Istanbul again– CEE partnership with Sky Europe and the GN board’s mutual love for Turkey didn’t make the destination of our transition planning and 1st and only team days major rocket science… of course we would go to Istanbul!

We took the flight from Bratislava… and we reached Istanbul at 3 am … we mailed the MC that we would be calling them in the morning since we didn’t want to show up at anyone’s place at this unearthly hour.. so we were all set to spend couple of hours in the airport .. a skill we have mastered already… a few hours later .. we were comfortably on our sleeping bags.. I was nicely plugged in and enjoying a Jack Nicholson movie..and suddenly on the airport microphone..
‘International passenger Ivan Lopez please report to information desk’… Ira and me jumped up .. but the international passenger in question is unfazed in his semi slumber and murmurs something about going later… Ira and me wonder if we should succumb to our curiosity and go to the desk to check.. but we realize that may be slightly difficult to explain to the lady at the desk…after about 10 minutes.. the voice on the intercom booms again ‘International passenger Ivan Lopez…’ this time Ivan responds to our coordinated yelps and goes to check … turns out the MC was waiting for us at the other airport!!! Turkish hospitality I tell you!!

The GN board worked over the weekend from the beautiful LC Istanbul office with the view of the marvelous Bosphorous and gliding seagulls to gape at when we needed a break…

When one goes to a city which is large enough to need Ferry boats!?! for transportation between the mainland and the isands .. of course we have to go to the islands !

... on the long hour long journey..in the middle of a hot , sleepy and lazy afternoon, I saw wild dolphins for the first time in my life ... It was amazing how the whold ferry boat would gasp in unison whenever they saw a pair rise above the waves... breathtaking..

On the island,we cycled uphill till we reached this peak with a view to die for... thats where we took the picture you see below...


another cool thing I love about Istanbul is that it also happens to fall between two continents..breakfast in Asia and lunch in Europe ..:D

Chilling with the Turkish MC was always fun … but this time they really made it an unforgettable end – of – term experience .. when they took us to this amazingly wow traditional Turkish place ( note: not touristy but a real local chilling place ) for live music, Turkish mezze,fresh seafood, AMAZING dessert… and of course raki……

One of the most unforgettable nights of my GN board term ….