Well... Finally getting to a good old trip recap to be posted! Here is my recap from spending Thanksgiving in Turkey, 2008!

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A week definitely wasn’t enough time to see Turkey, but I’m not sure that a month, or even a year, would be enough time. Here is our brief recap of the small cross section that we saw:

We started out on Monday the 24^th at 7:00 a.m. heading to the airport. Three flights later (1.5 hours to Atlanta, 3 hours to JFK and just over 9 hours to Istanbul) on the morning of 11/25, we arrive at W (first W in Europe) and were promptly “attacked” by Hotel staff. Apparently tourism is pretty down in November in general and, overall, down a lot in Turkey right now. The folk were scary friendly… We spoke to the concierge and he suggested that we walk down the water to his little village (more like a suburb) Ortaköy. After a little fanfare in getting lost, we arrived at the town square and it was filled with shops and cafes and we enjoyed a traditional Turkish meal next to the water. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the mosque next to the town square and located on the water, was not only a mosque, but also contained a church and synagogue. I apparently had a lot to learn about Turkey… 

Since the weather forecast for this day was really nice, the concierge suggested that we take advantage of the day and ease into Istanbul by taking a cruise up the Bosphorus. For those that don’t know, Istanbul is the only major City in the world on two continents, Europe and Asia. The Bosphorus divides the two continents and contains some of the priciest waterfront homes in the world, easily starting at $10M (in $USD). During the cruise, we headed towards the Black Sea and ended to have lunch in Anadolu Kavaği, a quaint little fishing village on the Asian side. Before we had lunch, though, we decided to climb to fortress Anadolu Hisari on the top of the local hill. From there, we had vast views of the Black Sea, since we were only 3km away. We returned and after a

Dinner at Kōşebaşi, again for traditional Turkish food.

We weren’t sure if we wanted a tour or not, but we “negotiated” the price for a private tour –  by Omër, the Turk from Albania (Montenegro). We had a wonderful tour hitting many great sites and learned a lot from discussions with him. I share the discussions and overall thoughts in a separate document. We saw:

§         Galata Tower – Originally a symbol of peace and trade with the people of Genoa, this tower stands 67 meters tall, giving a 360 degree view of all the sites in Istanbul – this is a great place to start. The weather hampered our view a little, but we’ll definitely be back.

§         Café de Pierre Loti – We drove along the Golden Horn and grabbed a khave (Turkish coffee – Cariann just had cay, which is pronounced chai) at this little café located in a cemetery named for a French author that wrote about his love affair with a married Turkish woman. Again great views, not great weather.

§         Patrickane (Greek Orthodox Church) – Off the beaten path, Omër quickly took us to see this church which is actually the head of the Greek Orthodox (they call it Christian Orthodox) Church. Non-descript building, stunning gold work on the inside. Again, one of those things that makes you think about Turkey.

§         Spice Market – The (much) smaller of the two market, we walked around looking at various spices, pets and other fares in the area, getting an idea of how “Turkish shopping” worked. It should be noted that there will be a new “code of behavior” for Turks started on 1/1/09 intended to have them behave more like Europeans to attempt to help their case to get in the European Union.

§         Ayasofa (bka Haghia Sophia) ”church of holy wisdom” – This is truly a magnificent structure. Built as one of the first churches in the world, it was converted to a mosque after the Ottoman capture of Istanbul in 1453. In the 1920’s it became a museum to avoid the competing factions that wanted to use it as both. After the conversion to a museum, the original Christian mosaics (that we not destroyed by the Ottomans) were uncovered and it is truly humbling to see the frescos of the Virgin Mary next to symbols for Allah and Mohammed.

§         Sultanahmet Camii (bka the Blue Mosque) – Also truly impressive (and right next door) is the Blue Mosque. Admittance is free, though you cannot visit during prayer times at it is still an active mosque. What I took away from this was the overall “light and happiness” that was central to the design of the mosque – including windows specifically designed to shine the blue Isnik tiles, as opposed to the typical “oppressive gloom” of a Catholic church (remember I was baptized Catholic, so it is just my take, not a generalization).

§         Cisterns and Carpet Shop – We visited a tile museum and cistern – there were over 300 in the old City so that Istanbul could outlast any invader. This one happened to be on top of a carpet shop. After a lengthy explanation and negotiation (which involved much discussion and tea), we purchased a beautiful Turkish carpet.

§         Grand Bazaar – we ended the day at the Grand Bazaar a truly huge (over 3,000 shops) labyrinth of shops where we bought some small keepsakes and experienced more of the “shopping experience”.

They next day, we slept in and flew to Izmir for our journey to visit ancient Turkey. To begin, I took my “typical travel attitude” and didn’t book any hotels or flights in Izmir until we arrived. After a little fuss with Turkish Air (and some outrageous fares), I found some flights on a “discount Turkish airline” that flew out of the other international airport in Istanbul (who knew there were two). The most striking thing about the airport was the fact that you go through a metal detector both before you enter the terminal and before you get on the flights (searched twice). This made us realize that all of our hotels, the malls and other major “modern” locations were all equipped with metal detectors, a not too distant reminder of tougher times. After arriving in Izmir, we walked along the Aegean Sea, seeing some of the sites, including the archaeology museum. After drinking a nice tea and watching the sun set over the water, we didn’t realize that this part of Turkey was a living museum that made the building we just visited pale in comparison.

The next day began a little rocky with me getting stuck in a hotel elevator with a nice Dutch couple (that ironically lived 5 years in Coral Gables before moving to Istanbul), but it all ended up much better than ok. This was a full day tour to Ephessus – with archaeologist/guide Bulent from Izmir and our driver Urug. Some of the sites we saw were:

• Virgin Mary’s House – this was quite literally the house that the Papacy recognizes as the house in which the Virgin Mary lived out her last days outside of Ephessus. It is a solemn place for much reflection and there is a stream that runs under the house, that is capped into three fountains, representing health, wealth and happiness.
• City of Ephessus – As we drove up to the ruins of Ephessus, we saw the ruins of some columns and we impressed by the intactness of them, what came cannot be described in words. The City of Ephessus was a major city in both Greek and Roman times, serving as the Western seat of government for Julius Caesar and various other capacities. Overall, walking down the marble streets past the temples, library and stadium was humbling – the same steps as Julius Caesar, Hadrian, Mark Anthony and countless others.
• Lunch and Carpet tour at Co-op – We stopped for lunch at an organic co-op that served as a government “education” center for nomadic people to give them skills to work in the current economy. The lunch was great and the carpet discussion was again very informative, though we had already spent enough on carpets to buy another J
• Temple of Artemis at Ephessus – One of the seven wonders of the ancient world, like all the others, it has been destroyed. All that remains are a few columns and marble pieces. Our tour guide tried to describe the grandeur of the temple, though, by noting that once it was destroyed, pieces of it were used to build the Temple of Alexandria in Egypt, Haghia Sophia in Istanbul, a castle and a mosque in Ephessus along with a now ruined church to Paul that was twice the size of Haghia Sophis. It is no doubt that it was truly grand.
• Leather factory fashion show and shop – in typical Turkish fashion, we ended the day at a leather shop where the locals put on a little fashion show of the latest looks. We were tired and didn’t buy, though the leather was top notch, soft and beautiful.

The rest was a blur of travel, getting back to Istanbul, then flights on 12/1 to Paris (3.5 hours), Atlanta (10.5 hours) and back home (1.5 hours). The day was a little stressful with issues in Paris, but we got home safe, happy and ready to tell our tale.

Omer sayings:

A rooster sings best in its own garbage.

Bought an M-16 for protection.

Turkey was rooting for McCain because of its “bad neighbors”.

A stone is only hard to move where it lays.

Must turn Haghia Sophia back into church for admittance into EU.

Turkey shooting to have all restoration done by 2010.

Bad news travels fast. Good news you can wait for.

Newspaper:

Turkey must “better behave” for entrance into EU.

Blocked Youtube for attack on Ataturk

Well, I certainly have to admit that I was completed unprepared for the trip to Turkey – not necessarily when it came to getting around or packing needs, but rather when it came to my expectations – then again that is the beauty of travel. I will also have to admit that my lack of preparation was pleasantly alleviated by the kindness and downright friendliness of the Turkish people. The trip recap is one thing, but I think that I learned a whole heck of a lot more about the Turkish people and in turn a great many things about myself. So, here’s a little about Turkey that others may have known, but I learned and found fascinating.

Turkey itself is part of the “cradle of civilization” with many of the world’s earliest sites of civilization. From the Assyrians, to the Hittites, to the Greeks, to the Romans (Byzantine), to the Ottomans and now the modern day Republic (founded only in 1923), Turkey is a sizable nation, from a historical and modern day standpoint. I won’t bore everyone by going through the details, but there are historical (and religious) foundations in Turkey that touch most everyone. Here are some facts I found almost too amazing to believe:

• The “mythical” city of Troy is in Turkey;
• Two of the seven wonders of the ancient world (Temple of Artemis at Ephessus and the Masoleum of Halicarnuss) are in Turkey;
• The poet Homer was born in Turkey (in Izmir);
• The first Christian state was in Turkey (it is where Constantine declared Christianity the official religion of the Romans);
• The first Christian lectures and the place where the Catholic Church agrees the final days of the Virgin Mary’s life were spent are in Turkey (Ephessus);
• There are more ancient Roman sites in Turkey than in Italy. There are more ancient Greek sites in Turkey than in Greece. There are 10,000 historical sites and 6,000 archaelogists in Turkey.

But, of course, Turkey isn’t just a museum. Here are some facts about the Turkey of today:

• Turkey is both in Europe and in Asia (most of the country is in Asia) and Istanbul is the only major City in the world on two continents;
• Turkey has a population of about 70,000,000. Of these, 28% is under 14 and 70% is under 40;
• Turkey has 8 countries that border it (12 if you consider those in the Black Sea and Cyprus) including: Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Nakhichevan, Romania, Ukraine, Russia and Cyprus.
• Turkey is, by law, a secular state, however 99% of the population is Muslim. Turkey is, in general, a very liberal Muslim state, with strong historical rights for women, a strong tolerance (even penchant) for alcohol and extreme tolerance for other religons.
• Turkey is the “breadbasket” for the area, producing food equivalent to 650,000,000 people.
• Turkey has the world’s 14^th largest economy and has sustained 10% growth over the last 30 years, coming second only to China during the period.
• Turkey has major industries in oil refinement, electronics, textiles, electronics, cars (18 plants making cars for Europe) and leather, in a addition to the huge agricultural industry.
• Turkey has been a member of NATO since 1952 (they have the second largest standing army in NATO next to the US), but they are still not a full member of the European Union, although, they have customs agreement that allows for no tariffs (hence all the industry).

All in all, I see a lot of wonderful things and some scary times for those I met in Turkey. After a bit of discussion and learning, I see a lot of similarities in the Turkey of today and the 1950’s United States. A ton of production and a lot of perceived (and real) enemies. Turkey is still every bit the “crossroads of the world” that it has been throughout history. There are 42 ethnic groups in Turkey and there is constant stress between them, but you see Turkish flags at nearly every building in every city. Much like the states, if you say that you want openness, you have to pay the price of allowing people to talk about what it is that they want – which oftentimes makes your blood boil. Openly, our Turkish guides told us that they were “rooting for” McCain, because they are frightened about Iraq and Iran (one of them purchased an M-16 recently – then again, he is from Montenegro and his wife is from Bosnia, they have seen how bad it can get).

I will say that I was totally ignorant to the Muslim culture, having only heard about it from the news and never really bothering to read things for myself because it was “different” (and I apologize to all for my previous ignorance). I will say that Turkey is a very liberal secular state and I’m not making generalizations, just observations. The amazing thing about Turkey was that the friendliness of the people almost encouraged them to educate me. I learned about the difference between Shiites and Sunnis. We openly discussed prayer times and purposes and how that impacted daily life (I will say that most Turks admit that they are “bad Muslims”, though, taking a very relaxed approach to it). There is a bit of resentment to the rest of Europe, but it isn’t because they are Muslim – moreover it is because they feel that they appreciate and can tolerate the differences of the rest of “Christian and Jewish” Europe, but that the rest of Europe can’t appreciate very open Muslims. I was reading in the paper here a series of “rules” that Turkey was imposing on itself to “fit in” better with Europe to increase their chance at full membership to the EU (this included). I heard from one of my tour guides, though, that they were also being asked to turn Haghia Sophia into a church (it was one of the first churches built in the 6^th century, but was converted to a mosque after the Ottomans conquered in the 15^th century, since the 1920’s, it has been a museum so that no one feels slighted). The shear fact that this is a rumor (I haven’t reviewed its veracity) shows that there is a feeling that Europe doesn’t appreciate Turkey’s purposeful inclusiveness.

Whatever the reason I came, though, I am certainly glad that I did. I feel an obligation to “sing at the top of my lungs” about the time that I had, because there is so much going on. I stayed in Istanbul (15,000,000 population) and Izmir (3,500,000 population). The growth, particularly when it come to bringing the population into the cities is staggering (150,000 – 200,000 per year in Izmir and 400,000 – 500,000 in Istanbul). This country is starved to be appreciated in Europe and starved to be understood in the rest of the world. They sit on so much history and potential and they are just looking for people to buy in. I, for one, am sold…

If anyone else is interested in heading to Turkey, though, please be less ignorant to the history, geography and language than I was. It is only through the grace and kindness of the Turkish people that I had my experience. By and large, a great number of people in Turkey speak English, but a rudimentary knowledge of the language (and its significant pronunciation differences to English) makes life a lot easier. In general, my advice would be to stay at an American chain hotel unless you are willing to make a significant time investment – the hotel staff and concierges were absolutely fantastic.

More funny generalizations. Turks smoke a lot. Turks talk very close. They walk generally fast. They love to negotiate. They (contrary to the Muslim country thing) party a lot. Their language sounds quite beautiful, like a soft Slavic language. The family of languages included with Turkish runs through Hungary and Romania, but also shares roots from the Ural mountains and therefore includes conjugational similarities with Korean and Japanese. They love their families, but depend on their neighbors. They are (mostly) honest, sometimes, too much so. When shopping, they will offer you tea and explain their products, quite honestly without expectation of purchase. They love their founder (Ataturk) and actually banned Youtube in the country because two anti-Ataturk videos were posted. They don’t allow refugees to live in tents and will build copious housing for them… I could talk for hours about my impressions and I invite anyone who wants to visit about it to discuss it – over tea J

Ok. I am just returned from a trip to Auburn, Alabama for an engineering function and during the relatively long drive, I had time to reflect on some of the great places that I have visited for travels with friends, colleagues and for work. You never quite forget the first time you are struck by a place's hospitality. I guess that when I travel for engineering related issues, the people are generally very nice and are more than happy to show around their hometowns.

In driving up to Auburn, we stopped to spend the night in Gainesville, where I went to college. It is definitely a small town, but one often forgets just how small other college towns are. Our conference hotel was the Auburn University Hotel and Conference Center and I was definitely pleasantly surprised by the accomodations. In addition to a great locationa and really lovely aesthetics, I was blown away by the southern hospitality... I ran into the hotel with only seconds remaining in the UF/BYU basketball game in the 2010 NCAAs and there was no one in the bar and the TVs weren't on. When a manager recognized my panic, he quickly found the game so I could watch the end (much to my dismay) and even made sure that Jose and I were comfortable with a beverage. That "above and beyond" treatment is just perfect. Blake and Lisa at the bar gave us great recommendations about the town (if you get a chance, Maestro is truly a gormet restaurant) and the people.

I guess it just really caught me that all my excitement typically builds about the crazy trips to exotic locales and I sometimes forget how great the good old US is. I'm also getting ready for another Vegas trip this weekend and I'm excited (and a little scared) that I'm getting comped for the first time - should be interesting...

My "new mission" is to maek sure there is at least one post per week. I think this should be pretty easy since I have a bunch of my "trip recaps" that I haven't posted yet and I'm going to go through a lots of trials and tribulations to get this World Cup trip finalized... Should be fun, but either way, it is definitely part of the adventure!

Well, it has been some time since I have written (forgetting the mantra I tried to remember in my first posting), but I am sitting in Trinidad working on a proposal for work and I woke up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep. While lying here, I was thinking back to a dinner conversation earlier that talked about the Trindadian fast food "Doubles" as our host offered to introduce us to them the next morning. My memory banks felt a hidden memory and when I recaptured it, I laughed as I remembered the last time I had one.

I visted Trindad first in 2008. The firm I work for conducted annual planning meetings and we tried to do these in a country where one of our employees are from in order to gain a better understanding of the person that we work with everyday. The actual meeting was being held in Tobago, but a couple of days before that meeting, a group of us came down early to have a preliminary meeting with a well established Trinidadian firm. We had a nice lunch meeting, visited their offices, then ate dinner in a wonderful restaurant named Battimamzelle's (named after Trinidad's famous dragonfly). After that, one of the Associates of the firm, Poyntz, asked if we'd like to come out to see some nightlife.

Little did I know the extent to which Trindadians liked to celebrate, because apparently, this was the night before Trinidad's Labor Day. Of interest, Labor Day is a Thursday and in order to actually get it off, in most cases, you have to work Wednesday and Friday of that same week. Well, we headed out to a nightclub and we paid out $60TT to get in (the equivalent of $10 US at the time). While it was a little empty when we arrived at 10:00 p.m., but there was a steady supply of Stag and Carib beers and one of the fellows we were with (who was from Trinidad) introduced me to Rum and Coconut Milk. We had another friend in our group who caught up with some friends and was supposed to meet us out, but never showed.The Soca music got louder and we all started dancing. There must be something to that coconut milk and rum, but 5 hours past and our little group was well intoxicated before we knew what hit us.

When we left the club, our host asked us if we were hungry and headed us towards some street vendors. The doubles vendor knew that he had a good group when we proceeded to order three a piece, then come back for two more. Our host dropped us back off at the hotel and I, soaked in rum and happily full of doubles decide to check on my friend in his hotel room. As I loudly bang on his door to wake him and proceed to walk into his room and tell a story at the top of my lungs, he replies back that thought he was much better dressed than I was, he was wearing high end sandals and that the club wouldn't let him in.

LESSON'S LEARNED? If you want a good night, make sure you are in Trinidad on the night before Labor Day (assuming you can't make their famous Carnivale). When you head out, be sure to wear closed toes shoes if you are a guy, drink coconut milk and rum to keep you going all night long and be sure to hit the doubles stand on the way out. Enjoy!

PS - Want to learn more about doubles - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubles_(food)

THIS IS A DRAFT POST - DO NOT RATE.

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It is always a bit uncertain when I think about writing a trip recap. I’m not really sure where to begin because there are so many things that amaze me everytime I go somewhere outside the US – even if I have seen them repeated many times and in many places. So, regardless whether these things are new or old, I always appreciate the opportunity that my wife (and the wives/fiancées of those that came with me), my work and my clients give me to experience it. On to the recap…

I’m not sure whether I should say third time is a charm or three strikes and I am out when it comes to Munich, but the images of Oktoberfest are definitely something everyone should see at least one in their lives personally. Gamma and I took the overnight out of Miami through Paris. Everything went well, including the person next to Gamma getting upgraded at the last minute leaving the middle seat open between us, but CDG is one of the most irritating airports I have experienced in the world (including flying out of Miami), so all of the pleasantries of Air France were spoiled. We quietly arrived in Munich and took the east U4 line out to our hotel. We luckily were allowed in the room well before noon, so we put our luggage up and headed off to meet Mark and Ryan at the English Garden in the shadow of the Chinese Tower – which is incidentally where Mark, Gamma and I began our trip in 2006. After a few liters and some food, we headed down to the Wiesn, where we decided to follow the 06 trip once more and sat outside the Lowenbrau Tent, watching the tower with the turning Lowenbrau Lion until the sun went down. We then went to the most “foreign friendly” tent, the good old Hoffbrau.

We needed a bit of sleeping in on Friday after the long first day (really two days rolled into one), but we got up and swapped hotels to the Westpark, which is a 10 minute walk (or one U stop) away from the party for the rest of the weekend. BMW Museum, Tents, Hoffbrau Haus, Last Day, long flight…

Arriving in Hamburg after the delayed flight and long weekend was well a definite disadvantage. After arriving in the hotel, we wanted to get a jump on the sightseeing, but knew it would be a bit of a challenge because of the time (10:30 p.m.), the day (Sunday) and the weather (cold and raining). We were fortunate enough to get some good advice at the hotel from a fellow that had only moved from Berlin to Hamburg four weeks earlier. He directed us down to what we would find out later is called the St. Pauli area, which is where the shipping center is along the Elbe. His advice was to hit a lounge at the Westside Hotel called 20 up, which on the penthouse floor (20 stories up). Even though it was at night, the view was spectacular and it was a good place to start getting our bearings. At 20 up, we talked to our bartender who gave us some advice about other locations, but then mentioned to us that the famous Reeperbahn was a very short walk away. We walked the couple of cold and wet blocks to the area and before we even made it to the famous street, we were approached by two “nice Eastern European” girls that offered “pleasant company.” Between their aggressiveness, the length of the day and the weather, Gamma and I decided to call it a night and leave the sightseeing to the next day.

So, now that we spent the next day and a half checking out different parts of Hamburg, I can jump into some of the “fun facts” that I thought were most interesting.

Hamburg is the second largest City in Germany (first is Berlin, third is Munich) with a population of over $1.7 Million. It is in just about the most Northern portion of Germany (same latitude as ), but is located along the Elbe River, making it a very major port town. The City has been built and burnt down more times than I could keep track of, but was under both Danish and Prussian control prior to being formed into the German country.

Okay, given that information, I’ll run through the remainder of our time in Hamburg going through the random sightseeing that we finished. Our hotel was right on the Alster, so it was a short walk (less than 1,000 m) into the older parts of the City. We spent a good bit of time walking around and doing some random sightseeing before looking for an “American meal” to settle our bodies down. After a meal at Subway, we jumped onto a “hop on, hop off” City tour where we were able to see a number of the nicer sights. We drove past the City Hall, the port, the Reeperbahn (some of the things we had seen before, but at least this time we knew what they were!). After the tour, we decided to head back to the room for a break. In the room, we watched a soccer match (U20 Italy versus Spain – it was actually an interesting match with 6 yellow cards and 1 red card, but Spain had a chance to tie with a penalty kick with about two minutes remaining and a 2-1 disadvantage) to get in the European spirit. We then walked around the very nice area called the ____ and decided to get dinner there as well. We passed up the very popular Block House (there are a ton of them here now) for bistro called “Prime”. The food wasn’t spectacular, but we both finally got our “Hamburgers in Hamburg”. After dinner, we back to the Reeperbahn to see what it was like a little earlier in the night.

Reeperbahn – same girls, strange clubs, one very busy one, drunk kids.

On our last day in the City we decided to take up the advice of the City Tour from the day before to ride the U3 in between Rathaus and Landgursen – they suggest this area because the U runs on elevated tracks through the heart of the old City, giving a view you can’t get from the buses or walking around. We came back to explore the Rathaus and St. Nikolas’s moument, before heading back into the trip home – three flights in 36 hours…

Sights and Memories…