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Beguiling Bursa
 The chic ski resort and old Ottoman capital of Bursa is off the tourist track but, says Pate Yale, it’s easy to get to this real old Turkish town
A quick glance at a map reveals how close Bursa is to Istanbul. But not many visitors to Turkey ever make the three-hour journey to the other side of the Sea of Marmara, which is a great shame because few big Turkish towns have more to offer. It was Bursa, after all, that gave birth to the first Ottoman leaders. And it was Bursa that gave the world the Iskender kebab, that lip-smackingly lovely confection of meat, bread and yoghurt.
Beyond those well-known attractions, Bursa is also an important spa town, with more hamams and hot baths per head of population than anywhere else in the country. It sits in the lee of the wonderful Uludag, the soaring mountain that is home to Turkey’s finest ski resort.
Bursa is densely studded with historic monuments, mostly dating back to Ottoman times, but it is, at the same time, one of Turkey’s more modern cities. The City Museum, which recounts the history of the Ottomans, is one of the few state-of-the-art collections in the country, while the Museum of Anatolian Carriages, from horse carts to vintage cars, offers a rare antidote to all the history. There is decent accommodation to suit all budgets, and if you finally tire of supping on meat with yoghurt, stroll down Sakarya Caddesi, which throbs with life every night as its many tavernas fill up with fish-loving, raki-drinking locals.
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