Eskişehir, The Old Town but modern university city.

Eskişehir (or Eskishehir) is a town near from Ankara, Turkey. It's worth visiting for at least a day. It's also a popular university city. Stay tuned for my experience here.

27-I-2020

Table of Contents

The First Rush in the Morning.

Saeli and I had to run without a rest through the metro station. It took a while to come! She was quite stressed and I was relaxed, almost indifferent. As time passed by, I also began to consider options.

After all, it was 6:17am and our train would leave at 6:40am, with or without us.

We were thinking about the possibility of taking a taxi to the train station, but the next metro just arrived before we lost all hope! For just, 3,25 TRY (0,55 USD) we travelled to the Ankara Railway Station (Ankara Tren Garı) at the Maltepe Metro Station (Green line on the Ankaray). After the metro arrived, we began running again through a spooky and partially abandoned underground pass to reach the railway station. No stairs, non-flat streets and empty sidewalks could stop us; not even a Simit seller.

After we checked for Eskişehir with our passports, we finally calmed down, took a deep breath and sat down in our seats. Finally, we were on our way to this city.

Downtown Eskişehir, first impressions.

After spending 1 hour in the high speed train, we finally arrived to Eskişehir. The round trip tickets costs 75 TRY (12,54 USD). It was certainly colder than Ankara and you could see snow and ice in the streets with freezy winds around your ears.

We headed to the downtown of Eskişehir, walking by the Ismet Inönü 1 Bulvarı. The boulevard shares between the tram and the pedestrians. It's modern and organized but not so clean; you can see a lot of few garbage bags and some rests of cigarets. All the buildings are taken care of and we didn't felt it as an abandoned city; it was actually very neat and pleasant. Some friends recommended us and now we know why. Later we headed to a lovely walking boulevard along the river. We were looking for a nice place to have some breakfast.

Turkish Breakfast, as it should be.

We didn't have breakfast. The effects of this decision soon arrived as we began to stare at any food store, restaurant or simply a publicity image of food. How to solve this problem? Of course, the Turkish way!

Walking by the Porsuk Bulvarı, we found a café in front of the river which offered Turkish Breakfast for two people with UNLIMITED tea refills for just 45 TRY (7,56 USD). Saeli suggested to have the classical Turkish Breakfast, which includes all sort of delicious typical food from here. This breakfast isn't served in one dish, but in small plates from where you can choose from. So, what makes this breakfast special anyway? Well, let's see!

Turkish Breakfast, served within small plates to be enjoyed as a whole.

From olives to marmalade and rolled eggs, you can find all sort of small delicious meals here. Here's is how it works, you pick from each plate and eat it in your big personal plate. The beauty of serving in such way in that you enjoy it with your friends or family, as everyone picks their favorite. Don't forget that the tea that comes with every Turkish meal!

Reşadiye Mosque.

I spotted a Mosque after we were walking in the downtown of Eskişehir. I'm always enthusiastic to see these places that are so unfamiliar to me. In my home country, catholicism is the primary religion but to see other religions building it's absolutely interesting to me.

As we approached the mosque, we followed the rules. Women have to cover their hair for entering this holy place and they are not allowed to pray in the same place as men. We put our cellphones in silence and we took our shoes off. All the place is covered with a carpet. It wasn't what I would call “full of people” or “you don't a single free place to step in”. It was almost empty; perhaps just 3 prayers were inside. The whole place was in complete silence. I even found I person lying down close to the wall, probably sleeping.