Several weeks ago I got a nice present from a LIONS-friend – a weekend trip to Istanbul, flight and hotel inclusive. She won that ticket from sabtours at the charter night of LIONS Club Wels Thalheim, Upperaustria. Right after she got the price on stage she came to me and told me: „Othmar, you can use that trip for your book – it’s yours now“. It was such an amazing feeling to get such a big thing as sponsoring of my project. It was the chance for me to get to know an exciting new city, a new culture as well as amazing new people.
So since this trip was organized from a travel agency I got the best service before and during the trip. My flight left on Friday 5th of December from Salzburg Airport (about an hour by train and 20 mins by bus from my hometown) around noon. After a very nice two hours flight I landed in Istanbul. I was picked up by a local tour-guide and was brought by shuttle-service to the Hotel Klas in Sultanahmet, the old-town and historic center of Istanbul. So this is how my first day started as well as ended. I was walking around the old town without any plan where to go and explored the surrounding of my hotel for around six hours. To be honest: I was pretty much overstrained by the cultural clash between orient and modern business. The huge buildings are really huge, one mosque greater then the other one.
