Friday: back to the streets during the evening

When we got back from our business meetings, the water had just turned off (for the fourth time).  Some of us went to complain to the front desk.  I decided to go outside and document how the demolition was going outside of the hotel.  Pretty well, from the looks of it:

Then we wandered back to the alleys around the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market.

The last few batches of pics are close at hand!  Whew!

Friday: on the bus to Intel

Our last 2 business meetings were with Intel and Turk Telecomm.  The Intel meeting stood out to me in particular because they ordered Domino's Pizza for us, and we were excited for some good old American food.... And then we tried it, and it tasted so Turkish.  Olives, salami, seasonings... Very interesting.

Anyway, shots on the bus to Intel:

And then right before the meeting:

More pics of Friday night to come.

Friday: morning at the Spice Market and street shots (part 2)

Friday morning, continued.  Posting these pics, I realize that most of my pics of locals from Turkey are all men!  But it's not actually intentional -- we hardly saw any females on the streets, aside from tourists or businesswomen in Ankara, the capital.  For the service sector, like waiters or delivery people, all the positions were held by men.  Only twice in all of the hundreds of waiters & delivery people did I ever see a female. 

Anyway, more pics from Friday morning, walking around the back alleys near the Grand Bazaar:

Pics from Friday afternoon are soon to come!

Friday: morning at the Spice Market and street shots (part 1)

Friday was our last day of the trip.  We had an empty morning, and then 2 short business trips in the afternoon.  I took a lot of pics that day, so I'm breaking it up into several different posts.

You may have noticed a lack of food shots in the blog.  That's because I always seemed to have the same thing during the trip -- if it wasn't chicken kabobs, it was hamburgers.  (I dislike both now.)  And for breakfast, it was always -- ALWAYS -- bread.  So much bread.  Only bread.  They had other options, but I couldn't eat them (olives, cheese, eggs, more olives, etc.).  So bread for me.  Oh, and sometimes the bread had olives, as I found as I was eating this piece of bread that day:

Bleh.

Anyway, then Wil, Raminder, Sonny, and myself walked to the Spice Market and then the surrounding streets.  Some pics:

Throughout the trip, Wil and I sometimes took the same shot of a situation.  We did so at this grid:

My pic was terrible.  Wil's, naturally, was great.  Check out his shot here.
 

One shop apparently got the presidential seal of approval:

More pics of Friday morning to come.

Thursday: the Blue Mosque at night

Thursday was a busy day, meetings-wise.  We met with Hewlett-Packard in the morning, and then had a meeting at the US Consulate in the afternoon.  Pictures were not allowed at the Consulate, so the day was pretty picture-less for me. 

A quick snapshot as we drove back.  Whenever there was slow traffic, we saw people walk out into the streets, selling anything from bread to water to chain saws.

That night, Wil and I went out for a photowalk on the streets of Istanbul at night.  We picked a place to have dinner, and lo and behold, Ben and Raminder were also eating there!  Small world, that Istanbul.  I also decided to try a chicken kabob again, and bleh.  No more chicken kabobs for me!  Anyway, some pics from our photowalk:

We walked back to the Blue Mosque, which was still open but far, far less crowded than it was the day.  The inside part of the plaza -- not the mosque itself, but the outdoor plaza -- looked so amazingly different than it did during the day that it was just stunning.  I was in awe.  The plaza was lit with soft blue and yellow lights, the birds flying overhead were illuminated by all the lights below, and it was so quiet and serene. 

Inside the mosque:

It was funny.  When we were in the outdoor plaza minutes before, I realized that I could tell which camera shutter snapping was Wil's.  So even if I was busy taking pics, I could tell exactly where Wil was by the sound of his camera. (Like sonar!  Sort of.)

Now, in the mosque, I was standing there taking pics, and saw this figure sitting on the ground, intently taking pics.  I went into sneaky mode, to try and take a pic of him, and when I got around to his left, I saw it was actually Wil!  So much for my sonar.

This gentleman carried around Turkish tea with him, and sold it to cab drivers who were waiting for passengers: