Next Stop: Istanbul! (Part 1)

Day 9: Saturday, 1/15/11
Off to Istanbul! After a four hour flight and a not-so-long line at customs, we made it from Dubai to Istanbul. It's colder here than in Dubai and felt like a nice, crisp, fall day. We took a shuttle to the Uyan Hotel, getting a nice view of outer Istanbul and the Bosphorus Strait. There was a path along the water with people walking leisurely, and apparently it extends for miles. It reminded me of Boston. I was barely at the hotel and yet was already falling in love with Istanbul. Our hotel is situated up on a small hill, overlooking the strait on one side, the Blue Mosque on another, and the Haggia Sophia on another. The neighborhood is incredibly European with narrow cobblestone streets, colorful buildings right up against each other, little markets with fresh fruit outside, and busy locals and tourists wandering around. The hotel itself is really cute with much more character and charm than the Marriott we'd stayed at in Dubai. There's no gym, but we're in a walkable area so I think I'll survive.

I drop my bags off and unpack a little, and then go out to explore. We were shocked at how close we are to "old Istanbul" near the Blue Mosque, the Haggia Sophia, the Grand Bazaar, other smaller bazaars and hundreds of restaurants, Turkish bakeries and small shops. Again I'm reminded of Europe as there are narrow alleyways off the main street with restaurants with outdoor seating. Like Rome, there are cats everywhere! They look well fed so I assume they stay in this area because the tourists continually feed them. They are literally everywhere and are very friendly, jumping up in your lap when you're sitting down, even if you don't have food! So anyway, the sun was setting and we just wandered around taking pictures and buying street vendor food. We got roasted chestnuts which were surprisingly delicious, then some Turkish drink that was way too thick for me but smelled amazing. It was made with cream, honey, milk, cinnamon and other yummy spices. Later we had our first Turkish dinner. I had lentil soup and an eggplant stuffed with seasoned meat. Amazing!! Then we stopped at a bakery for the most fantastic piece of baklava I've ever tasted. It was dripping with honey and was so moist and delicious like nothing I've ever had before.

Day 10: Sunday, 1/16/11
Another day without company visits! Hooray! We all met in the hotel dining room for breakfast, which was really different than the one in Dubai. I had yogurt with granola, molasses and mulberries, a piece of amazing bread and dried apricots. Then we went to The Palace for a tour that took far too long considering it was outside most of the time and it was cold and rainy. Not my favorite morning. We did see the world's second largest diamond and some apparently impressive Muslim artifacts that I was a little too tired to care about though. Ha. From there we had lunch and I got rice and meat stuffed green peppers. I expected they'd serve lavash or pita bread everywhere but, same as dinner the night before, meals come with white bread. It's really soft French type white bread and really good, but I was just surprised.

Next we went to the Haggia Sophia which is just absolutely huge and incredible. It was a church during the Byzantine period but is now a mosque, so the Christian pictures of Jesus were all covered up, but  you can see them in the process of uncovering them now. It's pretty amazing that they can just "uncover" the images to a certain degree. There's also a hole in one of the columns and you're supposed to put your thumb in it and spin it around while making a wish. We'll see if my wish comes true... :)

Then we walked across the street to the Blue Mosque, where we had to talk our shoes off and put a scarf or hat over our heads. One girl in my group was wearing leggings and they made her wear a sheet around her because they felt leggings weren't appropriate. Ha. The mosque was similar to the one we saw in Abu Dhabi, except much, much older and more crowded. We walked around and admired all the ornate tiles, and then got some street vendor food on the way out - a "pancake" with cheese. It was kind of like a really big crepe with feta-like cheese. Delicious!

On our way back to the hotel we decided to visit a small bazaar nearby. I ended up buying a beautiful pashmina, after some negotiating, and we wondered around looking at different pottery, glass lamps, more pashminas and jewelry.

After all of our cultural excursions for the day, we had some free time, finally!! We rested up and then a small group of us went to the Taksim area to meet up with some MBA students from Sabanci University here in Istanbul. We walked through Taksim square where there's a wide cobblestone street, closed off from cars but there's a cable car like thing running through it, tons of shops, restaurants, hotels and lots and lots of people. We're staying in old Istanbul and this was certainly modern Istanbul where the locals hang out.

So we met up with the MBA students at a restaurant in Taksim, and, brace yourself: I'm about to talk about this dinner experience for the rest of the entry. This was my favorite night of the trip so far, hands down. When we got to our table, there were mezze (like tapas) in little dishes and a bottle of raki (a really sweet, anise-flavored alcohol). It's clear but when you add water, it turns cloudy. And it is strong. I opted for a sip and then switched to red wine for the night. There was also live Turkish music playing.

So we thought the whole dinner was the mezze...wow were we wrong! After sampling dolmas, yogurt dip, hummus, potato salad, sauteed something amazing (spinach?), and many other mezze that were amazing yet  unidentifiable, the music suddenly got louder and some people got up and started dancing. We thought they were just drunk. Then our group got up and started dancing and before you know it, we're all up dancing around together in this tiny, little restaurant and the energy level is unbelievable! We must have danced for half an hour to this energetic, authentic Turkish music, kind of like folk music, with instruments I'd never seen before. Then the music dies down, everyone goes back to their seats, and we get served more food. That's when we ask our friends if everyone at the restaurant is on the same schedule, and they tell us about this type of restaurant where Turkish people usually go for celebratory dinners. It's just course after course after course, with upbeat dancing between each course. So fun! So fun, in fact, that I want to bring this back to the states and make it my entrepreneurial project for my MBA program!! I just need to partner up with someone Turkish who can do the authentic Turkish cooking and play music...lol.

The next course was some amazing, perfectly fried pastry with melted, gooey cheese inside, and then a steaming hot fried vegetable dumpling. Then a little plate of bite-sized meat appeared in front of me, I assume it was pieces of beef or lamb like everything else here, and tried it. It was weird. I didn't like it. I couldn't figure out what type of animal I'd just eaten. Then I asked and was told, liver. Barf. I have never eaten liver because it just sounds so unappealing to me, even though I realize it's a delicacy in most parts of the world. So now I can confidently say, from first-hand experience, I don't like liver! Luckily I had some delicious red wine to wash it down with. Never again, liver, never again! :/

There was another round of dancing, getting more roudy with every round, and it was fantastic! We learned some Turkish dance and somehow all became best friends throughout the course of the night...dancing and laughing and having a grand 'ol time ;)

We never got full because we were sweating out most of our food in between courses. The main course was lamb and some fantastically seasoned rice with pine nuts. There was more dancing. More wine. Then dessert, perfect and light, consisted of fresh oranges, apples and pears, which were of course delectable and sweet and refreshing.

So...this whole dinner experience lasted about four hours, and it was certainly the best four hours of the trip! What a fun way to experience Turkish culture!

Day 11: Monday, 1/17/11
I was awakened at sunrise by broadcasted prayer from one of the nearby mosques. Fun way to start the day, and I think I get to look forward to it every morning ;) For those of us who went out the night before, this was a rough day, especially for a certain someone who was still drunk on the bus and made the long bus ride very entertaining...I won't mention names...lol. This was the first day of company visits in Istanbul and we had a packed day: Yogurt Technologies, Turkish Airlines and ISPAT. The first visit wasn't all that great, and they ordered Subway for us. Why would you order Subway for a bunch of American students trying to learn about Turkey?! Luckily it was better than the Subway sandwiches we'd had in Dubai.

Our visit to Turkish Airlines was pretty amazing. The CEO gave the entire presentation and stayed for a long Q&A session, and then gave us the biggest goody bag we've had to date! Included was a model airplane, a book on the history of Turkish Airlines which weighs close to 50 lbs. and will not be coming home with me, a notepad, calendar, and other random stuff. I still can't believe the CEO spent two hours of his afternoon with us, giving a really interesting, informative presentation. Lucky us!

Our last meeting of the day was with ISPAT: Istanbul Support & Promotional Agency of Turkey. The presenter was great and had hundreds of facts and figures about Turkey and Istanbul so it was a really nice introduction to learn about Turkey's growth and business opportunities. And of course there was Turkish tea and cookies which we're all getting used to (and spoiled by) by now. It's interesting that all of the people we met with today are native Turks, as compared to all the expats we met in Dubai.

We came back to the hotel and went to dinner around the corner for Turkish pizza. The owner is this total New York guy, Tony from Brooklyn, though he's Turkish. He was hilarious, telling us about life in Brooklyn and random things about the Istanbul party life. He wants to go out drinking with us this week...ha we'll see. He gave us what he called pita but it was this ginormous hollow loaf of flat bread with sesame seeds on it, served with rosemary butter. Pretty different. I promise I'll upload pictures! I had a bit of Turkish pizza but ended up getting the veggie casserole after seeing someone else order it. I am so obsessed with eggplant so I couldn't resist! It had eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms and gooey cheese. Delish! Then we went to a little corner market to get bottled water and I got some Turkish chocolate with pistachios, which was of course, wonderful!