Not all bad

Realizing that my early post made it seem like my long weekend didn't go well I felt I'd be remiss if I didn't admit that it wasn't all bad. I had an experience which was probably my most authentic Turkish night out while in Bursa. After wandering around the area by our hotel Saturday night D and I couldn't find anywhere that looked like it would be good for hanging out, getting a drink or two and just relaxing. So we headed back to our hotel to ask the man at the front desk if he could give us a recommendation. He did better than that. He asked us to wait a few minutes and then came out with a friend and proceeded to take us along on his Saturday night out. This is typical of the warmth of the Turkish people. We ended up at a live music lounge with him and about 5 of his friend (included one other desk clerk from the hotel - the third was still at the hotel on duty). We listened to 3 or 4 performers, got a sense of excitement when a "famous singer from Istanbul" (their words - I still don't know who she was) was spotted and brought up to the stage for two songs, bounced up and down to peppy Turkish music when they pulled me to my feet...Really, just felt like I was getting an authentic experience as the room was filled with Turks, and in fact I'm not sure there were any other foreigners in the place. A pleasant evening that was everything we were looking for - and a much better end to our brief sojourn then expected. (Those are our hosts - Erkan and Alessandro - in the picture)