As you may have noticed I traveled a lot this year and to conclude my voyages, earlier this month I spent almost a week in Istanbul, Turkey. This was the first trip ever abroad together with my work colleagues. The main purpose of the voyage was a Cisco Networking Academy conference, but somewhere on the way I’ve made some adjustments :).

Once I debarked the plane in Istanbul I realized I had a an absolutely wrong mindset about Turkey. It’s so different from any country I visited so far. During the days spent in Istanbul, I tried to cover as much as I could of this wonderful city. This city is unique. It’s the only city in the world that spreads over two continents. I’ve visited the Mosques, the old and new parts of the city, toured on the Bosporus, got lost, spent huge amounts of money shopping, made full use of my negotiation skills, ate the best food ever and chilled out at the river side.

The hotel we checked in wasn’t much but I enjoyed every morning a breath-taking view from the top floor of the Marmara Sea. As we arrived two days earlier we had enough time to see some of the most beautiful parts of this huge city.

The very first thing we visited were the mosques. The Blue Mosque is an impressive piece of architecture centered around my favorite color: blue. For the first time in my life, I entered (bare foot) in a mosque. It kind of gave me a better understanding of Islamic culture and religion. Although I’m not a religious person I learned to respect others beliefs than my own.

Saint Sophia Mosque was tough the most interesting of the two. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the city was conquered and the Saint Sophia church was turned into a mosque. All Christian signs were brutally removed from the walls, the walls were over painted with in white, mosaics were destroyed. The scars are still very visible at every step. With the building of the Blue Mosque, Saint Helena has been turned into a museum, and nowadays a lot of effort is put into restoring some of the original paintings and mosaics.

The streets of Istanbul are turned into a huge bazaar during the day, where you can find anything you may think of. From spices to food, clothing or electric appliances. And for everything you have to bargain. From what I’ve experienced, foreigners step out easily from the crowd, and as a result the first price you get is up to 7 times higher than the right price. If your negotiation skills are good you can buy almost everything at a very good price. These people love to bargain and it’s amazing on how friendly and happy they are at the end of a good deal.

The infrastructure is among of the best I saw for a city this large. Of course you have to be mad to drive a car in Istanbul … there are no rules.

Riding on a boat on the Bosporus is a thing you shouldn’t miss if you go to Istanbul. I love the water, the peacefulness and the beauty of the riversides. If you can get a ride in the middle of the night, It’s a feeling you’ll never forget.

On the first day of the conference, we got lost and walked a lot around the city. In the end we found the conference site, but the quality of the sessions and other stuff made us loose interest very quickly. Out of the whole conference, 1 or 2 sessions were worth attending. A good thing was that we got to do some networking with some of the people there and brought back some ideas worth implementing. Overall we had loads of fun but not a real good professional experience.

Among the great stuff was the Bosporus ride at night, I really can’t describe the feeling … the conference party and the meal in at a restaurant housed in a UNESCO monument, where I ate the best food in ever. I don’t like the Turkish sweets, call me crazy, but here you can eat some of the best food in the world.

Turkish people are very proud and have very strong feelings about their roots and their country. During my stay, I noticed the huge flags that are present everywhere. Although it took me a while to get used to the police and army being present everywhere, after a while it gave me an unusual good feeling of security.

Being back in Romania felt really strange. Turkey is 50 years ahead of us, we’re in the European Union, they’re not. I’m putting Istanbul on my map of beautiful cities around the world.

During this voyage I managed to get an unusual high number of photos of myself. Me me me me.

The Lion.

We checked in at a nice hotel in a small town near Venice and after a 20 minutes bus ride we were there: a big square filled with buses and cars. The place where land ended and water began. As the whole city is built on pylons over the water, the only way to get around Venice is trough its maze of narrow streets and channels. From now on we either walked or took a boat to get us from one place to another. It took us a while to get accustomed before we started to explore Venice. In the two days we would walk in and out of Venice, visit the islands and enter lots souvenir shops.

The first evening we walked a lot and visited some of the nice places including the San Marco square. After walking for a few hours and making a lot of pictures (I stopped now an then and shouted “che bella” and took a picture, completely annoying my brother during the whole process :) ), we headed back to the hotel.

The next day we were surprised to be greeted in Romanian by the cook and being asked what sort of meal should be prepared for us. After a nice breakfast we headed back into the city maze. To tell you the truth, Venice was quite disappointing by daylight: the same lack of care for the monuments and the decaying buildings as in Rome, the rats who lurked around everywhere, the garbage on the streets and the smelly water were not exactly what I imagined. Anyway, I tried to see more than meets the eye.

At noon we decided to head for the Islands and hopped in a boat to Murano. Murano was peaceful, clean and quiet. Torrents of tourists were debarking every half a hour but they got soon lost in the little streets and buildings of the Island. We walked trough the stores just to see all kinds of glass made artworks … really fascinating. The most exciting part of our tour was inside a glass factory, witnessing how glass artworks was made. I can say the speed and skill of a “Maestro” is mind blowing. From the moment he took the melted glass from the oven and the moment where a beautiful glass horse stood on the table with it’s front legs in the air, only 2-3 minutes had passed. Some hours later we returned to the city and entered once more Venice’s maze. In the evening we walked down the pier and to the beautiful public gardens. We made a lot of pictures that evening, a challenging task without a tripod.

In the morning we packed our stuff and made one final trip to the islands. The first stop was Lido. As we debarked it was like stepping into another world. The silence, the peacefulness … the grander of the big houses and city canals… Lido is the citadel of the rich, rarely bothered by the hoards of tourists that choke the streets of Venice. The panoramic view of Venice and some other islands from Lido’s shore is breathtaking. The island is connected to the mainland and has also boats carrying cars and goods to and from the highway near Venice. Here’s one of the places I would love call home (if I could afford it). It’s also the place where I found my street :). Literally.

For the next part of the journey we embarked in a ferry boat which took us near the building site of the MOSES system which once built will be able to protect the Lagoon opening to the sea. This will make Venice less vulnerable to high tides and storms that plagued the city in the past. Once we left the protection of the Lagoon we felt the power of the Adriatic sea, the high currents and winds making our engines to work harder.

Our final stop was Burano, a small island north of Venice. Burano is a copy of Venice at a much smaller scale. The city streets are here tidy and clean, the buildings are all painted in bright colors, every door and window is covered with curtains from beautiful silk canvas. We had little time to walk around as we had to catch our plane, but we were very impressed with Burano. We kept thinking: “This is how Venice should look like”.

On our way back to Venice I was silent, thinking of the past days and recalling nice memories. The ride took longer than we expected and we had to run to catch our bus back to the hotel. Two hours later we were boarding the plane back home.

I was turning back with mixed feelings about Venice. It was interesting to see a city where everything moved by water, tough there were lots of other stuff I didn’t like. I would say go and visit Venice for a day but spend double the time on the lagoons islands.

Over and out,
The Lion.

Now, it’s almost over, a few hours more and I will be on a plane back home. Right now I have an odd feeling in my stomach and mixed feelings … I’m so anxious to leave, in the last days I’ve been counting down the hours. I even went to buy a train ticket to Schipol a week before my departure.

I can’t say it’s been good or bad experience. I’ve been trough a lot and I keep telling myself I’m to blame for building the wrong expectations. What I can say it’s been nothing I imagined it to be.

I’ve worked till exhaustion at some moments, I was hurt by the indifference of people whom I thought were my friends and by the egocentric character of others, there were moments that I felt so low I could sink trough the floor. On the other hand, I’ve learned some new things, chilled with some old friends and got to know some new ones, I visited some of my favorite places again and got to see new ones.

I will certainly miss some things here: chilling with Gee, going out with Coco, Petroula, Abhi and Kiks, playing Unreal with Amit, Martin and Ryan and shouting like lunatics in the office, keeping up with Jeanne’s delicious mood or enjoying endless talks with Gwen.

But right now I want to go home. To have my room, my bed, my space. I’m looking forward to start my own business and to see my friends back home again.

This is it, I’m setting the alarm clock, packing my last things, writing a thank you note, turning off the lights … it ends.

The Lion.

Issues
Till Friday all was done, except a little thing that slipped our mind: Gwen doesn’t know to drive a stick-shift. Imagine: in the U.S., they actually give you the driver license on an automatic shift.

So, I was teaching Gwen about the “extra” pedal called the clutch. Things started OK, on the first try Gwen actually started the windshield wipers. After a nice test ride in the city all was prepared. We went home to pack and started our journey.

Well … not quite, a few meters of the parking lot Gwen managed to place the car in the middle of the road and because being stressed and all she couldn’t manage the fine moves of the clutch and gas pedal required to get the car moving forwards. OK, we moved … in small steps, hick-ups, engine dying, engine start, car shaking, hick-ups engine dying. As this kind of movement was killing the engine, building a long queue behind us and was not getting measurable results, I had to take over and drive a few blocks to a parking area.

After refining my training techniques we managed to get the car moving and circled around the city for about 25 minutes trying to find our way to the Highway circles around Rotterdam. The trip was a nice one, I love Dutch highways … they are among the best in the world. At around 11 pm we arrived in Düsseldorf and Gwen’s friend was waiting for us with dinner laid on the table in the nice little garden behind their house.

The city
In the following 2 days we made extensive walks around the city and alongside of the Rhine. Düsseldorf has about 600.000 inhabitants but in a normal day, the city seems really small. I loved the old castle, the small houses and statues, the fountains, the city parks, the small river harbors, the seamless merge between old and new. The city host many cafes and restaurants blended into the old part of the city that gives them a special flavor and the Rhine completes the picture. It’s nice, everyone wants you as a customer and the chill atmosphere makes gives you complete relaxation.

We bought souvenirs, natural gummy candies, very good ice cream and of course the traditional bratwurst :)

As we walked on the other side of the Rhine, in some remote places small real sand beaches were available. We spent some time dipping our feet in water gathering sea shells and small rocks :).

Amusement park
On the other side of the Rhine a huge amusement park was built just for this summer, so we couldn’t resist the temptation :D.

I went on just 2 rides. The first ride was … ahem … interesting. As I was strapping myself in the seat, and the safety bar coming down I thought: “I won’t scream! I’ve already done this in an airplane.”. No sh*t! I nearly wet my pants and I screamed my head off. These people are crazy! My hands still hurt from the strong grip of the safety bar.

The Second ride was more gentle, but still stirring my insides out. I just wanted to know how it feels. Now I know. I’m not sure I will do it again.

After saying our goodbyes we were on the road again … the wrong one :D. Some turns later, we got onto the highway and the rest of the ride was smooth with no major incidents. I guess we have to thank Gwen that she didn’t manage to kill us in the process. When I look back I say to myself: “That was really stupid … and bold”. :D.

Over and out,
The Lion.

Well we got there eventually but the other party was also late. We enjoyed a smooth ride to Amsterdam Centraal mostly glancing out the windows and chatting. The city has pretty much unchanged in my eyes, except maybe for the huge number of people (mostly tourists) walking down the streets. I felt like in Bucharest … simply too crowded and too noisy. I wished I could visit some of the museums there, but our crowd was so undecided … I learned my lesson: having more than 4 people around when traveling is not a very good choice. Everyone wants to go somewhere else, everyone wants to eat something else, everyone has different ideas on how to achieve these and in the end nobody gets what he wants.

I persuaded them to go on a boat ride on the most important canals of the city and we could have finally some quality time making pictures, glancing around.

We had a nice time and made lots of pictures, but I still don’t like Amsterdam :).

In the evening, we persuaded to go and see the “Live Earth” concert. Because Martin was gone to meet his friends, we managed to get all 5 of us into a car to get there :). We managed to catch only the last part of the show, but there were live transmissions from all around the world on big screens and some other entertainment like “Silent Disco” or playing volley ball on an inflated volleyball field. You can see the Live Earth theme song on YouTube.

After all was finished we went for the train station and after a one hour and a half we dragged ourselves in the warmth of our beds.

Cheers,
The Lion.

After work we walked across town, to a bar near Erasmus Bridge. After some refreshments we were invited below, into the “classroom” :). We started with basic moves and advanced rather quickly to more advanced stuff. I must say tough it looks pretty simple, when it comes to repeat the moves yourself, it’s a whole different story. Sabine and her boyfriend are really good at this. They cracked jokes, explained everything in detail and used very cool methods to prevent us from making basic mistakes.

After 2 hours we were all deadly tired. I think I still need a lot of lessons :) but I managed for my first one. Sabine invited us to a Salsa club called “The Beach” at the “Niew Maas” river to practice what we learned.

Remember what I always told you about trying new things? Remember Titanic? Some of you might have found the movie stupid … I for one liked it and learned from it. Rose promised she will follow her dreams … and she did. She really lived her life as it were not tomorrow, she loved as she would never love again. She dies happy in the end surrounded by all her memories all the things she’s done, all the people she touched. I wish we all could go like that.

PS: No pictures this time … we were to busy getting our moves right.

Cheers,
The Lion.

Saturday it poured down all day and the sky cleared just 20 minutes before our departure. Nothing unusual in The Netherlands. Weather here changes from sunshine to heavy rain and vice-versa in just a few minutes.

Being on the Nieuwe Maas river, with my hair blowing in the strong wind the deck moving steady in the strong current and the beautiful riverside landscape passing by was dream-like. We drank some hot chocolate and hat a chat with 4 ambitious guys from Germany, trying to start AIESEC in Iran.

Kinderdjik was the place where I saw the biggest number of windmills ever. There were about 20-30 windmills (the ones I could count) standing next to each other. It was like time stopped there. Just us and the windmills, each with its sale in a different position symbolizing sorrow or happiness. The soil was damp and the air moist, just preparing for another coming rain.

The ride back was characterized by strong winds and showers. I most surely got a cold after this, but it was worth it.

Cheers,
The Lion.

Last week I was convinced to have a long walk around the city to a Jazz Club. I’ve seen some parts of Rotterdam I didn’t know existed. It’s been fun … a 70 year old guy at the drums was the heart of the show. We “enjoyed” a 0,2 l beer at 2,5 EUR, and talked a lot.

I got a new roommate, which is quite cool as I’m not alone anymore, and have someone to share my thoughts. I think I’m beginning to enjoy his presence, mostly because he’s genuinely interested in everything you do. I believe he needs to clarify all aspects of what you’re doing and therefore puts a lot of questions. Having a technical background like myself, helps a lot ;).

Another thing we were up to is “Unreal Tournament”. He he he … one of the directors, which happens to be my flat mate, gathered all the needed software and people. We kicked a**. It’s been a while since I last had so much fun playing … imagine 6-7 grown-ups screaming like crazy, calling each other using nicknames in the AI Office: “Ha! Pathetic”, “I got the flag, I got the flag …”, “Killing spree!!!”, “Duck!!! Shoot, shoot … aaah darn!”, etc.

Won some, lost some, had loads of fun, will do it again soon :)

That’s it for now,
The Lion.

Before
I tried to see all of my close friends before leaving … didn’t manage. I got tough in the last evening home some very nice surprises from the friends in AIESEC.

Sunday at 5 AM, Lumi was waiting for me in the Bus Station. I was taking the bus to Bucharest to catch my flight. She’s going away in Kirghizstan (MC) for a year and I’m not going to be back in time to see her leave. It was hard, I hate goodbyes … why do we always take friends for granted and realize how important they are just when we’re about to lose them? From my EB teams most of the people are gone, scattered around the world or in other cities. It’s hard, I really hate change … but then again this is how life is.

Here
Now, I’m back again for another 6 weeks… . It’s different of course, different people, some I know, some I’m just getting to know, the colors have changed.

I’m just settling in after another hectic experience: the plane ride here. In short:
“Ajuns in Rotterdam … multe aventuri … intarziat avion o zi … stricat cartela SIM… injurat … inlocuit… Alitalia pierdut bagaju … adus bagaj strain negru… trimis bagaj inapoi si cerut bagaj portocaliu … spalat iar chilotzii si ciorapii … primit bagaj bun dupa 3 zile … fericit … uitat bagaj in sediu … recuperat … primit salariu … foarte fericit … scos bani … mancat azi … satul … multzumit.” :).

On Thursday I got a very clear Job Description from Abishek and have already started to work. I have to say the best part is going to start next week and I just can’t wait to get my hands into it.

I’m already involved in lucrative social activities like team-dinners, watching movies, going out. Last night I saw “Hostel” one of the most bloody and f*cked up movie ever. Tarantino has real issues. I highly recommend it :).

Issues
Well firstly, AI Office got broken into last weekend. 8 laptops, a video projector, my camera and my iPod are gone :(. They took my little “Heavy Tools” hand bag I forgot in the office on Fridays, altogether. Now I won’t be able to make any pictures or listen to my favorite music :(. A good thing is tough, that my passport and my laptop were at home.

All is fine, besides the weather. I have to re-accommodate to every day rains, dark skies and strong winds. I’ll try to write more often.

Over and out,
The Lion.

Photo by Tom Weaver

If you don’t have time or want to scrub this mail out of your Inbox as fast as possible, just move it to another place and read it another time or don’t read it at all. Well, haven’t posted here in a while. I thought I should not tell you what I’ve been seeing this weekend, or that I’ve been in Germany or seen a national park. I decided to tell you what I’m thinking in this moments instead.

How does it feel …
As you noticed, in the last 3 weeks I posted less … my CEED here is ending. Only 1,5 weeks left … I have a plane ride back on the 1st of July. It’s somewhat sad that I’m leaving this place. I had loads of good time and I’ve learned a lot in the time I’ve spent here with these amazing people. This is one of the main reasons why I’ll sign up as an SN starting with February. One other thing is that I also want to come back home, theory says that I’m entering the 2nd phase of living abroad, where I’m beginning to miss my friends, family … home. Nice giving out trainings on it, not so nice experiencing it by yourself.

It’s very funny: I want to come back, but I also want to stay. None of the feelings is stronger than the other so you’re quite in the middle. So you start counting days and feel miserably and happy in the same time with each day that passes.

Living with the AI …
Living and working with these people every day, coming in the office, having fun together, planning, seeing things happen … it’s simply awesome. Every CEED that’s here is considered from start as part of the team, everything is shared, everything gets discussed. The hierarchy is almost invisible, no one cares if you’re the PAI or a CEED. Everyone has basically the same rights and responsibilities towards the team. One other thing is that here, at the top management of the organization you can see results in a very short time. This is the most rewarding thing for the work you do. For the time you’re here you’re basically shaping the path of the organization by your work, by your decisions.

The fun part is also very real here, there are all sorts of social events you can choose to take part to like football, cricket, golf, team dinners, volleyball, swimming, movies, sightseeing, concerts, going out nights, getting together with AIESEC Rotterdam members, Poetry reading evenings, topic oriented non AIESEC debates … and more. There are 22 nationalities now in the office and a total of 39 people :D … imagine having them around every day, for 3 months. :)

I’m not counting the people I interact with (outside AI) every day. This guys, is worth everything! I wish that you get this feeling someday, to go trough what I’ve been, to feel what I felt in these 3 months, these 90 days, these 2.160 hours, these 129.600, minutes, these 7.776.000 seconds … every one of them.

A piece of advise

• Don’t be afraid of the unknown, embrace it
• Don’t wait for the perfect opportunity, there is no such thing
• Don’t worry so much, you’ll soon end up smoking 4 packs of cigarettes a day
• Don’t think about how hard or complicated thinks will be, they’re actually easier and more uncomplicated as you think
• Don’t lie yourself that there will come another time for it, there will probably be none
• Don’t expect someone else to push it towards it, few actually do it, few actually really care.

Go for it, jump in the river of opportunities that flows out there, hold on to them, make them real, for you. This is a time that will probably not come again in your life (unless you’re very lucky), this is the time you can experience anything and everything, the time you are most alive. If you let this time pass, you’ll loose out on some of the life’s most valuable lessons, awesome experiences, knowledge, friends. Make a habit out of trying out new things, every day.

Live a little,
Zeno. :)