…istanbul
basically, 2 issues made me expect less than what we got. first of all, when everyone keeps saying how beautiful it is, it starts to resemble the book everyone tells me to read, but which I consequently find not so impressive. second, sometimes it is hard to look past the image of turkey of full-service, all you can binge resorts, with the tourists, who literally reside next to the most impressive cultural sites, without ever leaving the comfort of their own breakfast-, lunch- and dinnertable, because of the fear of missing a sandwich or a cocktail or something.
so.
all of them are right. i have seen some beautiful and/or impressive cities in the world, but istanbul was all that and more! the most impressive culture and history, the most friendly people you can imagine; it was just a little cold as we were there end of december, but still…
seeing all of the most impressive buildings testifying to millenia of historical importance, blue mosque, aya sofia, topkapi palace, galata tower, etc. etc. literally going back 400 years in time in the cemberlitas hamami, being massaged with soap and oil, the grand bazaar, cruising the bosphorus to anadolu kavagi, looking out over the black sea and having the most delicious fish… going to buyukada, one of the princess islands, we could go on and on… basically, istanbul was one of the most impressive places i have ever seen…
check out the first couple of pictures here:
and the rest here:
Posted 1 year, 8 months ago at 10:46 pm. Add a comment
…buenos aires
reina and i wanted to go to a place where both of us hadn’t gone before. and although we first wanted to go to peru, this took a little too much time for the days we had left in brasil. so we took a plane to buenos aires and we had an amazing time. it is a very european old-fashioned city, reminding me a little of paris, with it’s grandeur on the one hand and it’s dirty places on the other.
4 days of dulce de lecce, empanadas, the malba museum, casa rosada and so much more.
check this:
Posted 2 years ago at 10:50 pm. Add a comment
…i love to work while i travel
or is it the other way around?
anyway, with my company, q management, we were asked to help develop the new maritime master program in the fields of human resource management and development and (in my case) shipping and port economics. which was already amazing to do. principally, we developed it for the nmu in rotterdam, where the first program would start.
or so we thought.
because whereas the dutch ministry of education takes 2.5 months to sign something, the korean government was a little more hands-on, which meant that after having met representatives of their ministry of education in december, the program was already starting in march 2008 in gwangyang, south-korea. so, as a happy camper, i went off to the south of this (to me) new country.
when i arrived, i had had a long day: getting up early to bring my girls to school, work, go to the airport to have my flight in the evening. after arriving in seoul on saturday, i had to wait for about 5 hours to fly to yeosu, to be pick up by june kim to be brought to gwangyang, where i had an appartment. even though i had been up for about 40 hours Continue Reading…
