Weekend #7 of European Living: Turkey and Greece

Istanbul, Turkey: Wednesday, July 21 - Sunday, July 25

Athens, Greece: Sunday, July 25 - Tuesday, July 27

"A European and Asian work adventure"

Istanbul, Turkey
We can't really classify this as a weekend adventure because Preston's "vacation" was actually a week-long work trip for me. 


Part of my marketing responsibilities include event support. My boss told me I should be out meeting more of Expedia and hotels.com's hotel partners to better communicate with them (my job, afterall) so what better place to meet them then in-person for a business review?


We arrived Wednesday night in Istanbul, a first time in the city for us both. We had dinner at a cute restaurant, Restaurant Deja Vue, in Old Town next to our hotel.


Thursday before I went to work we decided to venture around the city. We awoke VERY early (4:45am to be exact) with the sounds of the call to prayer from the Hagia Sophia. Prayers are issued five times per day and you can hear everything from the singing to the shaking of the prayer rug loud and clear over the speaker systems throughout the city.


To start our day, once again we consulted the "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" book. The "must sees" in Istanbul (listed under "Asia" in the book) were many: the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bizarre and the Spice Market; we visited them all!


We first toured the grounds (four acres) of the Hagia Sophia, the Church of Holy Wisdom. It is a symbol of the wealth and power of the Byzantium emperors. We went into the Mausoleum of Sultan Selim II, the first mausoleum within the Hagia Sophia built in 1577. It has two domes, pillars throughout and elaborate calligraphy all throughout the inside. It has 42 sarcophagi right in the center. It was quite a sight. Not a bad place to rest forever, I guess! And I'm glad I actually got to see it; my short skirt wasn't too popular in Turkey -- I had to use my pashmina as an impromptu cover up! Oops. 


The Mausoleum is the fourth of these shots of the Hagia Sophia.

   

Next we went to the magnificent Blue Mosque. 

The Blue Mosque has six minarets (the vantage points from which the Muslim calls to prayer are made). If your shoulders and legs aren't covered as you walk in they have people at the door to put velcro-secured wrap clothing around you. We walked in to the gorgeous mosque and, truth-be-told, my first thought was how terrible it smelled. Preston said, "That's what you get with a lot of bare summer feet walking around inside!"

  

Afterwards we went to the famous "Kapali Carsi," the Grand Bazaar. It was built in the 1450s, is situated on 50 acres and has 4,000 (!!!) shops and cafes. Preston was shocked that even I was slightly intimidated by the size and all the options for silk, scarves, linens and spices.

  

Next we went to the Spice Market which is much smaller than the Grand Bazaar but equally impressive. 

Preston said he actually liked it better, it was slightly more "manageable." There we met a shop keeper that Preston befriended. He went in to buy a piece of Turkish Delight and we walked out with 50 Turkish lire worth of tea, spices and multiple types of turkish delight!

Thursday evening I left Old Town for The Istanbul Surmeli Hotel for our hotel partner event. While our little hotel in Old Town was super personal and quiet, this hotel had a grand entrance and metal detectors as you walked in -- it was a good experience for me to see both all within one city.


Thursday evening after I had the Expedia Istanbul event I posted a picture from our team dinner along the Bosphorous Straight on Facebook ...

My cousin David replied saying he and his wife Nicole were going to be in Istanbul Saturday before departing for a sailing adventure around Turkey. Very exciting; we now had Saturday night dinner plans with two of my favorite family members in Istanbul! 'Gotta love facebook.


Friday I spent the day in one of Istanbul's large sky scrapers at the Expedia office. The Turkey and Greece teams were present and I gave a marketing presentation that seemed well-received. The team is looking forward to working with me and I with them. I got back to the hotel around 7:30 to a very food-poisoned husband. He was sick the whole day but Ercan, our wonder concierge, checked on him throughout the day and went to a pharmacy to get him some stomach medicine. We stayed in ... and was serenaded by prayers once again!


Saturday Preston was feeling better so we decided to venture to Asia. 

We took a ferry ride over to the other continent. We couldn't believe the current in the Bosphoros. It's the world's narrowist straight and it connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara. Ercan, told us the current is so strong because salt and fresh water meet there and the heavier salt water sinks to the bottom. Not sure if that's even remotely right but we bought it!

Here's a shot of my bad European pedicure in Asia!

We walked all around the Asian part of the city and my sometimes crazy husband decided to take "a little adventure." He had us board this insane little yellow "taxi bus" that people pay 3 turkish lire to take them to different parts of the city. The bus door didn't even close as this harried driver drove us and four other trusting (Turkish) passengers. I kept shaking my head and Preston just kept laughing. To his credit, we traveled about four miles up the coast for 6 lire for both of us! There's the little yellow bus behind the pretty flowers (with the door open, of course!).

We decided to spend the afternoon on a Bosporous cruise. The structure in the picture below (under the Bosphorus Bridge) is the Beylerbeyi Palace (Asia). It's all white marble and was used by the sultans as a summer residence or as a guest house for visiting foreign dignitaries.

  

The mosque below is the Ortakoy Mosque (Europe) built by Sultan Abdulmecid.

The last big structure we saw from the cruise is the Dolmabahce Palace. The property spans nearly 2,000 feet of waterfront real estate. It is said to have a 750 bulb crystal chandelier weighing 4.5 tons. Wow.

The architecture on either side of the Straight was beautiful but my favorite part was the actual Bosphoros Bridge that connects Europe and Asia. At the time of construction it was the longest suspension bridge outside the U.S. and it spans almost 5,000 feet. 

Saturday night we met David and Nicole at the W Hotel where they were staying for a drink before we all went to dinner. We had a blast catching up with them and hearing all about their upcoming sailing adventure around Turkey (they were chartering a sailboat BY THEMSELVES!) -- rock stars! Preston just met David for the first time at our wedding but after this evening in Turkey talking adventures (and first class air travel!) and how they both love getting their wives into what I call "special" situations, I know they will be life-long friends.

 

See you soon cousins! 


Sunday we had breakfast at the hotel and had one more thing to check off our Turkish "must do" list before Greece: a visit to a Turkish bath house.


Preston and I had very different experiences ... I went in to the ladies' side where I changed and waited in the large stream room for my scrub and massage. I "relaxed" for 15 minutes (the first four minutes were great but that place is HOT!) before the scrub and lounged in the different pools. Apparently Preston's handler started harassing him for a tip the minute they were introduced! It was an interesting experience and we're both glad we did it.


After the bath we lingered over a long lunch (our requirement for the meal was the presence of air conditioning!) with shockingly awful service (the waiter sat about eight yards from us for most of the meal surfing the internet, not looking up).


We decided to go back to the Spice Market for another stroll around. Preston's friend from Thursday from whom we bought Turkish Delight and tea recognized us right away out of the crowd and hugged Preston like they were long-lost childhood friends!


When we got back to the hotel, our amazing host, Ercan, was there to greet us and offered us a drink before going to the airport. He took some time to talk to us and really won us over (as if he hadn't already) with his kindness and interest in our perspective on things.


Athens, Greece
Monday morning I had free before going to work so we started the day by walking up/around the Acropolis of Athens, 490 feet above sea level. I loved seeing the parthenon.

Here's Preston taking in the architecture. A cheap buying opportunity?!

 

Next we went to another monument with views of the Acropolis. It was HOT there! Preston even used my sweater (like how I decided to cover up AFTER Istanbul?!) as a sun shield!

We even had time to lounge at the rooftop pool back at our hotel for a bit (Preston had more time than me!) and tried to take pictures of ourselves without our heads chopped off!

After my Expedia event in Athens, Preston and I had a celebratory dinner (a great trip AND we were accepted on our apartment application back in Geneva!) on the roof of our hotel overlooking the Acropolis. The lighting around the site is amazing and we had a great dinner. We read in an airline magazine a few weeks later that that restaurant is one of the world's best rooftop bars. Who knew?! Besides the view, the somelier at dinner was really memorable, every single time we took a sip of wine he refilled our glasses!

So for any of you still reading this very long blog entry, thanks! It was a productive work trip, a great time and we saw amazing sites. Although Preston capped off the week when we were home in Switzerland by saying, "That was great. But I'm really looking forward taking a break from city vacations." Uummm, it was a WORK trip! "Oh, right."