Showing posts with label Istanbul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Istanbul. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Just like vacation... briefly...

As the plane from Amsterdam was scheduled at 5:30PM, and we had equipments for filming, we decided to enjoy our stay in The Hague. I really didn't care about the museums that the city fostered, and I went out one of the other "must see" spots!

The beach!

cold... but nice...

This part of the city has a name that any Japanese would think it's a joke... I know you don't pronounce it like... "Su-keh-beh-nin-gen" (I think it's actually "shu-feh-nin-gen"), but if you do, it would make any Japanese laugh!

the name is... Scheveningen!

signs saying Sheveningen everywhere!

on the small port...

hotel near the beach...
they say it's very expensive here!
of course, this is not where we stayed!

and the Heineken emblem everywhere!

Returning to the central part of the city... we took a stroll around to find a nice cafe to have lunch... Everything in the city looked "historical" and "European"...

nice tower...

trams running around the city...

even the pigeons look "European"!

Lunchtime!

found a nice cafe!

can't read the menu...

but got a nice sandwich!

After having lunch, we took the taxi together to Schipol and said good-bye to one of our elder correspondents and spent several hours at the airport. The Amsterdam Schipol Airport's terminal had many stores, and there were lots of stores to look around.

heading to Amsterdam!

found the "Miffy" corner... my wife's favorite!
I didn't know she's called "Nijntje" here!


and my favorite!

sushi, sushi, sushi! with can of Asahi Super Dry!

Leaving The Netherlands, we landed on Istanbul again and right before midnight, we went into the plane to say goodbye to Europe (if you'd say this is Europe... well, the Turkish football team is competing with the Europeans to qualify for the World Cup!)

people were gathering in front of the TV showing a match between Turkey and Spain!


need to fill up with coffee!


my favorite Caramel Macchiato!

Monday, March 30, 2009

Setting foot on European soil!

It was a very long day... Leaving our office at about 1:30AM, the flight leaving Imam Khomeini Airport at around 4:30AM took us to Schipol Airport of Amsterdam, The Netherlands before 11AM.

Taking...

the Turkish Airline flight!

We stopped by Istanbul, Turkey... only for a short while...

Atatürk Airport...


oh they have Burger King! I'm too full to have a Whopper...


saying good-bye to Turkey!
I completely forgot we were going to take the flight that just had an accident... Istanbul-Amsterdam flight had a "overrun" accident when I was at Bushehr last month! I'm sure they won't make the same mistake!

After reaching Schipol, we rushed to The Hague, our destination...


Amsterdam Airport... lots of KLMs!


the words of Schipol...


to Den Haag please!


lots of "historical" buildings!
the smell of Europe!!

We spent some time at the venue of the conference taking place tomorrow...


the venue...


upshot...


a nice conference hall!


let's see what the two countries in the center will do...

Sadly we found out that it was not the foreign minister than was attending from Iran... This made our trip so downgraded it was like coming to a nice vacation to an European town. Well, there's no choice but to enjoy our stay here and hope for something miraculous to happen tomorrow!

PS
It was the first time in years, perhaps since when I was a first grader, to set foot on European ground (except Charles De Gaulle Airport a while ago!). I didn't realize how exciting that would be as I was all fed up with the crazy trip through the night...