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Date: 27 May 2011 08:38:33
Title: 40 37.16N 028 57.232E Iznik
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A couple of days ago Katie and I made our first road trip into Iznik, a smallish town about 2 hours bus ride to the south and east of Esenkoy. We caught an early bus which turned out to actually be a school bus on it's way to Yalova. Interesting concept to allow for pay riders on the school bus to subsidize its operation. Most of the kids appeared to be high school age going to technical magnet schools in Yalova, the big city in this area. They were paying for the ride but quite a bit less than the 7 TL it cost us. The bus was very crowded by the time we hit Yalova... I was sitting on the engine compartment and there were kids crouching in every available space. Maybe when gas/diesel hits $10 a gallon in the US we'll consider something similar. I am not sure what happens to pedophiles here... I suspect they don't get registered... but just disappear... the Turkish really love kids.

We changed buses in Yalova and saw the French sail boat that had been sailing with us up the Dardanelles tied up in the marina. We had hoped to have time for a visit but it did not work out. Our bus driver spoke good French and took us to the cafe for a cay (tea) before the bus left. When we got to Iznik he pointed out the market and best places to eat.

Everyone has heard of the 'Blue Mosque" in Istanbul. It is blue because of all the hand painted blue tiles used to decorate it. The tiles were made in Iznik. They have been making them there for a long time. Our first stop was the Roman Theater. Unexcavated or restored, lots of weeds, graffiti and broken glass, but you could still see archways, marble seats and eerie looking tunnels going who knows where. Next we came to the tile guild's tourist factory. We took the tour of the manufacturing facilities... very interesting.

They start with a piece of art work, turn it into something like a silk screen template. They use coal dust to transfer the image to a blank tile, then paint in the lines better. Maybe 20 young women sitting at small desks in head scarves were hand painting in the lines (paint by numbers?) using various mineral oxides, cobalt oxide was blue, for instance. Remember fiesta wear... I used a piece to demonstrate how a Geiger counter worked while teaching the nuclear engineering merit badge to boy scouts. The use uranium oxide (reddish) it was pretty hot. They then take the fully painted tile and cover it with a powdered quartz emulsion, let it dry and then 'fire' it. The quartz becomes a clear glaze and highlights the colors.

We saw several test samples in various locations... looks like they were experimenting with blacks and grays. It looks like the real mystery of the process is comming up with the refined oxides to render the various colors. Like the manufacture of stained glass windows in Europe. After the plague, the guy who knew how to make the blue glass died and the technology was lost for centuries.

We went to the museum and saw tiles and bowls made in the 1300s and then to the 'green' mosque - right, green tiles. We also saw the burial site of the Grand Vizier - (Jafar?...) he was the best friend of two Sultans but managed to tick off the Sultan's wife and was put to death. That's influence... Had lunch at a kaftee place, Turkish meat ball sub and were able to catch the bus back to Yalova and then Esenkoy. Iznik is one of the most quaint towns we have visited, on a big fresh water lake with just the right amount of tourist activity... the Saugatuck, MI, or St. Augustine of Turkey.

Pretty quite here... it is Friday, the Moslem holy day, and not much is going on. Still fixing a few things on the boat and otherwise hanging out.
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