Happy birthday to The Best of Bursa! Around this time last year, The Best of Bursa launched with a handful of photos, some visiting information, zero readers, and the simple idea of making Bursa, Turkey better known to the English-speaking world through stories and images. In our very first post, Introducing The Best of Bursa!, we invited you to follow along as we reveal our insights about visiting and experiencing Bursa.

One year, 67 posts, and hundreds of photos later, The Best of Bursa has been positively highlighting the people and places of Bursa for its growing readership. Thank you for reading along as we attempt share with you why Bursa is an interesting and special place. We hope to continue to do so well into the foreseeable future.

And one year on, we’re convinced that The Best of Bursa would still be heartily approved by Karagöz and Hacivat.

In celebration of this anniversary, I’d like to introduce The Best of Bursa’s new regular (hopefully) contributor: my lovely wife. Armed with a gently used Canon Rebel, Amy has taken to the streets to capture Bursa as she sees it. I recently had the opportunity to go along with her on a photo walk through the Reyhan neighborhood and along Haşim Īşcan Caddesi on a cloudy day in downtown Bursa. Here are a few photos that she and I took on that walk. I hope to be able to publish many more of her photos in the future.