HAGIA SOPHIA MUSEUM

Hagia Sophia is built on 3rd century…yes, one of the eldest temples on the world…..
First building was built on 3rd century, than after a fire, it was rebuit again on 415 CE. It was the bigest church on the world at these centuries..
It has been many times renovated by the kings and sultans.
When the Turks captured Istanbul from Byzantions on 1453, it was converted to MOSQUE.
On 1935 it is converted from mosque to museum and now is open for the tourists to enjoy the beauty of thousands years of history inside.
The building is located at OLD ISTANBUL area… Nearby you can also see Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern and Topkapi Palace….

BLUE MOSQUE

Blue Mosque is one of the most interesting places you can visit in Istanbul.
It is one of the biggest mosques (Temple) in the world. It was built on 1616 by the World Famous Architect MIMAR SINAN.
It is located at OLD ISTANBUL which is accepted as the centre of the city now. Hagia Sofia Mosque is just 5 minutes near that big mosque.
It has 6 minarets.
It is a MUST SEE place in Istanbul….

Istanbul`s mysterious Places-1

If one day you visit Istanbul one of te places you have to visit will be BASILICA CISTERN…it was built by Byzantions on 5h century for keeping the water supplies safely. It is a pool in fact. The Byzantions were getting their water from rivers around the city to that pool to keep for hot seasons.
It is located at SULTANAHMET area where Blue Mosque and HAGIA SOPHIA Museums are by walk 5 minutes.
 
For more details pls visit:

AIR CHINA ortak ucus sorunu

 Çin’e seyahat edecekseniz, birkaç noktaya başından dikkat etmenizde fayda var derim:
 
– Biletinizi THY ile almaya gayret edin. Air China biletlerinin üzerinde fazla değişiklik yapılamayor. İşlerim erken bittiği halde biletimi değiştirmediler maalesef ve 2 gün boşuna bekledim kesilen biletimin tarihine kadar.
– THY ile almış olsaydım o bileti farkını vererek önceden uçma şansım olbilecekti.
– Air China ortak uçuşu ile Çin’e uçtuğunuz zaman bavullarınız genelde Pekin Havaalanında aktarması yapılmayacaktır, aktarma yapacağınız şehire indiğinizde bavulunuzun gelmediği gibi bir sürprizle karşılaşmak istemiyorsanız, Pekin’de bavulunuzu aktarma uçuşunuz öncesinde kesinlikle kontrol edin..
– Bilet kesen firmalardan olur da AIR CHINA bileti alacaksanız kesinlikle fiyatının uygun olmasına dikkat edin. Ortak uçuş olmasına rağmen THY’den çok daha ucuza bilet satıyorlar Air China’dan. Bilet firmaları müsterileri uyandırmayıp aynı fiyatlardan bilet kesiyorlar. Şahsen en son aldığım bilette bu şekilde kazıklandık bilediğimiz için o fiyat farkını..
 
 

SHOE-SHINERS IN SHANGHAI

 
I go to Shanghai many years but this time i met a very interesting situaton… Shoe-shiners` terror! Yes, they are like terrorists for tourists…
If you go especially to Nanjing Road area, it is main touristic shopping district in Shanghai, take care of these terrorists… They come to you first asking to shine your shoes, probably you don`t want, than they have shoe cream at their hands and they directly pressure the white cream over your shoe…you get angry of course! than they say ok ok… let me clean it…than if you allow them than again you are loser, because they will ask you 10RMB (1,5$) after they clean that cream only from your shoes..
You haven`t asked them to shine your shoes, they put the cream without asking you too, they have to clean it of course free of charge, but they ask also money from you 🙂
The best thing you can do is to shout at them and never let them even clean your shoe from that cream, you better use a tissue and clean your own shoe yourself.. They are not educated people and they dont understand what funny and stupid thing they do to tourists in Shanghai…
If you really want to solve the problem with peace of course you can give them 10RMB and leave… But the problem is why you give 10rmb for something you did not want….
When i walked down the street i saw many bad experiences over other tourists, at least i saw 5 tourists quarreling with these terrrorists… I had also 2 experience myself..
I hope Shanghai police will solve that terrorists soon:)

NEW PARTNERSHIP

We are happy to inform all our friends and customers that we have taken 50% shares of the best pencil leads factory in China.
Our factory is located at Shandong Province, Penglai City. It is a very nice touristic old city.
 
We produce HB and 2B leads.
 
Production capacity will be 10 tons soon and we will be the biggest manufacturer of leads soon in whole China.
 
 

INTERESTING FACTS

Great Wall is built agains Turkish Invaders by the Chinese.

 

Glasses have been worn for about 700 years.

 

About 300 years ago, people used toothbrushes made from hog bristles.

 

During the Middle Ages, people used spider webs to try to cure warts.

 

Rockets were first made by the Chinese more than 750 years ago.

 

The 100 years war lasted 116 years.

 

During Martin Luther’s Reformation, he claimed the Catholic Church to be the anti-christ, and in response, they claimed he was the anti-christ. The common people, assuming one must be the anti-christ, believed that the acopalypse was coming. It never did.

 

The first sound recording ever made: "Mary Had a Little Lamb" in 1877.

 

In 1848, Niagara Falls stopped flowing for 30 hours because of an ice jam blocking the Niagara River.

 

In Victorian times, estate gardeners never planted grape vines without first burying a dead donkey underneath the plot.

 

In the 1800’s anyone in England who unsucessfully attempted suicide faced the death penalty.

 

In England, in the 1880’s, "Pants" was considered a dirty word.

 

"Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18. Must be excellent riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages are $25.00 a week." This is a mid 1800’s help wanted sign for the Pony Express.

 

Amount American Airlines saved in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class: $40,000.

 

In 1960, an estimated 4,000 people were over 100 years old in the U.S. By 1995 the number had jumped to 55,000.

 

In 1921 76 inches of snow fell over Silver Lake, Colorodo, the heaviest snowfall ever recorded.

 

The first minimum wage to be established in America was 25 cents an hour, it was in 1938.

 

In 1980 the yellow pages listed a funeral Home under "frozen foods".

 

In 1962 an outbreak of contagious laughter in Tanganyika lasted for six months and caused schools to be closed.

 

In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when patients would die.

 

Sunglasses became popular in the 1920’s when movie stars began wearing them to cut the camera’s bright lights.

  

Bubonic plague killed millions of people throughout Europe in the Dark Ages, and in 1996, five cases of plague were reported in the U.S.

 

Talk is cheap compared to what it used to be; in 1915 a telephone call from New York to San Francisco cost $20.70 for the first three minutes.

 

Seventy percent of the soldiers who served on U-boats for Germany in World War II lost their lives during the war.

 

The Spanish – American War was started when an American vessel, the Maine, sunk in Havana harbor. Contrary to popular belief, an internal fire that spread to the ammo storage caused the initial explosion, not a sea mine.

 

Nearly 3000 merchant vessels were sunk by U-boats in World War II

 

Police in Hong Kong stopped a man because he seemed to be ‘oddly shaped’. He was found to be wearing 18 bras and 45 pairs of ladies’ panties.

 

There is a lawsuit every 30 seconds in the U.S.

 

More than 50% of time spent in U.S courtrooms is over automobile cases.

 

The U.S. Government will not allow portraits of living persons to appear on stamps.

 

The first novel ever written on a typewriter was "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"

 

Dr. Seuss coined the word "nerd" in his 1950 book "If I Ran the Zoo".

The World Cup is truly an international event. (Soccer World Cup)

 

The average adult male shaves off 1 lb of beard per year.

  

A hard working adult sweats up to 4 gallons per day. Most of the sweat evaporates before a person realizes it’s there though!

  

Men get hiccups more often than women do. 

 

54% of Americans fold toilet paper neatly. 35% wad it. What about the other 11%?

 

Nearly all boys grow at least as tall as their mothers.

  

A person would die if all of the toxic ingredients of one cigarette were directly injected into the bloodstream.

 

55,700 people in the US are injured by jewelry each year.

 

Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better.

 

An estimated one in five Americans – some 38 million – don’t like sex.

 

On average, people spend more than five years of their lives dreaming.

 

In the course of a lifetime the average person will grow 2 meters of nose hair.

 

The average American makes six trips to the bathroom every day; that’s about 2 1/2 years of your life down the drain.

 

The average American spends six months at red lights throughout his or her life.

 

By the age of 75, the average American has created about 110,000 pounds of garbage.

 

Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

 

More people use blue toothbrushes than red ones.

 

The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year.

 

On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.

  

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

 

According to the World Heath Organization, there are approximately 100 million acts of sexual intercourse each day.

 

On average, humans have 9,000 taste buds in their mouths, tongues, and throats.

 

The average person will swallow 295 times while eating.

 

In your lifetime your body will produce more thatn 25,000 quarts of saliva.

 

Over 2,500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people.

 

The average American eats at McDonalds 1,811 times in their life.

 

On male shirts the buttons are on the right side, on female shirts the left side. This is due to wealthy women using slaves many years ago to dress them. The buttons were on the right side to the slaves who buttoned up the shirts…

 

Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.

 

It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

 

Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left handed people do.

 

Quebec is the world’s leading exporter of asbestos.

 

The wingspan of a Boeing 747 jet is longer than the Wright Brothers’ first flight.

 

Each day, 14,000 tons of garbage are dumped into Fresh Kills, NY, the largest landfill in the world.

 

Astronaut Shannon Lucis spent 188 days in a row in space. That’s the American record.

 

The world record for passing gas was set on Japanese television, 3,000 times in a row.

 

The tallest man in the world was 8’11" Robert Wadlow. He was just 22 when he died in 1949 from an infection caused by leg braces he needed to keep him on his feet.

 

A man named Charles Osborne had the hiccups for 69 years! Wow!

 

The world’s oldest piece of chewing gum is over 9000 years old!

 

A ‘jiffy’ is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

 

If you yelled for over 8 and a half years, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

 

Top Six reasons for being late for work: 1) traffic. 2) oversleeping. 3) procrastination. 4) Chores. 5) Car Trouble. 6) Having Sex.

 

If you pet a cat 70 million times, you will have developed enough static electricity to light a 60-watt light bulb for one minute.

 

Car accidents rise 10% during the first week of daylight savings time.

 

85,000,000 tons of paper are used each year in the U.S!

 

An attosecond is one billionth of a billionth of a second.

 

National Pi Day is March 14, at 1:59. (3/14 1:59)

 

The billionth digit of pi is 9.

 

The odds of a mother having twins are 90 to 1.

 

Right now, this very second, 70% of the people driving on U.S. highways are speeding.

 

There are 74 lobbyists for every one senator in Washington D.C.

 

If you counted for 24 hours a day, it would take over 31,000 years to reach one trillion.

 

Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.

 

Every time you lick a stamp, you’re consuming 1/10 of a calorie.

 

Plymouth Rock weighs seven tons.

 

A one degree rise in temperature equals a 2% increase in peak electricity consumption.

 

The Mayan calender, the most accurate in the world, ends in the year 2012.

 

 A telephone signal travels a 100,000 miles per second.

 

There’s 31,622,400 seconds in a leap year.

 

America once issued a 5-cent bill!

 

Every 45 seconds, a house catches on fire in the United States!

 

In the U.S. the average bride is 21 years old, the average groom is 23.

 

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

 

In the White House, there are 13,092 knives, forks and spoons!

 

Recycling one glass jar saves enough energy to watch T.V for 3 hours!

 

During your lifetime, you’ll eat about 60,000 pounds of food, that’s the weight of about 6 elephants!

 

7% of Americans don’t know the first 9 words of the American anthem, but know the first 7 of the Canadian anthem!

 

5% of Canadians don’t know the first 7 words of the Canadian anthem, but know the first 9 of the American anthem!

 

The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year!

 

One in every 4 Americans has appeared on television!

 

A quarter has 119 grooves on its edge, a dime has one less groove!

 

Over 2500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people!

 

No piece of square dry paper can be folded in half more than 7 times!

 

The word electricity derives from the Greek word "elektron" meaning amber.

  

The Greeks noted that rubbing amber produced a static charge.

 

Alcoholics are twice as likely to confess a drinking problem to a computer than to a doctor, say researchers in Wisconsin.

 

Scientists have identified and described about 1.4 million species of an estimated ten to 100 million on earth.

 

Scientists estimate up to 20 percent of the world’s plant and animal species may be extinct by the year 2000.

 

There are more collect calls on father’s Day than any other day of the year.

 

There is now an ATM at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, which has a winter population of 200.

 

The estimated value of services provided by the global ecosystem (water, food, materials etc.) runs between $16 and $54 trillion per year.

 

Japanese lead the world in vending machines, selling $100 Armani ties, $30 bottles of whiskey, and $5 glasses of beer, right next to soft drink machines. It is possible because of low vandalism and petty theft.

 

In 1995, Toys R Us sold more than $9 billion of goods in the U.S. alone.

 

The average one-dollar bill wears out in less than two years.

  

A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court!

  

The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

  

It takes 3,000 folds to wear out a dollar bill.

Beauty

BEAUTY – Khalil Gibran (Prophet)

And a poet said, "Speak to us of Beauty."

Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide?

And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech?

The aggrieved and the injured say, "Beauty is kind and gentle.

Like a young mother half-shy of her own glory she walks among us."

And the passionate say, "Nay, beauty is a thing of might and dread.

Like the tempest she shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us."

The tired and the weary say, "beauty is of soft whisperings. She speaks in our spirit.

Her voice yields to our silences like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow."

But the restless say, "We have heard her shouting among the mountains,

And with her cries came the sound of hoofs, and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions."

At night the watchmen of the city say, "Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east."

And at noontide the toilers and the wayfarers say, "we have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset."

In winter say the snow-bound, "She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hills."

And in the summer heat the reapers say, "We have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves, and we saw a drift of snow in her hair."

All these things have you said of beauty.

Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied,

And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.

It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,

But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.

It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,

But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.

It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,

But rather a garden forever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight.

People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.

But you are life and you are the veil.

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

But you are eternity and you are the mirror.

Love

LOVE – From Khalil Gibran (Prophet)

Then said Almitra, "Speak to us of Love."

And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them.

And with a great voice he said:

When love beckons to you follow him,

Though his ways are hard and steep.

And when his wings enfold you yield to him,

Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

And when he speaks to you believe in him,

Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.

Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,

So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.

He threshes you to make you naked.

He sifts you to free you from your husks.

He grinds you to whiteness.

He kneads you until you are pliant;

And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure,

Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor,

Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;

For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, I am in the heart of God."

And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.

To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love;

And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;

To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;

To return home at eventide with gratitude;

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

EU Visa Headache!!!

SCHENGEN
VISA

 

I go to Germany for 14
years, every year I visit the Frankfurt Mess Fair. I am exhibitor company for 5
years too. 

 

Normally if
you are Turkish citizen, EU countries ask many documents from you for visa
application.. As I am businessman, I know which documents I have to prepare and
I arrange them clearly and apply my visa…

 

Since 1993,
till now, the longest visa they gave to me is 6 months!!! Even though I am
businessman, I am exhibitor at their own exhibitions, I can`t get more than 6
months from EU countries.

 

This year
is getting worse than before… I have got a VISA INVITATION from Frankfurt
Paperworld Fair directly to be given to German Consulate for easier visa
application. As I am exhibitor this would help me to solve visa problems.

 

I have
arranged all documents as usual and sent to German Consulate. I had put my
ticket copy, hotel reservation details inside the visa application documents
too. The fair would begin on 24th January so I had arranged the
ticket for 23rd morning and I reserved my hotel too. I paid all of
these by cash and confirmed them.

 

I had a
picture taken with white background a they had asked last year, they told me
they need a BIOMETRIC PICTURE, so I took a biometric picture in a studio….They said
they ont accept that photo and I have to take it exactly with the dimensions mentioned!
SO I went to another studio and took the picture they asked…

 

Finally all
my documents were ready and I sent them to consulate for getting my visa.

 

I got a bad
news from travel agent on 22nd January, they said the consulate gave
me visa beginning at 24TH JANUARY!!! But 24th January is
the beginning day of fair!!! How will I go and arrange my booth? And I have
alrrady bought ticket and hotel!!!

 

I asked my
staff to call consulate and tell them the situation.. I had a ticket and hotel
and if I don’t fly on 23rd I will cancel them and lose a lot of
money.. and the most important thing is I must o on 23rd as I have
to prepare my booth at fair! The consulate staff had shouted at my staff!!!
They said HOW CAN I CONFIRM MY TICKET AND HOTEL WITHOUT WAITING THEM TO STAMP
MY VISA!!   They don’t care if I am exhibitor, I have
confirmed ticket, hotel etc. They only think they are KING! And we are servant?????

 

I had to
cancel my ticket of 23rd January. I bought a new ticket for 24th
January… My booth at hotel will be empty for one day as I will arrive at the
first day of the exhibition….

 

As a
Turkish citizen, it is so funny that we are at CUSTOM UNION with Europe countries.. They use the Turkish economy as they
need and they get cheaper price items from our factories. They use the Turkey at custom
union but when it comes to EU MEMBERSHIP they don’t want us… They only need
economic partnership which they earn only..

 

I don’t want
to become EU member… and I  hate the HUMILIATION
shown to us in visa procedures!!!