Eyes

Our first full day in Istanbul!  After yesterday's day of traveling, we were pretty pooped, and we all slept pretty good.  We were going to be in for a long day of sightseeing, so we were up and at 'em bright and early so that we would fit everything in.

We had our breakfast at the hotel (which wasn't as nice as the Best Hotel in Ankara), and we were soon hoofing it towards the sights.  Our hotel is just a few blocks from the major historical sites.  We walked towards the Blue Mosque, and along the way, we spied the Egyptian Obelisks in the middle of the Hippodrome of Constantinople (where they used to have horse and chariot racing).  The Blue Mosque sits right behind the Hippodrome, and is an impressive marble structure with six minarets.  It isn't blue on the outside, but rather it gets its nickname from the inside (it's actual name is Sultan Ahmed Mosque).  The decorations on the walls and ceilings feature a lot of blue, thus giving the mosque it's nickname.

Destinations

Because I'm so far behind, I'm gonna shorten up my blogs until I catch up. Sorry about that!

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I had until 12:30 to do everything I wanted to do in Ankara. We were leaving the hotel for the bus terminal at that time, and our bus would leave the depot at 1:30 in the afternoon.

Performances

Today is our final day of business visits in Ankara. I'm pretty tired from staying up last night, so I decided to skip the gym this morning. I showered and dressed, and by 8:30 we were on our way back to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. We were to pick up Mr. Eser and a colleague, and then drive out to the Industrial Zone.

The Industrial Zone is pretty far from the City Center. It's almost 40 minutes of highway driving. This gave us plenty of time to chat with Mr. Eser and his colleague. Mr. Eser was asking how we were enjoying Ankara, and he asked if we had enjoyed any of the nightlife. We told him about the Jazz Club we went to the night before, and he smiled and told us our Turkish friends took us to the right spot. I did a double take! Did the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Assistant EU Expert just give us props for going to a Jazz Club? He's a pretty cool guy!

Playing in the Streets

I apologize for this blog posting being late.  I can't believe I'm already behind!  I've super-sized the blog to make it up to you!  On to the blog!

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This morning redefined "a brisk jog."

Wil, Yaseen, and myself decided that going for a run outside would be a good idea.  Well, actually Wil and I thought that.  Yaseen didn't know we were running outside until it was too late.

Peace

I got an early start today so I could hit the gym.  I've been having a fantastic time here in Turkey, and that includes enjoying all the wonderful food!  So going for a run and lifting some weights would do me some good to offset some of this guilt!

Yaseen was already down there, and we chatted as we both worked out.  I did a nice brisk run (once I figured out the speed was in kilometers per hour rather than miles per hour!), and it felt pretty good.  I came back up, trimmed the beard, and headed down for breakfast.  The whole group was soon down there, enjoying the breakfast buffet.  We swapped our stories from the past few days, and afterwards, we met as a group to discuss business meetings.  Once done, I raced back up to the room, finished getting ready, and was back down to meet the rest of the group before our first business visit.

Expectation

Here is how it was supposed to be.

My eyes opened at 4:30.  I was kinda excited about what would happen this morning, and I am lying there surprised how I was able to get any sleep at all, given my excitement!  I got up, walked to the bathroom, and took a nice hot shower in the über-shower in the Cave Hotel.  I dressed, added another layer to make sure I'd stay warm, and then I made my way to the lobby.  Scilla was right on my heels, and we both greeted our driver at 5:00.  We walked to his van, climbed in, and he drove us to the launch site.

In the early morning hours, as the sun was peeking over the hills, we watched as life was breathed into the hot air balloons.  As the hot air filled them, they looked like sleeping giants roused from their slumbers, their growing bodies lifting towards the sky.  The early light was lighting the surface of the inflating balloons, and we watched in awe as the balloons straightened themselves out and brushed off the dust and dew.

Whirling Dervishes

We had an early start this morning.  I was up at 6am. showered, and packed my day bag.  I packed everything else into my suitcases because we are checking out of our hotel this morning.

Don't worry.  We planned this.

Today's schedule is to check out of our hotel, drive to the Cappadocia region (which is about 4 hours South of Ankara), and tour this cavernous region of Turkey.  It's going to be a lot of traveling, but it should be worth it!

Tales from 37,000 Feet

So it's been an interesting flight so far. Not that anything particularly dramatic has happened. When I'm flying, that's a good thing. But it's hardly been totally boring, either. I'll fill you in on some of the news as I hurtle through the atmosphere at 550 mph.

Cryin' Kids

So about 3 rows back, there's a woman who's flying with 3 kids. That's a brave woman, people. I think her youngest isn't having a good time, and by default, neither is anyone within audible range. No one has said anything, and the Mom does her best to soothe her kids, but it's still rough. Not for me, but for the kids. Flying isn't the easiest thing to do in Coach, and it's got to be exponentially worse for little kids. Adults can adapt to their environments. I think it's tougher for toddlers. I've got some Fig Newtons that I think I'll offer the kid next time she has one of her crying spells. But I hope she doesn't need it. Hopefully she'll get some sleep.

On my way

And so it begins.

I'm sitting here at the Departure Gate, watching people and tapping on my keyboard. I'm a little nervous about the trip, and I'm kinda excited, and I'm also a little sad that I'm going to be away from my loved ones for so long.

It's a strange thing, I guess. Some people would say that you shouldn't be so close to your family. Well, we're a pretty tight-knit group, and being away from them for 22 days is a pretty big deal for me. I've never been away from these people so long.

The Blog

So I've made the move to Blogspot. I've blogged before, but it was just travel blogs on a site I hosted myself. But I want to do something with a little less web maintenance, so here I am.

I'll be transitioning my old blogs over to Blogspot in the next few weeks to consolidate everything in one place. In the meantime, I'll be blogging about my trip to Turkey. Who knows? Once I get back, I just might keep on blogging!

Time will tell. :)

Sonny