Welcome to Istanbul!

–Authored by Scott Meyer

Students were coming in from all over to meet in Istanbul and begin our trip of Turkey.  We had people flying (or taking the train) from Athens, Egypt, London, and a couple places in the United States.  The majority of the group was flying in from Chicago, and that group arrived a day later than planned due to severe weather conditions in the States.

A few who didn’t get delayed arrived at the Marmara Hotel around the same time.  The Marmara Hotel is a luxurious hotel that is located on Taksim Square.  It was a little hectic without our fearless leader Cindie and the hotel didn’t really know what to do with us.  We didn’t know if we were supposed to continue with the planned agenda or not, and where is Carlos?!  Through emails, we were made aware that we were going to partial carry on with the itinerary.  We contacted our tour guides Sedat and Yalcin, and they took the incomplete group to dinner at a restaurant on the 3^rd floor of a building that overlooked the Spice Bazaar and a small market.  It was at that restaurant that we sampled the best baklava we would have the entire trip.  The group then went to a restaurant with a fantastic view of the Bosphorus Bridge that connects the European side of Istanbul to the Asian side of Istanbul to cap off our night.

The next day the late arrivals got in around noon.  After a quick fresher up, we made our way to lunch.  Lunch was at a neat restaurant that overlooked the Sea of Marmara.   After lunch, we had a Boshporus River Cruise planned.  The cruise would take us up the European side of Istanbul and then make its way to the Asian side to head back to the port.  It was an amazing boat ride, but the weather was not cooperative.  It was about 40 degrees and rainy.  We started off adventurous and stayed on the deck in order to get pictures of all the highlights on the riverfront.  Eventually the weather got the best of us and we made it into the heated cabin.  Going directly under the Boshporus Bridge was quite the sight.  We were also able to get a great look at all the castles, hotels, and other buildings that were built right on the river.

After the cruise, we made our way over to the Spice Bazaar.  This bazaar is famous for its different spices, fruits, vegetables, carpets, and pottery, amongst other things.  A few of the students were anxious to test out their haggling skills since every price was negotiable at the bazaar.  At each store front that you walked by you would be approached and asked to buy something.  After an hour and a half of making our way through the bazaar, we went back to the hotel.

On Wednesday we had our first company visits.  First we traveled to Turkey’s Best Buy headquarters to learn more about Best Buy in Turkey and to see an alumnus of the Wisconsin MBA program who is the Finance Director there.  After hearing about Best Buy’s exciting challenges of entering Turkey’s market, we went to a large mall for lunch.  The mall had a food court similar to what you would find at a mall in the United States, only their food options were much nicer.  After eating lunch and walking around the mall, we headed to VakifBank for a presentation.  Following VakifBank, we went back to our hotel rooms and changed for dinner.  Dinner that night was at a restaurant on Istiklal Avenue near our hotel.  Istiklal Avenue is a very busy pedestrian street that has cafes, pubs, music stores, cinemas, and restaurants along it.   The avenue is also filled with street vendors, and it is said to be visited by nearly 3 million people a day on a weekend.  Along Istiklal Avenue there are alleys that also host an array of stores, including more bars and hookah (or “water pipe” as they call it in Turkey) lounges.  Istiklal Avenue was filled during all hours of each day and there was always something to see there.

The next day was a very busy day for us.  We had three company visits.  First we went to the Istanbul Stock Exchange, then to Hewlett-Packard, and finally to Ulker, a Turkish food manufacturing company (foods like cookies and chocolates).  When we visited HP in Istanbul, we got to travel over the Boshporus Bridge and into the Asian side of Istanbul.  The bridge is just less than 1 mile in length and it travels directly over the Bosphorus Strait, where we took a boat ride on early in the week.

Once on the Asian side, we stopped for a nice lunch very close to the water before making our way to HP.  Finding HP was an adventure.  The driver seemed to stop at each gas station we passed to ask to for directions. Eventually we found HP’s Headquarters. Following HP we drove back to the European side of Istanbul and to Ulker.  It was a good thing that Ulker was our last company visit that day because they fed us far too much chocolate (at least in my opinion.  Some may say it was the correct amount).

When we finally returned to our hotel that night we were on our own for dinner.  Groups formed and people went their separate way.  It was a relatively low key night since we had an early wake-up call the next day for our flight to Cappadocia.