from SATURDAY diary (3)

BALCONIES, CHATTING, THE BLACK TOWER, TEXAS, TRANSSEXUALS, EUROPEAN UNION...

Turks emphasize the importance of balconies and open places to chat over tea or Nescafe. in general most apartments have a balcony and half of them have a small hearth where people can barbecue their kebab. more often than not they serve as a shelf for a a flower vase. the strangest building among the mosques the ottoman style homes, hamam domes, Zafer Plaza with it's Vegas style entrance, most be the Black Tower. South of central bursa, near the Terminal, stands alone and peculiar a black high-rise apartment building, and no other building like it. it stand against a mountainous backdrop as if space and time folded over some ordinary American city building and transported it to Bursa.

Texas is a state in the USA. It's also a word spray-painted as graffiti around the city. it refers to a gang of Bursa football fanatics. They supposedly chose the name because tough people come from Texas. They are well-known for extreme rioting at football games, vandalism, fighting, etc. They probably joined the Association of Tradesmen for Bursaspor (football team) to threaten and prevent a planned demonstration in August by an organization for the rights of homosexuals and transsexuals. The police ordered the cancellation of the protest due to concerns for "public safety" -- was is in order to protect its citizen from harm or from homosexuals? The city has since tried to close down the organization known as Rainbow. So far they have been unsuccessful, probably due to the watchful EU and Turkey's bid to join it.