I could have stood there gazing at that pool for hours. Accompanied by tiny sparrows fearlessly drinking water from the pool, we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast. There seemed to be something in that garden that stopped time. I only realized we had been sitting there for hours when my little daughter angrily called me on the phone: "Where are you? It’s already noon, weren’t you going to call when you arrived?" Yes, there truly was something that stopped time in that garden! And I feel so lucky that the room we stayed in had a garden view, a lovely fireplace, and was the kind of room that could transport my grandmother back to her youth... And that wardrobe? It looked as though it was the very wardrobe my grandmother had used all those years ago...
This time, I wanted a different kind of trip. I decided to explore my grandmother`s Bursa. Since our hotel was located in the city center, I felt that her Bursa was hidden somewhere around here. The first stop: the place where my grandmother first arrived in Bursa, "Şeref Garage." When we left our hotel and reached the Grand Mosque (Ulucami) and asked about it, no one knew. I even asked at the Tourism Information Office, but they didn’t know either. Disheartened, we returned to the hotel. I hadn’t been able to reach my grandmother’s Bursa at the very first step. But I wasn’t about to give up! Sitting alone in the time-stopping garden surrounded by high walls, I started searching the internet for Bursa Şeref Garage. I was hopeless, and unfortunately, I couldn’t come across any information either. I realized that one of the hotel staff was watching me from a distance, and in a final act of hope, I decided to ask him.
"When you walk along Atatürk Avenue, where Ulucami is located, the road splits into two. The right side leads to Setbaşı, while the left side descends to İnönü Avenue. Take İnönü Avenue and walk about forty to fifty meters downhill; on your left, you’ll see Hüzmen Plaza. The Şeref Garage you’re looking for was located in that area years ago..." My dear grandmother, I found your Bursa! Filled with happiness, I asked with curiosity, "I’ve asked so many people today, but no one knew. Aren’t you a little too young to have this knowledge?"
"Bursa; for some, it is the most beautiful city of all times, for others, a grand city, and yet for others, a city of exile. Exiles to Bursa began during the Roman and Byzantine eras. Many intellectuals were exiled. When Istanbul became the capital, this tradition continued during the Ottoman period as well. Again, Ottoman scholars, known as `ulema,` were exiled. Şeyh Bedrettin, Sinan Paşa (Fatih’s vizier) imprisoned in İznik, Agah Efendi (the first publisher of a newspaper in Turkey), the famous journalist and literary figure Süleyman Nazif, Ferik İbrahim, Mevlanazade Rıfat, and many others. Military exiles were mostly sent to Crete and Rhodes. The reason was partly because Bursa was neither too close nor too far from Istanbul; they wanted to keep them within sight. Exiles also continued during the Republic period, again involving intellectuals such as Nazım Hikmet, Yaşar Kemal, Deniz Gezmiş, and Aziz Nesin... Aziz Nesin wrote and published a book titled `Memories of an Exile` about these years of exile." He pulled out a book from among the books in the restaurant section and brought it to me. "If you like, you can take it and read it," he said.
I encountered many shared narratives that supported what my grandmother had told me. Şeref Garage, Halk Evi, the Quran lessons held at Ulucami, and the silk pillow my grandmother called her bridal dowry, adorned with that romantic silhouette of Lake İznik under the moonlight... It turns out that those paintings on those silk pillows were done by Aziz Nesin. Who knows how many people like my grandmother still keep these oil paintings on silk pillows, unaware that they were made by Aziz Nesin...
This time, thanks to Kitap Evi, my trip to Bursa became a journey to my grandmother’s Bursa. Unlike those who keep books as mere decoration in libraries, this is a hotel that reads and encourages reading. I wholeheartedly congratulate Kitap Evi and its staff. Thank you, Kitap Evi, for introducing me to my grandmother’s Bursa.
"May your paradise be in Bursa, grandmother!"
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