People who board ferries to travel from ?stanbul to Bursa run into an old ?stanbul veteran on the Güzelyal? shores — the veteran Turan Emeksiz ferryboat.
Looking at the smoke rising from its chimney stacks, this ferryboat appears ready to carry people to various destinations. But in fact, this veteran ferry is anchored on the shoreline and now serves as a hotel-restaurant, the Turan Emeksiz Hotel. From the outside, the ferry appears no different from its original state. People visiting relatives and close friends in Güzelyal? love to tour the ferry the way you would tour a museum. In fact, there is staff on duty simply to show people around the boat and explain a bit about its history. And its history is incredible. After all, the Turan Emeksiz served on the Eminönü-Kad?köy route for 45 years, carrying millions of people between the two sides of ?stanbul. So when it was transformed into a hotel, there was great care taken to ensure that the “life experience” accumulated by the Turan Emeksiz was preserved.
Architect Hulki Tür achieved great success with the Turan Emeksiz Hotel, and all without making any concessions on the history of this floating hotel. What’s more, as a hotel, this veteran ferryboat offers modern bathrooms and toilets, beds, a 200-person conference room, another meeting room, a cafeteria and restaurants, all in a five-star atmosphere.
In fact, this whole concept is a world first. There are many ship-hotels that sail from point to point, but this is the first ferryboat turned hotel. In fact, companies in the Bursa Organized Industrial Zone see this as a great opportunity and often have their foreign guests and visitors stay there. And most of the visitors who stay at the hotel have a very difficult time departing, not wanting to bid farewell to a view that includes the gorgeous green of the mountains of Bursa on one side and the Sea of Marmara on the other.
This hotel is also convenient: There is wireless Internet access available everywhere. It is anchored in the water only three minutes from the Güzelyal? Sea Bus port. And you can reach Bursa by car in only 13 minutes and the industrial zone in 17 minutes. Despite its very central location, this ferryboat hotel is quite quiet and calm. It is in the water, but right next to the shoreline, too. The hotel is used by many people — including the directors of firms such as Bosch, Renault and Tofa? — for meetings that take business people out of boring concrete structures, putting them instead into a unique, unforgettable atmosphere — one which offers, for example, a serene and magnificent meeting salon at two-and-a-half meters below sea level and a large and roomy restaurant at five meters above sea level.
For passengers who traveled for years on the now-retired Turan Emeksiz, a return to its decks is like visiting an old friend. Murat Mestan, a partner and manager of the Turan Emeksiz Hotel, explained a bit about one of these visitors: “A man of around 55 years entered the hotel and started examining the wooden columns in the cafeteria. I went up to him and asked him what he was doing. He told me that he had etched the name of a girl he loved years ago on that column and that he and that girl had subsequently gotten married. He said he was looking to see whether the name was still there.”
“The story gave me goose bumps. The man had not forgotten where he had written the name, and he had wanted to show his wife all these many years later. But since we had cleaned the wood in the cafeteria when we were turning the ferryboat into a hotel, we could not find the place he was looking for. Still, we sat and talked for a long while. There are so many other stories like that one. There are people who come with their friends and point to seats in the ferryboat’s inner salon and say to their friends ‘That’s my seat.’ On the 7:30 a.m. ferryboat, for example, everyone had their own special seats. No one would ever think of sitting in another person’s seat. And the waiters on duty knew without even asking who would take tea and who would take coffee. Anyway, we’ve tried to maintain that atmosphere,” Mestan continued.
Last month, a group of 59 graduates from ?stanbul University visited the retired-ferryboat-turned-hotel to enjoy themselves and recall the old days. They sat, spoke, drank tea and one even got up and did an imitation of the sellers who would aggressively but charmingly ply their wares — like pens and erasers — on the decks of the Turan Emeksiz.
Mestan is actually a volleyball teacher by profession. For many years, he both played and trained in the top league of this sport. It was only when his partner, Berat Tunakan, made him an offer to take the helm of this enterprise that he got into this field. He and Tunakan put $2 million into renovating the ferryboat — which, at the time they took it over from the Güzelyal? Municipality, was about to sink — and they turned it into a 20-room hotel. The cafeteria of the ferryboat, on the entrance level, sits in its original form. Even the life preservers are in the same place. And you can still order yourself tea or coffee in the cafeteria, just like on any classic ?stanbul ferry boat. The hotel rooms are one deck up. On the very top deck is a meeting room, with restaurants in the front and back of the ferry. The captain’s room on the left of the boat has been set aside for couples or people who want to celebrate special days such as birthdays or anniversaries. The captain’s room on the right of the boat is Mestan’s office. Some of the other interesting details that have been preserved from the Turan Emeksiz’s working days are the passenger log, the steering wheel, the compass and the original wall clocks. In fact, the only large item removed from the ferry boat during its renovation was the steam boiler. When this giant steam boiler was removed, it was replaced by a conference room that can host 200 people.
05 May 2009, Tuesday
GÜL?ZAR BAK? ?STANBUL