windsor castle and more

After spending a week in Turkey, I'm back in London again.

On Saturday, a colleague and I went to Windsor Castle, which was less than an hour away on the subway and trains (one of the best things about the UK is the subway/train system--it's not expensive, very convenient and very punctual). I wish I could have taken pictures inside, but as has been the case at many cool places here, that wasn't permitted. All I will say is that if you're coming to London, you should definitely go there. The art, decor and presentation are all very impressive. The church that's inside the castle, St. George's Chapel, is also impressive, both architecturally and for the royalty that's buried inside, including Henry VIII.

Some photos of the grounds:






Foot Guards:




The chapel:


Statue of Queen Victoria outside:


Looking up the street, with the castle on the left:


After we were done with the castle, we walked around Windsor for a while. It's a quaint little town with a full range of restaurants and shops, from high end to low end. Apparently a lot of really wealthy people live in the area, hence the high end stuff.

A typical Windsor street:


After cruising around for a while, we found a Chinese restaurant and had an early dinner. The restaurant was called "Nell Gwynn", which was funny because not only did that not match the Chinese name, but also because that sounds like the name of a traditional pub or something. The food was surprisingly decent, and I even managed to get my favorite fried noodles even though they weren't on the menu (I'm glad my degree is getting some usage here).

The view from our table at the restaurant:


This morning I went to the National Gallery, which is at one end of Trafalgar Square. Photos weren't allowed inside, which really sucked because they had a lot of very famous art inside, including works from pretty much every famous European painter from the early 20th century on back to the 1300's. My favorites were, as usual, the impressionists. The National Gallery is free every day of the week, which was great.

Trafalgar Square was busy today with a Hare Krishna festival:


The Gallery:


After that, I decided to go back toward my hotel and walk around Notting Hill (yes, the one in the movie), which is only a couple subway stops from the hotel. I got fairly lost and ended up walking for an hour and a half before I found my hotel. The weather was nice and the neighborhoods were interesting, so it was quite alright. The area (Notting Hill and Kensington) is pretty upscale, and the homes have a lot of character. Plus, there are still older buildings like churches around, which is cool. This would be a great area of London to live in.







Only six more days until I get to go back home. I like traveling and this trip has been pretty good, but 26 days is a long time to live out of a suitcase.

london, wales and istanbul

Greetings from Istanbul, Turkey. No Constantinople jokes, please.

A lot has changed since I last posted an update. On the last day of my vacation (the Florida one), I learned that I'd gotten an internal position for which I had been interviewing. My new position involves supporting supply chain and space management efforts for our new operations in the UK and Turkey. I'm bummed that I won't be going to Asia again anytime soon, but I'm excited to be doing something different and to be on the leading edge of where the company is going. I was told to expect to be on the road 50% of the time at least, and I'll be on this side of the world until June 26.

I've been on the road since June 1--yes, long trip. My first stop was London. I arrived in town on a Wednesday and left the following Monday for Turkey. It was my first time in London, and I really liked it a lot. The people were friendlier than I expected, the weather was great, I had some pretty decent food, and there was lots to see. I visited one of our two stores (it had opened the week before), and it looked great. It's always interesting to see what different products are available in other places. The major standout in this store was electric cars and bikes. Yeah, kinda weird for a Best Buy.

My weekend in London ended up being open, so I spent Saturday going around London. They have double-decker open air tour buses that you can take around the city, and you can get off and back on when and wherever you like, so I caught one of those and saw a few things of interest. I also got caught in the middle of an anti-Israel/pro-Palestine protest near Trafalgar Square. I've never been that close to a protest or around so many scary looking dudes, so it was quite the experience. YouTube is apparently blocked in Turkey, but when I'm back in the UK (I'm going back on Tuesday night), maybe I'll post some video.

The Eye of London and the Thames:


Westminster Palace (Parliament) and Big Ben:










Westminster Abbey:




Protesters:


Trafalgar Square:


I forget what this is, but it's right off Trafalgar Square and looks important and historical or something:




The Tower of London:










The Tower Bridge:


On Sunday, I spent eight hours on trains so I could spend seven hours in south Wales. A bit crazy, but that's the kind of thing you do when you're on the road and have limited time, I guess. The trip didn't turn out to be as fun as I had planned since I wasn't able to rent a car when I got to town (everything is closed on Sunday in the UK, apparently), but I was still able to see some cool stuff and wander around the towns of Mumbles and Swansea. I'd love to go back to Wales--it's a very pretty place.

Views of and from Oystermouth Castle:












Views of Mumbles and Swansea Bay:












I've been in Istanbul since Monday. I've spent most of my time working, and took a day trip to Izmir on Wednesday to see our first store in Turkey, which is located there. The store was nice, and it was interesting to see the differences there, too. I visited a couple competitors' stores right after that, and Best Buy is definitely a nicer shopping experience. Hopefully that will translate into success in this country.

I spent this morning cruising around the old part of Istanbul, where Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Hippodrome are located. I was very impressed with this area when the little lady and I came here a couple years ago, so I wanted to see it again. This time, I had as much time as I wanted, a better camera and no annoying tour guide, so I really enjoyed myself. It's tough to fit everything there is to see in Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque into photos, but hopefully what I've got will give you an idea of how impressive the archictecture and decorations are inside. I won't bore you with too many details, but suffice it to say that Hagia Sophia used to be the biggest church in the world (it was converted to a mosque and minarets were added after the Turks conquered the Byzantines in 1453, more than 900 years after Hagia Sophia was built). The Blue Mosque is one of the biggest mosques in the world, if not the biggest, and is just opposite Hagia Sophia. The Hippodrome is where chariot races used to be held during Byzantine times.


The Blue Mosque:











Hagia Sophia:















The Hippodrome:






It's cool to be in a different part of the world and to be able to see interesting things, but this is definitely not a glamorous life. I work like 18 hours a day and feel totally exhausted at the end of each day. Living out of a suitcase gets old after a while, too. Still, I like traveling and I chose this job, and I'm making the most of it. Good times.