Istanbul Bound

It's amazing how much a good night's sleep will do for you. I need to do a better job of making sure not to plan such unrealistic agendas, I have officially learned my lesson.

Dinner last night was actually quite nice - we sat outside amidst pine trees and had a wonderful meal. Uygar, one of our Turkish engineers and who is our tech lead for the trip, is seriously connected - his aunt is the dean in the engineering department at a top university and his uncle is the CEO of the largest employer of CS grads in Turkey. So it was quite a powerful collection of individuals around the table last night but still quite informal. I did fine, I was just immobile when I finally got to the hotel.

Today we had another series of university and startup meetings and then a short flight from Ankara to Istanbul. We had dinner this evening at a swank place in the trendy part of town but it was a long one - I just got back to the hotel at 1am. Tomorrow is our final day on the trip. From what I hear navigating Istanbul traffic is going to be quite an experience.

I am somewhat sad to have so little time here to explore on my own...but at the same time, I'm anxious to get home again. From the little I have seen I am not too enthralled with this place (perhaps because I am still enamoured with Egypt).