In San Francisco

After Egypt I went back to BCN for three days. Just long enough for their futbol (soccer) team to win the 3rd of 3 big matches which set the town off and had people partying all night long. I proceeded with selling all the crap that wouldn't fit in 2-70 pound checked bags and 2 carry-ons. I won't go into the fiasco at the airport but suffice it to say that things were not as smooth as they could have been. The flight was fine and I spent a week in Arizona getting my house in order. I spent a good deal of time with Tessa and got to see my dad, mom, chris, andrew, ethan, matthew and many of the friends like chad/marquita, ryan/nidhi, matt and his huge cranium, sal/erica, anthony/kelly, bill, pam, jody and more. It was really nice to see everyone but very rushed. That was the way I planned it though since I decided that I would move to San Francisco and find a job, I knew that if I didn't force a short trip, I could easily has spent way more time in AZ.

Jacob from IESE picked me up from the airport in SF and showed me around his city a bit. The next day I stayed with the friend of another person who went to IESE and by the third day I found a place to sublet in an area of town called the Mission. Its a very cool place to live; gritty but with a lot of character. During the almost two weeks since I've been here I've been applying to jobs and spending time almost every day attending events and networking with people. Today I had lunch with an LBS alum and as their alumni are much more numerous, I feel very lucky that I did an exchange in London. The job search is going as expected. I figure it will take 2-3 months to find the right role. I passed on an opportunity to do data analysis for a 1 year contract as that would be mind-numbingly boring. I had an interview yesterday with a startup but the company seems a bit too early stage, at this point its still in the idea phase. I'm looking for a startup or small business that already has some traction. Its enough of a risk to move all the way over here with no job and hardly any contacts, its something entirely different to take a low paying or possibly non paying role at a startup that has a very low chance of success. Does this mean I have job clarity??? Not quite, but I'm getting there.

Meanwhile, the city is absolutely awesome! The people are way nicer than I expected. I really forgot how friendly people on the west coast (except for LA) are and especially after living in Barcelona where people never talk with you, SF is a really great change of pace.

The cradle of civilization

After graduating from IESE at the end of April I spent some time playing tour guide to my mom and her friends who were nice enough to come visit and see the big graduation ceremony. The day after we went to Sevilla where La Ferria de Abril (The April Fair) had the city dressed up and looking amazing. There was Flamenco dancing at every turn and tents filled with people celebrating this annual event.

The next day we took a train to Granada which is home to The Alhambra, a Moorish Palace built in the 14th century. Granada is a beautiful city and The Alhambra is mind-blowing, the amount of detailed work that went into its construction is incredible.

After a week and a half of organizing my life around my pending move to San Francisco, I went to Egypt for an 11 day trip. I have not begun looking for a job so much as I have decided where I want to live and figuring out who may have access to the world I want to join. IESE has about 30 alumni in the SF area whereas LBS has closer to 150. One more reason why the exchange was a great idea. I also compiled a list of all the people I know in SF (short list) and all the people I know who know someone in SF (long list) and my plan is to get in touch with all these people and go to every entrepreneurial, networking and/or other type of event until I find the right company. I leave BCN in two days and have been packing and taking care of all the last minute stuff like closing bank accounts, cancelling my gym membership, phone, etc. It will be very sad to move away from this city but I think I am trading one very cool city where I don't speak the language so well for one where I can feel more at home.

Egypt was an amazing experience. I went on this trip solo. After so many group trips where the agenda was set and there was no room to linger or speed things up, I just wanted to do what I wanted when I wanted. I also find that travelling alone opens up all your senses to the world around you and allows one to make friends much easier.

I started the trip by flying from BCN to Rome, Rome to Cairo and then Cairo to Luxor. I arrived super late and negotiated a cab to take me to the public ferry. The cab was negotiated because in Egypt, everything is a negotiation, I mean everything. You'd like to go to the bathroom? That will be one pound. You don't have a pound, that's okay a half pound will do. You want a big water? 10 pounds. Okay my friend, 5 is okay. Where are you from? United States. Go Obama, America is a great country. Anyway, from the cab driver who tried to rip me off by 10 pounds I took the public ferry from the East side of Luxor to the West side where I found my oasis of a hotel waiting for me.

Next day I went to the Temple of Karnak all morning long and basically cooked like bacon in a frying pan. It was my first time back in 100+F temperatures since being back in Arizona and I see that my body has shed its ability to cope with such hellish temperatures. Karnak was massive and its stone hieroglyph covered columns dominated much of the structure.

After half my body weight evaporated while at Karnak, I sat at a beautiful restaurant trying to rehydrate while eating tahini and hummous and smoking sheesha. This gave me just the energy I needed to make an afternoon of Luxor Temple. Like most places in Egypt, the photos just don't do it justice, especially during the day. But when you consider that these temples are more than 2,000 years old and have been in the middle of an inhabited city the entire time, it shows the remarkable staying power of the hieroglyphs and craftsmanship.

In the evening I returned to the same restaurant for dinner. I was sweaty and disheveled and just about to dig in to my Lonely Planet when I looked up to see someone from one of the other tables peering down at me. She (Amanda) very graciously explained that she had traveled alone many times and indicated that my filth was welcome at her table. Before she had a chance to change her mind I was seated among 4 girls who were traveling across Egypt. An invitation to join four girls for dinner doesn't come along every day but what made this situation even more odd was that two of the girls were attending Thunderbird, a top MBA school located in Phoenix. Both were in the Middle East doing internships in Jordan. Amanda was one of the T-Bird students and was originally from San Francisco. What's more, a third girl, Kate did her MBA at Georgetown and was from SF. The fourth girl, Aileen was a nurse from the US but living in Cairo. It turns out that Amanda and I knew two of the same people as she grew up with two students from IESE. That was an amazing array of coinkidinks.

Amanda and Aileen were planning to travel to Hatshepsut, the death temple, the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Nobles. I explained that I hoped to do a hike over the mountain from one site to the other and in short time it was agreed that we would meet at quarter to six the next day to travel together. Lucky for me the arrangements were made because at six a phone call dragged me out of my slumber, out the door and into the waiting cab. We arrived at the temple early, before the heat and ahead of other tourists. We had the place to ourselves the entire time. Here you see Aileen and Amanda looking small in relation to this huge and very well preseved monument.

We ate breakfast on the top of the mountain separating the death temple and the valley of the kings. Our view was over all of Luxor and the Nile flowing off in the distance.

The photo below shows Amanda on our decent into the Valley of the Kings. It really feels very similar to any of a multitude of valleys you would see in Arizona the only difference is the openings that look like mine shafts which lead to some of the greatest discoveries from the ancient world, including...

King Tuts tomb which was discovered in the 1920s and which is so extremely famous because the items held within were so well preserved whereas almost all other temples had been pillaged many centuries or millenia ago. My favorite part of King Tuts tomb was the 5 minutes spent inside, my least favorite part was getting thrown out and having my camera confiscated for taking a photo (without flash) and then paying $10 to get it back. Note: photos will not be tolerated in King Tut's tomb AND the guard has eyes in the back of his head. Note to the note: whereas everyone in Egypt is more likely than not to accept a bribe for just about anything, the guard in Tuts Tomb is less likely than not. Keep that in mind. Don't let the $10 curse of Tuts Tomb get you too.

Okay this is getting too detailed and I am getting too tired to continue writing. This is the superabbreviated version of the remainder of the trip. I took a public bus to a place called Aswan where one of the coolest temples ever built is located. Its the closest I saw to the mythical nature of machu pichu. I stayed the night in Aswan at an amazing Nubian hotel made in the traditional style of mud brick and high windows and with the relaxing sounds of Nubian music always floating around the great opens spaces of the hotel. After Aswan I returned to Luxor then jumped on a 2 night cruise up the Nile on a Felucca which is a traditional sail boat like they've used on the Nile for thousands of years. Two days were spent with a group of 10 sailing back and forth across the Nile as we made out way north. The group was very fun.

From where the Felucca landed I caught an overnight train to Cairo where I spent a few fantastic days and was put up by Aileen who proved to be a great tour guide and a very nice host. She had a killer pad close to the US Embassy and very close to everything a tourist would like to see. I spent one whole day at the Egyptian Museum which is easily the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts anywhere. Any item would be a prized possession in a different museum and this place was literally overflowing with amazing items. I met up with Yasser from IESE who took me for a great dinner and drove like a maniac (which is the only way to drive in Cairo if you want to live) all over town including to an On The Go gas station that was the only place in Egypt where prices were actually listed on items and no negotiation was needed. One day Aileen showed me many of the cool spots around the city and with some of her friends we watched from a park overlooking the city as the sun set and the call to prayer from dozens of mosques drifted across the city. My final day was spent in a fast paced viewing of the Pyramids where I hired a horse and rode in from the desert. My guide was crazy as hell and liked to get the horses running while he screamed at the top of his lungs..."Hababe Hababe, I love you, YIIIIIEEEEEEEEY! That was a good way to end the trip and a great way to see the Pyramids.

Now what?

Only 3 weeks of school left and no clarity as far as work is concerned. That is a bit disappointing as one would expect to have everything figured out at this point but considering the economic meltdown around the world, a lot fewer opportunities are available this year compared to past years. However, according to many visiting speakers, the time is right for entrepreneurs to build a business that can work in this economy and then thrive when the economy picks up. This works well for me as I plan to join either a startup/growth company or the very entrepreneurial arm of a larger company. As before, I hope to join a company that creates a social impact and does not simply seek to milk its customers for every cent possible.

I came across a very funny show featuring a former LBS graduate. The links are below and show what happens when you mix the sophisticates of the west coast with the patriots of middle america. If you have some time to kill and you're not too busy paintballing, give a watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG2GwSpO7tc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71MTHjvCeyw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHKxqrZQKLw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2zmOK_POpg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXjJDk8ehro&feature=related

I'm living in one of the most famous buildings in Spain by possibly the most famous Spanish architect. His name is Antoni Gaudi. My building is called La Pedrera. Do a Google search to see some photos. I walk through the tourists each day as I go in and out of the front door.

In the beginning of April, 30 of us from IESE are heading to Japan for a two week trip which coincides with the blooming of the cherry blossoms. Its supposed to be fantastic. Afterwards I will meet with Chad in Germany for two days of the Spring Beer Fest then we'll come back to Barcelona for a few days before he departs and my mom arrives. She's leaving north America for the first time. I'm very excited to show her a bit of Spain and to have her see IESE during our graduation. Tessa is supposed to come also but hasn't yet booked a ticket.

A few words about London Business School vs IESE: LBS had fantastic professionals come to campus all the time giving presentations and recruiting. Their career services was more organized and helpful. Their classes were well structured and they had a good balance between academic professors and very experienced practitioner professors. Their entrepreneurship classes were excellent. However, the people were nowhere near as friendly as those at IESE and the relationships created were much less strong. Also, whereas IESE has a huge focus on academics, the feeling at LBS was that academics were secondary to finding a job. Each school is excellent in many areas and each offers a different value to potential students. If I had to make the choice between the two, I would still choose IESE but I absolutely wouldn't change my decision to go to LBS on exchange as the school was excellent and a great place to spend a term.

Foggy London Town?

Its been two weeks since arriving in London for the exchange term at London Business School. During that time we started classes, I found a flat in a gorgeous part of town, bought a bike to ride 20 mins each way to school and started learning some proper English. For instance, over here mail is called post, pants are called trousers as pants refer to underpants, and sweaters are called jumpers. If you want to fire someone, you sack them. If you are laid off, you are made redundant. If something has taken a long time, its taken ages. If you have a lot of something, you have loads. When you have good luck or good things happen to you, you say, "happy days."

Above is a photo taken by Felix of our initial arrival to London Business School. LBS is an old school on beautiful grounds. The location is just across the street from Regent’s Park and the area is surrounded by mansions. They say LBS is more diverse than IESE with 60 backgrounds represented but I would argue that the classes are much less diverse. LBS has around 1,000 students in total whereas IESE has closer to 400 students with over 50 backgrounds. Many of the LBS students are British or American. Its also harder to meet people at LBS as people are not as friendly as IESE. The professors are excellent and the guest speakers far surpass what we get at IESE. CEOs of huge firms drop by regularly as their offices are located somewhere in London. Things are also much more organized in London as compared with Spain. Which is to be expected but I’ve also heard that many people who come to LBS from the States do not think things are very efficient. After arriving from Spain, I would argue that things are unbelievably efficient but maybe that also has to do with my ability to ask questions and understand answers here whereas in Spain I’m typically in a state of communication confusion.

Below is a photo of Felix and I standing on the great lawn in front of the school.
Because I only have class Monday-Wednesday, I spent about a week sleeping at my friend Nani’s place while looking for a great place to live. Thanks again Nani! The new flat is in a suburb-feeling area of town called Hampstead Heath. Close to everything but outside of the crazy and crowded city center, Hampstead Heath is filled with Yuppies, dogs, babies, bikes and nice shops and restaurants. There is also a huge natural area which my flat borders. The Heath, as its known, is what London looked like before it was developed. Similar to the Squaw Peak area in Phoenix, The Heath sits in the middle of this area and has ponds, old growth trees, grassy areas, views over the city, and trails for walking and biking. Below is a photo of some Londonites enjoying a sunny day in the grassy hill area of the Heath which overlooks the city.
I live with two Irish people, Padraic and Maurie who are in their 20s. They are both extremely nice and friendly. Almost every time we speak I ask them to explain the significance of words or things. For instance, last night Padraic came home with a steak pie. It looked like a regular pie but apparently it was filled with steak, gravy, and other items. He then explained that pies are a regular meal here. Half a pie is below.
The photo makes the pie look a lot less edible than it does in person. But before you go thinking that the Brits have disgusting eating habits, I would like to draw your attention to an amazing display of Americana: https://webmail.london.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_V-2NKUlzns You probably missed this event in the Olympics but I’m sure it will be right after the floor exercises in 2012.

Below are some photos of my flat.

The red brick building was built in the late 1800s or early 1900s and has a nice garden out front with roses, benches and trees. My room has a super comf bed and plenty of space for the 50 pounds of stuff the airline allowed me to bring.

The flat was redone recently and has a large kitchen which overlooks the front yard and is where I check my email and enjoy coffee and tea every day.
The living room has a couch bed, overlooks part of the Heath and doubles as a private room for any guests who might come to town. Hint hint.Our flat is located two floors above the book store you see below. The restaurant to the left has some fantastic indian food and behind the tree on the right is the cafe where I sometimes grab a coffee to go and a muffin.

Finally, below is a typical lane on the outside of the Heath. This gives you an idea of what the trees look like within the Heath but of course, there is also plenty of overgrowth everywhere.

Overall, the first two weeks here have been better than expected. There have been a few very cold days and its rained for part of three days but I've been told this is some of the best weather they've had in months. Mostly its been sunny but a little chilly. Would I live here? Not sure yet, if it was always like it is now, I would have no problem but the real test will be Nov & Dec when its freezing and rainy. Luckily I have already figured out how to cope with the loads of crap weather: I will simply wear my jumper, trousers and long pants, eat a meat pie, wash it down with afternoon tea and hope for the upcoming happy days.

3 days in Andorra

Yesterday we returned from a big group trip to Andorra. There were 16 of us in total, 12 first year IESE students, 3 friends, and yours truly representing the second year. We rented a 16 bed chalet on the mountainside.

For those who don't know, Andorra is a tinny country squished between Spain and France. It has skiing in the winter, great hiking in the summer and is historically insignificant. We decided to use our four day holiday to drive the 3 hours up to Andorra and explore some of its surroundings.

Above you see the 16 of us who decided to hike for one of our days. There are 5 1/2 Americans, 5 Germans, 3 1/2 Indians, 1 Bulgarian and 1 Moroccan. There is also one Hungarian midget but he is hiding in the back. You will find out why very soon...




Our trek was to peak the highest moutain in Andorra. Not very high at just under 10,000 feet but if you consider we came from sea level in Barcelona to 6,000 feet elevation at the trail head and gained 4,000 feet in the 5 mile ascent to the peak, you realize, this was not an easy hike. In fact, the hike was so difficult, the midget didn't make it. Below you see Velio after finishing off the last of the midget. Lucky for him we came prepared with dental floss. Fact: Bulgarians love eating midgets. Its true, look it up on Wikipedia.

There were small lakes all over the mountain range. They are fed by the snow and rain that occur quite frequently in dem der hills. The day before our hike it was raining and lightning so we were quite lucky with the weather...or were we???
Party on the peak. Who brought the strobe light?




I guess no strobe light is needed when you have millions of pieces of hail coming down. In case you are wondering, this photo was taken with my new Canon 40D SLR camera using a Sigma 18-200mm lens. I bought the camera while in the states and couldn't be happier with the quality of the photos.

After enjoying the hail turned slush turned rain storm for about 2 hours of total awesomeness, the guys who finished the hike earlier (Zach, Gurveer, Steve, and Naresh) greeted us with cold beers. I mean, really, is there any better way to finish an 8 hour hike to the highest peak in the country after being pelted with hail, sleet and rain for hours??? Actually, yes there is, about an hour later we were all relaxing in the thermal pools located in the center of the city. Its not easy to be an MBA, but we do the best we can.

This final photo shows the hail/snow that was happening in the mountains while we were making our way down. This is the view from our chalet.

10 more days until I leave for London for the big exchange. Until then tengo mucho espanol. I also need to finish off a technical note on Social Entrepreneurship in Health Care that I'm doing for my internship.

BIB - Back In Barcelona

After a wonderful summer, I am back in Barcelona studying Spanish. The first part of my internship in Kenya was an amazing experience. My time back in the states was relaxing and fun and now I am finishing up the second part of my internship while concurrently taking Spanish and preparing for my exchange program in London. I leave in two weeks.

I will fill in some more details about the last few months in a future post but for now, I will discuss some good news and some bads news. The bad news first, yesterday I had my first real accident on my moto. I was driving to school as calmly as I have ever driven. I entered a roundabout with cars all around me. I needed to get over to the right so I was looking in my mirror and for no reason whatsoever, the car in front of me stopped. I noticed too late and although I hit my brakes, that didn't prevent me from smashing into the back of their SUV with my poor little blue moto. The noise was terrible. I was convinced my whole front end was destroyed. My initial reaction was shock, followed by, "oh crap, now I'm going to get run over." But the little moto that could didn't even stall. The SUV started to move and I noticed a great big dent in their back bumper. I followed the person as they moved out of the rotunda. Now I thought about dealing with the police and insurance, tickets, all the other crap that happens after an accident. I continued following the SUV until we hit a stop light. I noticed they didn't really seem like they intended to pull over. After the light, we drove as normal and next thing I knew, the SUV was passing another car. My insurance worries drove off into the distance with a dented bumper and I made my way to IESE. The good news is that I just scratched my knees a bit and basically broke the front of my moto but apart from that, this accident has a happy ending (remind you of anyone?). Hopefully that will be my one and only accident story while in Barcelona.

Istanbul

Some pics from the recent trip made to Istanbul with fellow completed first year Ewa. We were welcomed by an incoming first year named Ece (her name is pronounced like saying the letters "H" "A") who's generosity and hospitality were unbelievable. She picked us up at the airport and took care of us until she dropped us back at the airport. It was fantastic. I don't do that for my best friends and she did that for basically complete strangers. No wonder Turkey is supposed to have some of the best hospitality in the world. I mean how many places do store owners bring you tea while you're searching their wares? The trip was 5 days and our time was packed with things to do. The weather was very nice and aside from a bit of a drizzle one day, we had nice days.

The food was a huge highlight. I had no idea that Turkish food would be so good. It helped that Ece took us to great places but I was amazed at the quality and quantity of food. A normal meal consisted of cold appetizers, hot appetizers, several main dishes followed by desert. The best thing about it was even our most expensive meal cost less than an average meal in Spain. How much did we enjoy the food? Our average dinner was almost 3 hours. How can that be you ask? I'm happy to say that the scales were tipped by what is certainly my all time record for a dinner: 4 hours! No joke. We were really in a restaurant for 4 hours. Sure we were the last to leave and enjoyed a few drinks but believe me we were eating for a ridiculously large portion of the time. I suppose the view from our table helped. We dined while the sun set as you can see below.

What do Turks do for fun you may wonder? Well Turkey is a Muslim country. But in contrast to all the countries you associate with the Muslim religion, Turkey is modern and they separate religion from politics. Sure many of the people are religious but that doesn't mean they don't know how to have fun. This is where many people go in the evening and where we went after our 4 hour dinner; a Backgammon & hooka bar. For the record I was going to win the second game against Ewa. What happened during the first game was lost in a cloud of apple flavored tobacco smoke.
There are many landmarks that define a city. In most Islamic countries you will see Mosques everywhere. Just like there is a church every 5 inches in the states, Istanbul has Mosques. The difference is that many of the most spectacular Mosques in Istanbul were created during the Ottoman Empire from the 14th-17th century. During this time the Ottoman Empire encompassed not just Turkey but many of the surrounding countries. You may remember hearing the name Constantinople during your history classes, Istanbul used to be Constantinople. It was incredibly rich and powerful and as you can see they found no better way to spend their money than on creating spectacular Mosques.

Below you can see Hagia Sofia in the background. It may be hard to tell but the statue of liberty could fit inside. So could Notre Dame. The place is friggin huge. What's really cool about this mosque is that it was actually a church built in 532. It stayed a church until the Ottomans took over Constantinople in 1453 then was converted into a mosque. All the crosses, jesuses, marys, madonna's with child, etc. were painted over. In a Mosque's its not allowed to have depictions of people. However, it was converted to a museum in the 1930s and over the years the paint has faded and now some of the Christian symbols show through the paint and some of the mosaics of Jesus and others have been uncovered. Its the only mosque in the world where Christian and Muslim symbols and art is presented.

The photo above gives you an idea of how large this place is and the photo below shows the 20 story tower inside which they are using to make restorations.

Next on the agenda was the Blue Mosque. Why is it call the Blue Mosque you may wonder? Well because its blue and its a mosque. Actually its named for the "brightly colored tiles that line the interior" that's how Rick Steves describes it in his guide book and if you don't know Rick Steves yet, you don't know Jack! Throw away your piece of crap Lonely Planets and buy Rick Steves' guides for whichever countries they are available. You won't believe how good they are. Anyway enough ranting, here is the interior. Its mandatory that shoes are taken off and all women must cover their hair. Kind of how all men must take off hats in churches or all men must wear yamuka's in temple. Does anyone know how to spell yamuka?
If you can just look at the photo above for one more second you will notice that someone brought his own book of a higher power to the mosque. Assalamu 'Alaikum Rick.

Below is the rather borringly named New Mosque which sits in the perfect position to watch the Bosphorous flow by. The Bosphorous Straight cuts Istanbul in half which puts half in Europe and the other half in Asia.
Aside from 4 hour dinners, we took in some of the entertainment. The guys below have an amazing capacity to spin in circles without falling over. The Turkish band plays, these guys start spinning and some crazy trance takes hold. Seriously, your 5 year old would fall over 100 times trying to keep up with these guys. I forget their name so I will just bastardize their skill and significance by dubbing them, "the spinning fools."

With all the money and power you may wonder what an emperor does in his free time. Simple, he builds a ridiculously humongously gigantic palace. Named Tokapl Palace, Mehmet the Conquerer had this place built during the 1470s and a century later Suleyman the Magnificent made it his home and it remained the home of sultans for over 400 years. Below you see Jared the Fourhourdinneriffic wondering how to retrofit the Sultan's bedroom with a cactus garden. Shout out to AZ! And finally, what self respecting Sultan would build a palace without also erecting a vast living area for his "friends."

For a while I thought Istanbul didn't have that many people. I'm used to Barcelona where there are always a zillion people walking around for no apparent reason. Just to walk. I mean, can you imagine? Anyway, I told Ece that Istanbul didn't seem that populous and she couldn't believe I thought that way. The next day we walked between the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market and I realized that 10 million people actually did feel like 10 million people. Can you find Ewa in the photo below? I'll give you a hint, today she's 50% off. Seriously. Its a good deal my friend. Okay wait don't go, 60% off.

But unlike Barcelona where no one wants to talk to you...ever, the people in Istanbul spoke to us wherever we went. Almost always while they spoke there was a smile on their face and they were genuinley friendly. But what was most unexpected and wonderful was the fine man you see in the photo below. What makes this person so dang wonderful? Well take a close look, he's pouring delicious cherry juice for all the passers by. For reasons unknown the juice was free but even more surprising, it was made with 100% pure deliciousness.

I would love to continue this tour of Istanbul but I leave for Kenya in the morning. And by morning I mean the god forsaken hour of 5:30am. Really, no one should have to get up that early ever! When I am Sultan, no one will be allowed to wake up before 7:30. The punishment with be death or cherry juice to the Sultan. Am I not merciful?

Thanks to Ewa for being a great travel companion and to Ece for being a fantastic guide and a wonderful host. This was an awesome trip!