Goodbye Istanbul and Final Thoughts

Thursday was another full day of sessions and meetings.  All went well on the business front.   I was invited to go listen to Jazz and dinner by Brian and Alicia  but I decided to stick to my plan and have dinner with Petra.  We went to the Suisse Hotel and had sushi at Miyako.    It was like a cleansing meal;  Turkish food can be heavy.  It was also nice to just reflect on the week, what was accomplished and what still needs to be done.  Flight to London was easy and there were no remarkable travel issues at all.
Some final observations about Istanbul:

• Turks are friendly to Americans for sure
• But you gotta watch out for scams; two of my colleagues from the conference were almost taken
• Raki is a great drink but sip it!
• Turkish coffee is the best!
• The Blue Mosque is a must see and the Hagia Sofia supposedly is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
• The Grand Bazaar is a tourist trap of souvenirs
• Istanbul is expensive!
• So many homeless Syrians begging.  It was very sad

All my pics are online, check them out and thanks for reading!

Wednesday March 19, cruising the Bosphorus

Was really tired on Wed.  Not much sleep at all here.  Work was incredibly busy and we barely had a break before we were notified that by 6pm we needed to be down the lobby for the buses to the boat.
The plan was a 4 hour dinner cruise with entertainment along the famed Bosphorus River, which splits Istanbul between Europe and Asia.    Bus ride was unremarkable.    We boarded and had about an hour of drinks and light (Doritos, literally) appetizers, This was on a covered deck.  We went under the Bosphorus Bridge and that was really cool to see at night.  There were some very cool sites for sure...they light up the city along the river.

Not sure what this is, but cool huh?

 I was cornered by one particular person who was doing his best to sell his services to my company.  I couldn't escape as event when I went down to dinner he sat right next to me.  All I wanted to do was sit with my friends.    But one of my good buddies Erin sat to my left and that made a difference.   Dinner was extremely slow.   First came the classic Mezzo Plate.  Followed by a salad and then the meat plate.  Dessert was a variety of classic Turkish desserts. While all of this was going on we endured what seemed like hours of speeches.  Next they brought out the history teacher who proceeded to tell us the history of the Ottoman Empire (which was so distorted by the bad microphone and her tough accent I couldn't understand anyway.  Finally out came the entertainment.  Four dancers, two men and two women did a variety of traditional Turkish dances.   I was not up for dancing; I had a headache and since our table was right next to the DJ my ears were ringing.  It was fun for a while watching and then when the audience participation section started I started to think about escaping.   Finally I snuck out and up to the top deck and had  lovely time talking to Julie from France about their views on the events of the week.    Some friends eventually came up top deck as well.  Eventually around 11, the boat returned to the dock.   Exhausted I got on the bus and headed back to my hotel to crash. Thursday was the last day of the conference and I needed to be fresh.

Dancers

Petra, Alicia and Terri

Mezzo Plate

Meat Plate and Salad

Endless Dancing!!

Tuesday March 18th, another great dinner

This is turning into a food tour....

After I got back from the Grand Bazaar, I went back to work for more meetings with Governments and other security providers.  I may be doing a work blog at some point about this trip, and I'll be sure to link my readers to that if I do.
One of our partners took me and Petra out for dinner to a place called Topaz Restaurant.  This place was walking distance from the hotel.   Another one with spectacular views and great food.  This time I started with a soup that had a simulated ocean bubble, made with egg whites I think.  I then had tenderloin and sorbet for dessert.  We walked back, and after refilling my cash I crashed.
Tomorrow's blog will be about the cruise around the Bosphorus.

Tenderloin

Sorbet

Shellfish Soup with foam

Tuesday--Grand Bazaar

Entrance to Grand Bazaar

  Woke up on Tuesday and headed down the the gym.  Nice view of the square made my time on the treadmill go by fast.   I had a gap in the middle of the day and I grabbed my friend Erin and said lets go shopping at the Grand Bazaar.  One rather windy cab ride later and we were dropped off at a maze of indoor and outdoor shops selling everything you can imagine.  So much stuff.    Of course there was a lot of repeats, souvenirs, "name-brand" perfumes, clothing.  Tons and tons of jewelry.    And rugs, rugs, rugs.I must been asked a dozen times if I wanted to look at some rugs.  My favorite, was the guy as we were leaving who said, "I know exactly what you are looking for."  I responded, "Oh yeah...what's that?"  He goes, "rugs."  I said, "nope, I'm looking for a taxi."  I bought a couple of gifts, including one where I thought I did a good job haggling.   Also got some fresh cut Turkish delight (variety).     The big point about the Grand Bazaar is it really has become for tourists;  I'm not sure how many locals shop there; maybe at one time they did.  

Just one hallway in the Grand Bazaar

Not sure what this is

After shopping we decided to sit down and have a quick bite at one of the many food establishments.   We both got the Turkish version of the gyro a side salad and water.  Our mistake was not noticing that there were no prices on the menu.   So the bill was a ridiculous 190TL (about $86).  After we sheepishly paid the bill (thanks Erin), I asked another vendor how much for the same food, he said 5TL!!!

Two Dinners (Sunday March 16, and Monday March 17)

I had an old colleague that I connected with who now lives in Istanbul;  just love the internet for that.  I have friends living anywhere. We had been talking about getting together, and I thought it wasn’t going to work, but at the last minute it worked out.   Y picked me up at the hotel and we walked down the the busy shopping district.   She was asking me what kind of food I wanted, and I was giving my standard answer;  no eggplant or lima beans but other than that I was open.   We ended up at a small bar/restaurant called Otto Asmali .   We shared the classic Turkish Appetizer plate (meze tabagi)

Meze Tabagi

.  It had all kinds of dips and flat bread.   One of the dips was something with eggplant, but I passed.   I also had the classic Anise drink, which I sipped (with water) throughout the meal called Raki.  For my main course, just a simple salmon grilled with some spinach and potatoes.   We chatted about business and life in Istanbul.    Then I came back and crashed. 

The next day the conference started.      I had intended on getting up and working out but jet lag prevailed (I’m going down right after I post this blog).   Meetings and such went very well.   

Yellowtail Sashimi

Mushroom Risotto

That night Atsec (one of our partners) and Petra and I had an amazing dinner at the “Sunset Grill and Bar” which overlooks the Bosporus and has a spectacular view of Asia.  The restaurant was dead when we arrived at about 7:30pm.   By the time we left around 10:15 it was mobbed (people eat late here).   I started with Yellowtail Sashimi
.   My main course was Mushroom Risotto
, and dessert was a chocolate soufflé.
  We also had very good wine.     So it was Mediterranean Cuisine, but certainly not Turkish.

Today is more work and another business dinner.  I need to find a couple of hours to get to the Grand Bazaar….

Chocolate Souffle

Sunday March 17, tour of Old City (Istanbul)

Good sleep.  Even with all the street noise, I was so beat when I finally logged off, that I slept soundly.    I was excited that morning…we were going touring and it was going to be a very busy day.  

I got downstairs around 9am and browsed the breakfast buffet. This was no Marriott.  Choices ranged from many different kinds of cheeses, olives and dried fruits…to omelets and mini pancakes.  They even had a real honeycomb!  I met up with some conference friends, and we chatted about our travel adventures.      I came upstairs and quickly posted my late blog, then headed back down to meet our group.    We had 12 in our group, and that included one local couple who not only were from Istanbul, but also spoke the language.  This was going to be much easier than I thought!

We needed to get to the tram and that involved about a 20 minute walk.  It was drizzling (and it did this all day) so the road was quite slick.  I had my water proof shoes from REI on so I wasn’t worried about slipping but I was still walking carefully.  Not 5 minutes after we started walking my friend Bill wiped out.  Actually I was amazed he didn’t get hurt (or he was faking it pretty good).   It reminded me of when a hockey player falls and slams into the boards.  Usually they get right up.

Hagia Sophia

We got to the tram and it reminded me of the Green Line in Boston; except newer and much nicer.  I was really pleasantly surprised how nice the public transport was in Istanbul.   After about a 20 minute ride, we arrived at the Old City inIstanbul.  Our plan was to see as many of the famous sites as we could fit in during that day.    So we started at the Hagia Sophia  which reminded me of Moria at times with the endless columns.   The passageway to the top level felt like a  dungeon hallway (ala Dungeons and Dragons for my geek friends).  

 which one of my friends claimed was one of the seven man made wonders of the ancient world.  This turned out not to be true….but it certainly could be.  The dome alone was beyond belief.    I felt like I was in

Next we went to the Basilica Cistern From Russia with Love.     They also have two amazing carvings of the Medusa in one small section of the Cistern.

Cistern

(shit they just started drilling again).     This was a vast underground pool filled with a variety of huge fish.   It was used as a location in the movie

After the Cistern we went to lunch at a famous Turkish meatball restaurant called Meshur Sultanahmet Koftecisi. 

Turkish Meatball Plate

  I of course had the meatballs, which weren’t exactly balls more like strips, but very good.   It was still drizzling all this time by the way, people kept trying to sell me umbrellas but they were so ridiculous looking that I preferred to be damp.

Next after the lunch was The Blue Mosque. 

Blue Mosque

There were two entrances; one for prayers and one for tourists.  You had to take off your shoes and put them in plastic bags (provided) because it was a holy place and had beautiful red carpeting.   Also the women had to cover their heads.  Men and women had different prayer areas.  It’s called the Blue Mosque because of the amazing blue ceiling I believe.   Someone asked me after how I felt being in such a holy Muslim place being Jewish.  Didn’t bother me in the least, I respect all religions.  It was very relaxing there….and we heard the call to prayer, which was very cool too.

The last place in the day we went to was Topkapi Palace.  This was the home of some of the Ottoman Emperor’s sultans

Entrance to the Topkapi Palace

.  Now it’s a huge art museum.   No pictures were allowed inside, but they had well some incredible artifacts including King David’s sword, Moses’s Staff and something owned by Abraham (yes THE Abraham).  Not sure how they got this stuff, and how its proven to be authentic.   I tend to believe that this is Moses staff as much as I believe its Gandalf’s staff, but that’s me.  The jewelry was amazing though, just as impressive as the crown jewels.
We also had an amazing view of the Bosphorus

View from Palace of Bosphorous

and the Asian side of Istanbul.

I’ll talk about the evening of last night in another entry.

1st night in Istanbul

After writing my first blog, I actually was going to take a nap but it was impossible due to the drilling and construction.  So I surfed, unpacked and did a bit of work.  I was meeting my friend Steve for dinner at 6pm in the lobby.  I headed down and we walked out into the early evening of what quickly became to me a mob scene.  What I mean is it was just wall to wall people.   We walked around for a while and found a small Turkish restaurant that is typical in the area.    I had a "mixed grill which turned out to be chicken, beef and lamb over veggies and I started with a "cheese" salad, which was very much like a Greek salad but with a light lemon dressing.     Sorry no food pix won't forget next time.  After dinner we got a bit lost.    But that was actually good because it was a very refreshing evening walk.  We also saw a small (less then 50 people) demonstration and probably 3 times that in police presence with big guns and riot gear.  We avoided that group for sure.   We eventually stopped for dessert at a small out door cafe.  I had a rice pudding...wow so good.  Then even though it was Saturday night and really early I was pretty beat.  Headed back to the hotel, managed to stay up to about midnight then crashed.
Today is tour day, headed to Old town to see all the classic sites.  Can't wait!

Trip out BOSTON-FRANKFURT-ISTANBUL

My flight from Boston was leaving at 5:30 pm.  I had really cut it close with the packing, I wan't really done until about 20 minutes before the taxi arrived.  
First leg was Boston to Frankfurt (7 hours).    I met someone who was attending the same conference as me at the bar at Logan and we chatted for a while.    Then it was time to board; since it was so early I knew I was going to get very little sleep, still I hoped for some.   Flight was ontime, but it was also PACKED.   It soon became apparent that it was packed with teens. There was a US based group which actually included a fencer that my son had fenced many times (didn't embarrass him by saying hi).  And in my area about 20+ German teens (mostly girls).    And they gabbed and laughed and got up and down, the entire flight.   As the flight was wrapping up (and yes I had NO sleep), the woman across the aisle who had slept almost the entire flight and I struck up a conversation.  Turned out she was a Harvard grad student on a trip with her group to visit Palermo, Sicily.  Her major:  Ancient Greek and Latin.   Now on the flight I had watched a couple of movies including Captain Phillips.  It turns out that Sam's  (this woman) Dad is in the film industry. Richard Blankenship and he was the Construction Coordinator on this film (was in charge of building a bunch of sets.    Always fun to see who you might meet on a plane!
The walk from Luftansa to the Turkish Air was literally like 30 minutes.    Sat down next to a guy from LA who was born in Turkey and was going back to visit his parents.  Had a nice chat and he recommended some sites to see as well as some restaurants.  Once the door closed I was literally out.   Slept the entire 3 hours!  Then I had the annoyance of having to get a 2nd Visa since my 1st Visa had a typo in the Passport # field.   That delayed me a bit.   Finally got out into the city (via car service and brand new Mercedes) and made it to my hotel.   Apparently The Marmara is under construction, As only the 1-7 floors are functional.  They were drilling until just a few minutes ago....
I'm gonna hit the shower now gonna meet my colleague for dinner.

Thanks for reading!

Istanbul and London!!

Well I know its been a super long time since I blogged for my readers.  Last year's trip to Orlando turned out to be not worth blogging about (I guess Americana is out!).

But now I'm off to Istanbul tonight for a week then to London.  I'm quite nervous about Istanbul since there has been some unrest, demonstrations etc the last week or two.   But I'm sure it will be adventure regardless. Thanks for being patient with me, I will do this one justice!