Dinner in Istanbul: First Night

We did some research in the hotel lobby (using our tablets) and found a restaurant that seemed like a good idea: Grill Hause. As we approached the restaurant, we were enthusiastically greeted by an employee. He ushered us upstairs to a table and I almost felt like I was being kidnapped only to be fed copious amounts of food, then released. I wasn't so far off. We ate lamb, chicken, stuffed eggplant and hummus. It was all so good.

What I didn't anticipate is that this man who greeted us in the street is not unique. As we asked after dinner, we were approached by a man outside each restaurant and cafe encouraging us to come inside for dinner. This happened even as we were exiting the Grill Hause. It's very difficult to politely decline with a language barrier and the solicitor staring you down in the street. Now we know what to expect though and I'm sure we will come up with new techniques to brush off the advances as the week continues.

Planning out a fun day for tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Cruisin'

This morning we were afforded a late start (11 am) which was great. 

After leaving the hotel, we headed towards a fishing neighborhood of Istanbul I don't remember the name of. We had lunch at Aquarius restaurant which was obviously a seafood restaurant.  One of the first items they served us was mussels. When inspecting the plate, I noticed all of the mussel shells were closed, but was informed by a classmate that they were stuffed.  

After lunch, we got on a private boat for a cruise of the Bosphorus.  The boat was way oversized for our group of 23 (about the size of the Island Queen). We got to see Istanbul from the river which was gorgeous and relaxing. 

Then began our journey to Athens. Travel in Turkey is complicated, everything is congested. When we first arrived at the airport, we had to send all our luggage through a scanner. The we had to get into a line for checking in. After we received our boarding passes, we got in a line to get into a line for immigration, followed by security again. The entire process easily took an hour and a half. Then, at the gate we were very casually summoned to a bus that took us to our plane that didn't take off for at least a half hour. The flight and arrival in Athens was uneventful.  

Our hotel is a little old and apparently they allow smoking almost everywhere. They do not have wireless in the rooms as we had hoped, but the lobby is spacious. We can see the Acropolis from our terrace, which is gorgeous at night. 

Ok good night for now!

Photos: at the Bosphorus, on the boat selfie, view from our terrace 

Saturday Sight Seeing: two mosques, a church and a palace

This morning we raced out to the bus only to fight Istanbul traffic. Istanbul has been growing so fast, and even with publics transportation improvements, traffic can be crazy. It also doesn't help that we are in a large tour bus and the streets are narrow. Also, people will just pull over and park. It can be frustrating, but it has afforded us a fee opportunities to nap mid-day.

Today we visited the Suleymaniye Mosque, then the Byzantine Hippodrome. The mosque was really interesting and it is still actively being used for prayer. The ladies of our group all brought pashminas with us to cover our heads. They do have scarves you can borrow, but that creeped me out a little. We all removed our shoes before entering and I am so glad I chose slip ons instead of my sneakers. The Hippodrome is a plaza with two obelisks and a bronze statue of 3 serpents intertwined. It is interesting that even though Istanbul has so many things that are ancient and native to Turkey, they have things like obelisks that were brought in from Egypt.

We then got in line for the Blue Mosque. The Blue Mosque was also very beautiful. This mosque had more tilework. After the mosque, we got in line for Hagia Sophia. Even though we had tickets, the line stretched through the plaza. This afforded a much needed snack break, obviously. I had this bagel-thing but tried to share (so many carbs in this city) and Jenny got a pastry that was like a giant rugelach but not as good.. It was a church , then it was a mosque and now it is a museum. The mosaics are amazing and in great condition for their age.

Then it was finally lunch time. Lunch was pretty good. We had berek as an appetizer which is like a Turkish egg roll. Then we had something that tasted a lot like pot roast and was served with some mash/purée thing which I tried but obviously couldn't finish.

Then we got to visit the Topkapi palace which had beautiful courtyards and more amazing mosaics. The palace was home to most of the Sultans that ruled over Istanbul. We got to check out an exhibit of jewelry and other jeweled items owned by Sultans and given to Sultans as gifts, including a 86 carat diamond. They unfortunately, didn't let us play dress up,

On the way back to the hotel, Jenny and I got dropped off in the neighborhood near the Galata tower so we could visit a shop we had stopped in on Wednesday. We successfully navigated our way home and managed to stumble into some sort of outdoor concert, which was interesting.

Now we're repacking for tomorrow's journey to Athens.

Photos:
Outside the Suleymaniye, Hagia Sofia, Random concert, inside the Blue Mosque

Friday....

This morning we visited Bilim ilaç, a pharmaceutical company based on the Asian side of Istanbul. (Note: I thought we were staying on the Asian side, but we are staying in Europe.) As you probably already know, I love love love factory tours. The initial presentation was interesting and the General Manager met with us to discuss Bilim's many awards and its company values. They really focus on employee satisfaction and high quality. After the presentation and some tea and pastries, we were on our way.

The GMP manager (good manufacturing practices) was our tour guide. I was immediately excited because I knew he would be able to answer my uber nerd questions. We were first given a tour of the labs. They test stability (shelf life, etc) in one lab and analyze the overall composition in the other. Then it was time to suit up into our clean room suits (hair nets, tyvek suits and booties). I was surprised to see a lack of safety glasses in the factory, but didn't get a chance to ask why. We got to see where powders became pills, capsules were opened to be filled, and several of the packaging steps. I was like a toddler in an aquarium, pressing my face up against the glass looking at anything and everything. I'm a little amazed I didn't get in trouble for getting too close at times. I did get to ask some geeky questions that I'm sure none of you care about, so I will spare you. What is really really cool is that they have a completely automated warehouse. The computer program knows where's everything is and stores/picks using robotics and bar code scanners. Since there are only machines, there is no workplace accidents. After our tour, we were treated to lunch in the cafeteria. The employees are all given lunch everyday, as one of their perks.

Fun facts:
Bilim ilaç was founded in 1953 and is a family business
It is the fastest growing pharmaceutical company. but only the 3rd largest right now in Turkey
7.1% of all prescriptions written in Turkey are filled with Bilim ilaç products

After the site visit, we returned to the old city piece of Istanbul and visited the Grand Bazaar. It was way more of a labyrinth than the spice bazaar but clearly a major tourist destination. I managed to pick up a few gifts and then we were late to meet our group because we got horribly lost.

This evening, we went to the Akbank art and cultural center near Taksim square for a NU alumni reception. It was really interesting to talk to some fellow Huskies. Our professor presented a short PowerPoint about NU's growth in the last few decades. We're a much bigger deal than we were in the 80s. I spoke to some of my fellow engineering alums and I am happy to report that 2/5 were female.

This evening, Jenny and I split a pizza and now are playing in the lobby on our respective devices. Tomorrow is more sight seeing!!

Note: having trouble getting my iPhone and iPad to share pictures. I'm working on it!

Turcas, Kebabi and Akbank

I think I overdid it on Turkish tea yesterday because I found myself wide awake at 2am.

I managed to drag myself out of bed in time for a long shower and a non-rushed breakfast. We were then on our way to Turcas Petro. We were greeted by the CFO and a table full of pastries. A few minutes later, the CEO arrived. Batu Aksay is the CEO and it is shocking how young he is, he's in his late 30's if we are doing the math right. Batu presented to us about Turkey's energy market and Turcas Petro's role. He has an electrical and computer engineering degree, but was really impressive from a business strategy standpoint. Turkey is in a very advantageous "geopolitical" position due to their proximity to the Middle Eastern oil producing countries and to the rest of continental Europe. It was really interesting. Turcas is currently a minority member of a joint venture with Shell. The JV was mutually advantageous to both parties, Shell gas can be sold at a premium in Turkey since brand names are valued highly and Turcas had great gas station locations. Turcas is actually Batu's family business, but he replaced a non-family CEO two years ago, so they seem open to non-family management.

A few fun facts:
-In Turkey there are 138 cars per 1000 people. The number is higher in Istanbul, which is obvious after being here for two days. In the US we have 818 per 1000 people.
-95% of oil consumed in Turkey is imported, so they are also focusing on decreasing their dependence on foreign oil. (I keep hearing Sarah Palin saying that in my head, and thinking "does she realize how much oil we use??") Turcas seems to have realistic goals on this, in my opinion.
-70% of all cars sold in Turkey today are diesel.

After Turcas, we had lunch at Kebabi. Meals arranged by the tour company seem to just be a never ending parade of awesome food. We got a chance to roam the Kanyon mall. It was really interesting architecturally, but frustrating for efficient shopping patterns. Ultimately, it was a fancy mall and had fancy mall stores.

We headed to Akbank, which is Turkey's largest bank. This presentation was significantly less interesting to me and the speaker spoke in one of those soft voices that lulls you to sleep. I was cracking up in my head between attempts to stay awake at the photographer that was taking a steady stream of photographs for over a half hour. We were sitting in place and the speaker was standing in place. Wasn't exactly worth the disk space in my opinion. Jenny enjoyed the Akbank speaker much more than I did, but here are a few facts:
-Turkey is currently the 18th largest economy in the world. (I assume they only count countries but wouldn't Wal-mart be in the top 10?)
-50% of all Turks are 29 years old or younger
-one third of Akbank customers don't use ATMs....ever (they can use mobile apps)
-Akbank does not treat all its customers equally and if you are a lowly normal person who walks in, you could expect to wait 30 minutes.
-credit card interest rates here are between 20 and 25%
-Turkey has stricter bankruptcy laws than us and don't allow for chapter 11

After Akbank we got to change for dinner in Kumkapi district. This is the seafood area of the old town and was really interesting. We walked down one street that almost seemed like a giant St. Anthony's feast but subtract the Saint and add fish. It was lined with open air restaurants, some were equipped with Turkish traditional musicians. They were like middle eastern Mariachis. We had another amazing food parade of traditional Turkish dishes. It was harder to eat at dinner because we were just so full and tired. I tried everything but the fava beans, including the sardines. I don't like stuffed grape leaves, I just tried them for the first time tonight for the sake of adventure but they have never appealed to me. After dinner we saw the "ice cream show" where this guy dressed like Abu from Aladdin swings around this giant marshmallow thing that is actually ice cream made from goat's milk. It was really good.

It is now almost 11:30 and I am falling asleep in the lobby trying to be witty for all of you. Hopefully our hotel in Athens has wireless in our rooms and I can blog in my pajamas. Although now that Jenny and I have been to a Turkish bath together, maybe I can blog in my underwear. Will try to post pictures here tomorrow.

Note on my Facebook picture: I keep joking about wanting to take a picture with a statue of Atatürk. I also keep referring to him as "Turkish Jesus" even though he isn't a religious figure, he is EVERYWHERE. Hopefully I can pull off a selfie with Atatürk in sculpture form.

Night night!

Arrival in Istanbul

We made it!! The flight into Istanbul was late by an hour, but we got a good nap in. So far the hotel seems nice and is in a tourist friendly little neighborhood. We seem to only get wifi in the lobby for now, but we are making it work.

It's currently 8:25pm here and we are in dire need of dinner.

The food on Lufthansa is good, but it is still airplane food.

We got to rock out to Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" in the cab (taksi) here. The three of us giggled uncontrollably, and subsequently puzzled the cab driver.

More reflections to come later...