Tyler's trip to Bulgaria & Turkey

This past week I traveled to Europe to Sofia, Bulgaria for a team meeting that we had with our finance staff who are located in Europe. On my way I got re-routed to Frankfurt so I was able to meet my brother, Tim (who is living there) for an afternoon and walk around Frankfurt for a couple of hours. We had a great time walking through the walking streets and downtown area before heading back to the airport to fly to Sofia.

 In Sofia, it was great to finally meet everyone since I joined the organization one year ago, but hadn't had the opportunity to meet them. Our organization split earlier in the year, but at one point I had a six team members in Europe working for me. I also have two new employees who will start working for me starting in July-- one in Poland and one in Bulgaria. It was really nice to meet the team in person finally and improve our working relationship.

Among a couple days of meetings, we took the "Free Sofia Walking Tour" which was fantastic. Boyko, a local university student, was our tour guide and he really knew his Bulgarian history in addition to speaking great English. It was a great way to see the sites of Sofia.

We also enjoyed many long dinners at ethnic Bulgarian restaurants and many late evenings in the hotel lounge talking, re-acquainting, and getting to know each other.  I had a great time and look forward to my next trip to meet with my team in Europe.

After the trip to Sofia, I went with a colleague of mine to Istanbul, Turkey for the weekend. We left Sofia on Friday morning and arrived in Istanbul that afternoon. Istanbul is a beautiful, well-preserved city of fifteen million people. It's a city where East meets West, Europe meets Asia. People are called to prayer five times a day starting at 4am and ending at 11pm over loud speakers. Friday was the worst of it because it's the biggest day or prayer during the week. Good luck trying to sleep through it.

In the two days we were there we saw some great things. Below is a summary of what we saw and a collage of some of the sites:

Blue Mosque- When we arrived on Friday (the biggest day of prayer), prayer was in full session. We went to the Blue Mosque and had to wait a while because it was full with 4000 men. This was named for the blue brightly colored tiles.
Hippodrome- An ancient Roman chariot racetrack in an enclosed stadium turned open square which links the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia.

Hagia Sofia- This was Constantine's great church which was later converted to a Muslim Mosque, and is now a museum. Interestingly, the conflict between religions is very apparent as there are Christian Mosaics and paintings that are now visible which had been previously covered up by the Muslims. In addition, there are a lot of Muslim art pieces and calligraphy prevalent throughout the building.

Topkapi Palace- This is the magnificent palace of the Sultans full of exhibits, relics, and the famous and beautiful Harem where the Sultan housed his many wives and concubines.

Grand Bazaar- The world's oldest shopping mall with more than 4000 shops. Five minutes was enough for me.

Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent- 14th century mosque with simple, but beautiful interior and tombs of Suleyman and his wife.

Bosphorus Cruise- We took a 2 hour boat trip up the Bosphorus waterway and saw the un-touristy side of Istanbul as well as the Asia side which is where many residents live.

Underground Cistern-This is a sixth centry subterranean water reservoir built with recycled Roman columns.

Galata Tower- A 14th centrury stone tower with fantastic views of the Istanbul old town and mosques.

Galata Bridge- Restaurant lined bridge spanning the Golden Horn waterway lined with local's fisherman and their fishing poles and great views of the city.

The food was great. We had Turkish meatballs, doner kabobs, and goulash.

On Sunday morning we walked back to the old town and the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque again before heading back to the airport and a 25 hour trip home. I really enjoyed Istanbul and would go back in a heart beat!