Istanbul (not Constantinople)

Pronounced ee-STAHN-bul - not ISS-stahn-bul.

What a lovely city. Great street life; people out strolling, small cafes for coffee, little restaurants still run by the same family that established the place in 1860s - just great! Had a very good week there for some project planning in our office with a small side trip to a city on the Aegean called Izmir. Have determined that Russell, Lyra and I need to go back. So, hopefully planning a trip to Istanbul and Turkey's northern coast of the Aegean.

Quite a few gypsy's living in Istanbul. They are called Romans - meaning from Romania (Tranzylvania to be exact) not from Rome. Most of them make a living by combing through the rubbish to find treasures that they can sell. Also seems that a lot of them run fruit & veg stands. Still rely on horses for transportation. These folks are in rush hour traffic - just like the rest of us.

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We have a factory in a city on the Aegean called Izmir. We traveled there for a day trip (flew in and out for the day). The area is so strikingly similar to Tuscany. Olive groves, vineyards, small cafes with great wine, mountains in the distance. I can imagine that the harvest time is lovely. Here is the view from our conference room in the factory office.

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Tried to capture an image of the Golden Mosque in the sunset, but the moving car made it a bit blurry. Still, I think you can see what a beautiful mosque it is. The first mosques in the city were originally Christian churches. When the population began to be more predominantly Muslim, they converted churches to mosques. This mosque style is unique to the Ottoman Empire.

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Half of Istanbul is in Asia and the other is in Europe - a true melting pot of cultures have existed in this area for centuries. Here is one of the bridges that connects the two continents. Be prepared for hours of traffic as you wait to cross. Traffic is a real problem for the city. The bridges are naturally bottlenecks.