Istanbul

I'm home from Istanbul.  The trip was good.  Travel was mostly uneventful, meaning no flight delays or complications.  The airline did lose my luggage on the way back.  They're still trying to locate it.  Still, if I had to lose it, I'd rather lose it on the way back than on the way over.  I had everything I needed while I was there.  I'm making a list of contents.  In case they don't locate it, they can pay me for what I lost.

Anyway, the trip.  Istanbul is a pretty amazing city, and I learned a lot about it's history and geography, as well as having a great couple of meetings over there.  I didn't have a lot of time for sightseeing, but I managed a 2-hour boat tour on the Bosphorus - the waterway strait that divides Istanbul (and Europe from Asia) and connects the Black Sea and the Marmara Sea.  I also managed time to run around and take pictures, although I didn't end up with time to actually go into the mosques, which is a shame.  Maybe next time.  It takes a considerable amount of time to get from point A to point B anywhere in Istanbul, so that eats up a bunch of time.  

I did learn a really fascinating thing about the Bosphorus.  The water on top is fresh water and runs swiftly from the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea, since the Black Sea is at a slightly higher altitude.  However the water at the bottom of the Bosphorus flows in the opposite direction!  And it's salty, coming from the Marmara Sea, which comes from the Aegean Sea and ultimately from the Mediterranean Sea.  The two waters in the Bosphorus don't really mix.   The just flow past each other in different directions and with different salt concentrations.  

The first picture in this post is the Blue Mosque and the next one is Hagia Sophia or Aya Sophia as the Turkish call it.  The other two pictures are taken in a courtyard of the Blue Mosque.  Unfortunately, the afternoon I took the boat tour, I actually left my camera in the hotel room.  I could have kicked myself.

My hotel was really nice and was situated at a great location.  It was located about 3 blocks from the Istanbul Congress Center and maybe 5 blocks from Taksim Square.  Taksim Square not only has the lightrail stations, it's also one end of the busiest shopping street in Istanbul.  They say 3 million people a day shop there.  I believe it.  LOTS of people.  

The two Congresses I attended were both good.  The first one I helped organize, so it pretty much consumed my time the first three days I was there.  I had much less responsibilities at the second Congress, which is why I could escape for some sight-seeing.  I was also put in touch with young woman who did her training in the US, by a mutual colleague.  She was kind enough to invite me out for dinner one evening with her Father and several people I know from the Association.  It was a perfect evening - great food, great company, outstanding open-air restaurant on the Bosphorus with a wonderful view.

So overall I would have to say the trip was really good.  I made some new colleagues/friends with international members of the profession, learned some new things and got a chance to visit one of the amazing places in the world that I may never have gone to without these two meetings.  

Now if they could just find my luggage, it would be pretty close to a perfect trip.