More Training at Istanbul Heritages

The next team challenge was held at the Ottoman heritages such as Blue Mosque, Haghia Sophia and the Topkapi Palace. Today, our guide became Yasemin. My team members were Gavin, Simon, Asley, all Brits.

Over Demanding Walking Tours
It was actually a day of walking tours as all these places were just nearby to each other and were walkable from the Four Seasons. For me, it was quite a difficult day as I usually not able to walk that long way. As the Blue Mosque was a sacred place for Muslims, I brought a big scarf to cover myself up to make sure my arms are not shown. Of course shoulder cuts and shorts were not allowed. We also had to take our shoes off (quite smelly) at the entrance.

This time we were divided into four teams to visit either the Blue Mosque or Haghia Sophia and to answer a set of related questions. After all, our team decided to go to the Blue Mosque.

Anna at the Blue Mosque

Peter distributed the questionnaire and we had to find out the answers during our visit. Well my team members were all former internationlly well known bankers, I was shy to speak up among them. Also I had to blame the English of the Turkish guide because I could hardly understood what she said. Another reason could be I lack of an understanding of the history of the Ottoman Empire.

Refugee Lunch at the Topkapi Palace
As we were hungry, our boss decided to announce the results after lunch. I was glad to know that but upset afterwards as I had to walk for another 30 minutes to the restaurant at the Topkapi Palace. My goodness, I need a cab to take me there, but there was none. Thesw walking tours were about to kill me. With a pair of painful legs, the lunch became very unacceptable.

Our company offsites were famous for being extremely luxury. How come we were offered a fast food lunch at a refugee camp kind of restaurant? Well it could be the best restaurant at the Topkapi Palace. Who knows?

The brief visit to the Topkapi Palace after lunch did not offer much interest to me. Again partially because I don't know the Ottoman history and partially because there were really no great things to see. Perhaps I have seen too many great palaces in Britain and the 86-carat diamond here was not comparable to that of the 530-carat of the Queen's in London.

After lunch, Peter announced the results. There were complaints of course. May was the head of the complaint team. One thing raised by Peter the trainer, was quite worth considering. He said "Win is win; lose is lose. In real life, there is no way that we can ask clients why we lose, as they are not obliged to tell us. We just have to accept failure as a matter of life. There are chances to fail no matter how good we do. What's the most important is that we do our best". Something similar to 'rule of no rule'. Was this the training message that our boss meant to get across?



Tile/Carpet Tour
Our walking tour ended at last around 4pm. I was so glad to be transferred to our shopping tour by a van. We had to choose between a tile shop and a carpet shop. I decided to go to the tile shop. I must say the handicrafts there were very nice. I spent 37,500,000 Turkish Lira for a 4"x4" ceramic tile coaster. Yes, 37.5 million, but I think they've adjust the exchange rate now to make life easier. The money I spent was actaully around HK$200 (US$25.6).

The tired day of walking tours finished at last with a Turkish themed dinner at a prison-like restaurant, in terms of lighting, setting and everything. Unfotunately I had to walk back to the Four Seasons. Poor me, this was my most unpleasant day at Istanbul.

Anna's Amazing Journeys - Walking Tour at Istanbul