We slept in a little bit later today and didn't live Elif's house until around 10 or 11. We took a walk and went to a local sandwich shop near Elif's house. In Turkey, sandwiches that are heated with the cheese melted are called tost. It's not quite the same as the toast here obviously. At the restaurant I also tried the uludağ soft drink. I don't remember what the carbonated beverage tastes like exactly but I don't think I liked it that much. We ended up chatting with the owner of the shop and he gave me some advertisements for his restaurant. The advertisements were squares of cardboard with pictures of different menu items from his shop. I think he was hoping that I would be some free advertising for him in the United States. :) At the very least it would make for some decorative coasters back home. I have them in the garage or I would have written the name of the restaurant here.
Then we headed to the center of Bursa. I had told Elif that one place I absolutely wanted to see was the top of Mt. Uludağ (Great Mountain). Between the ulucami and Uludağ I think we have learned a new Turkish word, haven't we? At any rate, in retrospect it was probably not the best use of our time and resources (to go to the top of the mountain) but its what i wanted to do. It has to do with my love of mountains and my unfulfilled desire to visit Uludağ during the ski season. We decided we were going to take the cable car (teleferik) to the top! After we got to the base of the cable car in Bursa, we discovered that there was some sort of maintenance occurring and the cable cars were out of service. If we wanted to head to the top, a dolmus would be the only way. The ride up took about 30 minutes or so. When we got to the top we just kind of walked around a bit, took some pictures of the view, and got some snacks. The view was great but the experience was a little anticlimactic. If we had planned for it, it would have been fun to take that 3 hour hike to the summit from where we were but alas, it would have to be another time. We could see the summit from where we were and there was even still a little bit of snow up there! Truthfully, the air was a bit cooler than the steamy air in Bursa, so it was nice to get a break from the heat.
We made our way back down to the bottom. Elif suggested that we make their parents dinner that night, which was fine with me. Since I was there, she wanted me to try and make an American meal. I asked what sort of American she wanted and she said she had been missing a really good cheeseburger. I told her I would do my best with the supplies available, but couldn't promise much. We went to the store and bought some supplies. We were able to get real ground beef for the burgers, bread for the buns, and a cheese which was like smoother like a mozzarella cheese (but not quite). Oh well, it was the best we could do. We also bought potatoes to make french fries. So that's what our traditional American meal would be...cheeseburger and fries. Of course, I didn't think it would be quite the same without the Worcestershire sauce.
Elif's house did not have a grill, meaning the best way for us to prepare it was to cook it in the oven. I prefer this to the cooking on the stove method because it actually cooks the inside better without burning the outside (like the oven does). So we cooked the beef in the oven and melted the cheese. Surprisingly, it turned out ok and was more like a cheeseburger than any of the kofte burgers (which they called cheeseburgers) they sold at local places. More importantly, Elif's mom liked it a lot. I was glad to make her happy. Elif told me that this was especially good for her because usually after she works all day, she has to come home and cook for her father (her father doesn't cook even though his job is a lot less taxing). Anyways, it was good to make her happy and make her life a little bit easier.
After dinner, some relatives of Elif's came over. Then, Elif told me she needed to go out for a while. Apparently, Egeman (her boyfriend) had invited her out to spend time with his friends. He specifically told her not to bring me, even though he knew I was in town. I actually thought this was incredibly rude of him. I am Elif's friend and I am visiting. If they are going out with a bunch of his friends, its not like they were going to have a romantic evening or anything. Elif thought it may have been because they would speak Turkish the whole time and I might be bored. Perhaps she was right...I don't know. Either way, it should have been my choice and I don't think he should have said that. I was also pretty frustrated with Elif for going. I thought it was kind of rude for her to leave me even though I was visiting her. However, I did understand that it was her last night in town before she needed to go back to Istanbul and I am sure she wanted to spend time with Egeman. I guess even Turkish hospitality can have its limits sometimes. I shouldn't complain though, because she did invite me over and offer to show me around Bursa. It was still frustrating for me though.
So while she went out to spend time with Egeman and friends, I was to stay at home. Elif's mom's family came over (I think it was her sister and her sister's husband). They also had a baby. They were actually really nice. The only problem was that no one could speak English. So I was sitting out there on their balcony with them at a family gathering unable to contribute much to the conversation or anything like that. It was kind of an awkward situation. I did break out my good old pocket Turkish dictionary and tried to talk to them. I learned a bit about their family like where they were from, what they did, etc, and they asked some basic questions about me like how long I had been in Turkey, what I was studying, etc. I don't remember exactly what we talked about, but I don't think the conversation was too complex. After about an hour and a half, I excused myself and walked down the street to a local restaurant with internet access. There, I ordered a drink and caught up on emails and talked with some people. Elif came home around midnight and we packed for the journey.
The next day, we were taking a high speed ferry from Bursa to Istanbul. It only runs twice a day (or something like that) but it is a car ferry with a very comfortable place to sit down (it even came with a show to watch on TV). It was kind of like an airplane on the water. The high speed ferry (that's what it was called - hizli feribot) only took 90 minutes to get to Yenikapi, where we found a taxi and went back home to Rumelihisarustu.
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