An American Life in Istanbul

I just returned from a five day trip that was quite a headache. I think that most of you will not go through a description of the week, so I will give you a bulleted list. I am sure you can still appreciate the madness:

• WEDNESDAY: 5:30am - got out of bed and headed to the airport for my morning flight to London.
• 10:30am - landed in London, headed into the city to meet Arianna for lunch.
• Sometime after lunch I headed to Stansted airport (a different one than the one I arrived in). Apparently left too late because I missed my flight
• Spent most of the evening in transit and on the phone looking for another flight. Got back to Andra’s flat (where I was staying) at about 11pm.
• THURSDAY: 4:45am - Got up to catch my 6:20am. Had to take a taxi to the airport because of how early it was = 62 pounds
• 11:00am - landed in Seville and headed to my meeting.
• 8:00pm - Headed to the airport for my 10pm flight. Got slapped with a stupid 3euro penalty for not checking in online. Apparently it was in the fine print, but nearly everyone else on the flight didn’t know this.
• FRIDAY: 1:30am - Went to sleep
• 8:30am - Got up and hopped on a train to Birmingham for my next meeting
• 5:00pm - Meeting done, on the train back to London to spend time with my friends in London (Andra, Eric, Spags and Arianna).
• Had a great weekend!

After I got through those first three days it wasn’t so bad, but I was so incredibly tired and frustrated. It was great seeing old friends though.

Instead of actually writing an entry about my trip, I am just going to say a few short things and share some pictures with you. First of all the business of the trip went very well. The social aspect was also very good. My favorite place in all of London (although I haven’t been too many places) was Trafalgar square. The reason for this was the four giant metal lions surrounding the pylon on top of which a statue of Admiral Nelson stands. Why did I like these lions? I think it was because when I was small, we would often go to my father’s boss’ house. Near his front door, just inside the house, were two big metal lions. The lions in Trafalgar square are a lot bigger than the ones from my childhood, but then again I used to be a lot smaller. There was something very enchanting and familiar about climbing on these lions that made me feel very at ease and relaxed. I would have been satisfied to sit there all day in between the paws of the great lions, either playing a game, reading or just chatting. Anyway, here are the pictures.

Cool lighting I thought. That’s good old Nelson up there (obviously the admiral is the guy in the background, and not the one on the horse).

That’s the lion! (That’s Andra on the left. She’s a friend from high school who is doing her masters degree at the London School of Economics).

That’s Arianna, a friend from university. In the middle is a lion!

There is the three of us sitting in front of a lion!

That’s a lion! with some building behind it. I think it was some kind of museum.

That’s me checking out an ice climbing wall in central London. Unfortunately, all the pros had reserved it because of the approaching season. (Notice the absence of lions from the picture).

This was almost as cool as the lions. This was a charge station for an electric car right on the side of the road. This is evidence that London is a greener city than Istanbul (I am sure no one was doubting that fact, but I thought this was pretty cool). To operate the charge station you needed some kind of RFID tag to activate it.

And there you have it, that was London. Sorry I didn’t take more non-lion pictures.

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