All good things must come to an end

Well, my trip to Istanbul can pretty much be classified as "over". I'm sitting at the airport now waiting for my flight. I have to say that the last week flew by! Toward the end of the trip I debated extending my ticket through the weekend...but then I remembered how miserable it is to go back to work without adjusting to the timezone and decided against it.

Let's see...a new member of our team arrived on Sunday to review all the work we'd done for the last 2 weeks. Unfortunately, due to his limited time in Istanbul, he didn't get to do any sight-seeing. We did try to take him to some of our favorite restaurants though. This included one called "Go Mongo" which is a Mongolian restaurant that came highly recommended by multiple people.

Tuesday night a few of us went out for dinner. Then my cousin's fiance and I met up for some coffee (or wine as it turned out). Considering I just met her for the first time last summer on my last day in Turkey, it was nice to be able to spend so much time together while I was here for this trip! Hopefully we'll have a chance to hang out again before the wedding this summer!

Wednesday we were invited over to the home of one of the finance people from work. He had a beautiful home on the Asian side of Istanbul, a lovely wife (who is an amazing cook), and too cute little kids. The food was delicious and the company was great! Just another example of great Turkish hospitality! :) I'd have to say the perk of the evening was that this gentleman's wife was from Thailand so she prepared some Thai dishes and some Turkish dishes for our meal. It was all divine and sometimes I wonder if I wasn't Asian in a past life.

Thursday was our last day in the office. We went in for the morning to have our exit meeting and say our good-byes. The office gave us each a gift of beautifully decorated plates. I have a picture but I don't have my cord to connect my camera with me so I'll have to post those later. After we left we had our last team lunch and then sent two of our team members off to the airport. Another team member and I decided to spend the rest of our day with one last trip to the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market to spend the rest of our cash. I have to say it was quite successful and Nat, you can start checking the mail for your Turkish Delight next week!

Thursday night my aunt picked me up to take me to one of my cousin's house's for dinner. As always it's always nice to get to see some family. Being away from home for so long can make you a little homesick so seeing family always helps! My cousin has an adorable son and a daughter who I just saw in July and can't believe how much they've grown in six months! I exhausted myself playing with them and probably will be incredibly sore from swinging them around so much but I don't get to play with them very often! I got some pictures of them too but again they will be posted later. Dammie, you won't believe how big Baby Emre is now!

After dinner I made it back to the hotel around midnight and continued packing my luggage which I'd made little headway on previously. Somehow I managed to fit all my stuff, all my purchases, the gifts I received, and a package for my parents into my luggage. I was well over the weight limit when I checked in but the guy didn't say anything and I wasn't going to point it out!

I'm anxiously waiting to board the plane as it's now 4:30 in the morning here and I haven't slept in almost 24 hours. And speaking of 24 hours, I realized that I forgot to pack my headphones in my carry-on so I won't be finishing 24 on this plane ride home.

I have to say that this was possibly my best work trip yet! I kept saying that we should give a poor review of the location so that we would have to come back again in 18 months, but I was just joking...sort of. :) We're already planning our trip back for this summer and the only thing better then a business trip to Turkey is a vacation in Turkey!