in the thermal pool was very pleasant (although slightly warmer than I would prefer) before it was my turn to be scrubbed and massaged. The scrub and massage occurred on a marble table within the pool complex. I had a lady that we nicknamed Helga because she was certainly well built and was very muscular. I hopped up on the table, had my swimmers hoicked up my bum and was then scrubbed within an inch of my skin.. I felt quite a bit like a prized piece of meat because when she was finished with my back she slapped me on the bum and indicated I needed to turn over. I then had my hands pulled up above my head and scrubbed all over my tummy, arms and legs.. The amount of dirt and dead skin that came off was pretty embarrassing (although apparently normal.. or maybe she was just being nice to me!) and I felt quite red raw! Next came this massage with soapy, sudsy stuff.. Again I wouldn’t class it as a relaxing massage but it did do the trick because once I was rinsed off I felt pretty damn good!

We headed out after dinner to see some local sites and sounds. First stop was to see some local Turkish men play traditional music in this little tea house. The men were playing with a bongo style drum and some stringed instruments which reminded me of lutes. The music probably wouldn’t be the next number one on MTV but its nice to hear that the locals still playing traditional arias. From here we headed to see a ‘Dervis’ prayer service. It was certainly an experience!! We arrived to hear the Imam droning (that is the only way to describe the way he was talking on the loudspeaker) on to his parishioners. Apparently he was answering theological questions for his flock. Whilst he was talking to his flock we were sitting inside this building (its not a mosque but it is a cultural centre where they all meet to celebrate Islam—I think) drinking Turkish tea and being preached to by a leader of the group. I have to admit that I didn’t understand a lot of what he said (mixture of poor English and the background droning) but from what I could work out the Dervis are Muslim and they celebrate daily in something similar to an Evensong prayer service that we would have in a Christian church. They play music and sing prayers (I think) whilst 7 men dance around in white dresses and brown felt fez type things. They spend about half an hour continuously turning in a circle around the imam. The dance signifies something to do with the belief that we are all turning around the sun and ultimately the universe is turning around Allah.. I think… I really struggled to understand the symbolism of the dance.. Taking away from the religious side of the performance it was pretty amazing to see these men continuously turn for half an hour and seemingly not get dizzy. They certainly didn’t fall over and didn’t run into each other which I think was pretty amazing.

I started to understand some of the differences between women and men during this service. For one the women had to cram into this mezzanine level above the dancers and musicians whilst the men stayed downstairs to see the service. To get upstairs we had to climb a very steep staircase and it was incredibly hot in the upstairs area… there was a couple of times when I felt quite unwell. At the end of the performance the men all left and then the women were allowed to come downstairs and then afterwards the women all met with the Imam to have their theological questions answered (the men had theirs answered before the show).. These are not broadcast! You do feel slightly like a second class citizen here.. I guess though you have to suck it up if you want to spend time in a Muslim country (and Turkey is pretty liberal and very moderate… Just imagine in Saudi or Iran!!)

By now it was well after 11pm so we went to bed as tomorrow we are off to Selcuk to see Ephesus.