Classy But Fishy

My mother and I spent the afternoon lunching in a fantastic (hidden gem) outdoor fish restaurant called Suna'nin Yeri (Suna's Place). Overlooking the Bosphorus Sea, we had a view of the Europe side of İstanbul.

We ordered the fresh catch of the day (don't ask me to translate the fish name to English! The fisherman caught the fish and within moments it was cooked and brought to our table! Coupled with a tasty mixed green salad and a cold glass of Efes Beer (a Turkish beer), you really couldn't ask for anything more.

Now you can enjoy the view from our table. (I've included some comments on the video with some explanations - if you click on the dots on the timeline, you can read my notes):

It's A Small World After All!

What are the chances of attending a fitness conference on your 3rd day in İstanbul and bumping into industry big names like Lawrence Biscontini, BOSU's very own Douglas Brooks, and international choreographer Marvin Foster!

Well, today I attended a FitnessTurk İstanbul Convention and had the pleasure of seeing these guys in action. They truly uphold the motto of 'fitness without walls' - bringing their expertise to fitness and wellness professionals around the world and to Turkiye!

I enjoyed chatting candidly with each of them as they expressed their love for the city. Their enthusiasm for fitness and wellness certainly bleeds through in all languages - even Turkish!

Her Keze Teşekkürler! (Thank you to everyone!)

UPDATE: If you want to read my comments from one of Lawrence's session - check out the notes "From Great to Extra-Ordinary" on this Group Exercise Blog.

YouTube banned in Istanbul

Apparently YouTube is banned in İstanbul. From time-to-time there is intermittent access, but it's fairly unreliable. So rather than uploading my videos to YouTube, I'll be using Viddler to post media, instead.

I've updated an earlier post 'Starting with a Bang!' which now has the video from the party. Enjoy!

Pedometer

I brought my (cheap) pedometer with me on my trip and have been logging my daily step counts on WalkerTracker. (A widget on the side of my blog will keep tabs on my daily progress.)

It shouldn't be too much of a problem staying active and meeting the recommended 10K steps-a-day since you can't get anywhere unless you do some walking (even if it's to a taxi).

Hopefully, I'll be diligent enough to log my numbers in regularly. There are plenty of great parks and gardens in my area. Tons of opportunity to do some walking by the seaside, too.

With such great opportunities to indulge in rich foods, some form of exercise is a daily must!

'So Different, Yet So the Same...'

A classic lyric from the great No Doubt song 'Different People' about how the world is so full of different kinds of people yet somehow we are all the same.

Anyway, I was walking down Bağdat Caddesi (a famous street in Istanbul - think Rodeo Drive) when I noticed a Starbucks and a Ben & Jerry's next to each other. This reminded me of this song. How we can be halfway across the world and still experience bits and pieces of familiar culture: people hanging out, drinking coffee, working on their laptops...

So different, yet so the same...

Starting with a Bang!

Don't ask me how, but landed a ticket into İstanbul's most supreme parties Thursday night! It was the opening of one of the city's premier clubs - SUADA (translation: su = water, ada = island). This party was so hot that its launch was announced on the cover of Turkiye's mainstream newspapers Sabah with the headline reading 'Suada's doors now open for entertainment!'. Now I've been to my share of Hollywood shindigs but this one surely topped them all.

I got a call from a colleague Serhat, who is the Sports Director of a fru-fru fitness facility called Hillside City Club - part of the Hillside corporation (just to give you an idea of how big this company is - they also own high-end spas, hotels and beach clubs - its massive!). They hosted the party. Serhat had an invite to the launch and told me simply to dress in white (which apparently was the theme of the event) and show up at 8pm by the boat. Wait! What boat... I thought as he hung up.

Uhm... yeah, okay. I had no idea what he was talking about. All I knew was that I had to go. (I had to go for the sake of my blog readers...)



With the help of my mom, who is more familiar with the area than I am, I arrived safely after a 1.5 hour taxi ride (traffic was crazy during rush hour). The place was a sea of white. People dressed to the nines. Open air. Open bar. Live latin band. Weather in the 70s. Fireworks. I'd never seen anything like it! (Check out the pics here)

I met a lot of people both from the fitness-side and business-side of Hillside. And ended up witnessing one of the greatest parties of my life. Vegas has nothing on İstanbul...

Settling In...

My first night in Turkiye was exhausting. After travelling for almost 1.5 days, we finally arrived at my aunt's apartment Thursday morning (around 1 am). The time difference in İstanbul is 10 hours ahead of Phoenix.

I woke up this morning to the sounds of the city - and boy, what a loud and busy city it is! I immediately took pictures from the aparment balcony to give you a sense of HOW crowded we are in this city of 15 million peeps. A far stretch from suburbia...

Krazy Keyboards!

Last year when I was in Guanajuato, Mexico I made a similar mention of the international keyboards. It takes time getting used to a new set of keys due to the fact that the Turkish alphabet has a some different letters than the English language.

One example is with the letter i. There are two different types - one with a dot, one without. So, if you spelled my name 'Bıray' it would sound totally different than 'Biray'

(Anyway... don't even get me started on how long it took me to find the @ sign)

Oh, and Google in Turkish is funny, too. Great way to polish up on the language. LOL. Cuz I now know how to say 'I'm Feeling Lucky' in Turkish: Şansımı Denemek İstiyorum. The literal translation is 'I want to take my chances' (the ş pronounced like a 'sh').

Plain Food vs, Plane Food

On an 11-hour flight, nothing is worse than being hungry and having limited options for snacks: peanuts, pretzels, and peanuts. Although my 'dinner' and 'breakfast' will be included on the first leg of the trip (Phx to London), I've never been a fan of plane food.

So, I've decided to bring my own plain food. Simple. Sweet. Healthy.

I don't know about you, but I always lose all sense of time when I cross the Atlantic. You look outside and it's sunny when it's supposed to be dinner time, etc... So I like having something to munch on during my flight.

I tend to chose foods that won't upset my stomach, are portable, and keep well during my travels. This trip I chose:

1) Luscious green, crisp Granny Smith apples.
2) Plump, naturally sweet raisins
3) Crunchy organic pre-cut carrots

Although these will hold me over for the duration of my flight, they hardly compare to the real delicacies of the Mediterranean: Turkish cuisine!