Monday, May 26

To Istanbul for a short business trip

Went to Istanbul 3 days to meet with our partners and listen to some doctors who had made very remarkable clinical studies using my companys products.

During the trip I also had a little time to do some sightseeing around town during the day and night. Istanbul is very beautiful and much more international than I thought! The food is also amazing here and prices low! This is a city any culture & food lover should visit! The massive mosques are an awesome sight too!!


Flew with Turkish airlines the first time, their food was as good as the one I got in first class on American Airline! 
Taxim Squre, last year there were massive protests here and it was impossible to enter this area. A lot of police wee patrolling and keeping an eye on law and order now...


 Snacks! 
 You don't really see these anymore
 Tiesto coming soon! 


 There are Mortal Combat fans in Istanbul!!! 
 The view from the Marmara hotel was spectacular! It's really one of the nicest hotel in town

The Taxim Square, great view while having a morning workout 7 am in the gym! 
Great equipment and totally empty :) 
After a good 90 minute workout chilling in the pool was aweeesoooome, morning was 20 degrees warm! 
Breakfast buffet at the Marmara was amazing, one thing that caught my eye was the honey cone that you could cut yourself. I never seen honey served like this before. 

Even waiting for the elevators seemed nice here...
They had REAL Istanbul air in every room, eh, maybe this could sell in smoggy China? 
Taking a stroll around the European side by the sea with our partners. Loads of restaurants, bars & cafees here


After the walk we went to eat at one of the most famous viewpoint restaurants in town called SUNSET GRILL & BAR. Food was fantastic and so was the view! 
Since we were in Turkey I had no choice but to order high end kebab! So much meat with amazing iskendar sauce and bread 



 After eating I had few hours time to walk around downtown before the next meeting. Walked from the hotel to the area where all the massive Mosques are. On the way there were soooo many people fishing. They seemed to get a lot of fish but only very small ones....In the evening I saw some of them still on the bridge BBQ:ing the fish :D 
 The Royal Palace, too bad I didn't have time to go and see it :(
Mosques everywhere, and they are all huge!! 
 The New Mosque 


 It was such a massive work of art, the size is much like St. Peters church in the Vatican city 

 With all the thousand lights it's good to be energy efficient

 The market place outside the mosque reminds me a bit of China, packed! 
 Electronics, food, snacks, clothes, random stuff and what not available 
 The Galata tower, famous for a story where a guy flew from the tower to the other side of the river with home made wings about 400 years ago. True or not? Who knows 
 Walking around in the night was beautiful 
 Tunnels a bit empty, no beggars or people hanging around here. Even in Sweden there are random people in these during the nights
 Eye catching in the night....

Taxim Square by night  
Had Chem with me and he was ordering breakfast to the room :) Btw, chem is a red little blob that has been in our family since long ago. I named him "chem" when I was around 6 months old. Chem has always followed us when we travelled. He has been on all continents around the world and lived in China a few years too! Way to go little globetrotter! Mommy & Grandmom made him for me as a toy. Sweeeet

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