Edirne, the city of Sultans

Edirne, one of my most favorite cities in Turkey. To be honest, I have seen many cities, especially in Europe, but I have never seen such a warm and friendly city that much. Before I came to the US, I used to take daily trips to that beautiful city just to get a relief and escape from the chaos of the biggest city in Turkey, Istanbul. I know that this subject is way different from my usual entries, but I just want to write about it particularly because I miss it a lot.

Firstly, Edirne is such an old city which is known not only for its popularity as a capital for Ottoman Empire, but also for its architectural beauties that have been mostly built by Mimar Sinan (1489-1588)

When you go to that beautiful city, the magnificent artifact, Selimiye Mosque welcomes you from wherever you get into the city because it is so huge that you could see it from each corner. Also, during the night it has a gorgeous view which I call absolutely breathtaking.

It is still one of the greatest mosques in the world and I believe so that it would keep its reputation for a long time by exciting many domestic and foreign people. Moreover, whenever you go to the mosque, there are a lot to do around it and under it:) I know it sounds kind of weird, but there is a nice and big bazaar under it which you can go and buy many beautiful souvenirs one of which is my favorite to eat, marzipan made with crashed almonds. My mouth is getting wet even while I am writing and thinking about it. I would definitely recommend you to try it as soon as you can because it is delicious (Lezzetli, the synonym of delicious in Turkish). I am posting one of the pictures of that bazaar taken by myself a couple years ago in a lovely summer day.


One of the other things that I like about the city is that it has a famous museum designed in a creative way and considered the best museum in Europe. The first time I have heart about it, I told myself that I had to see that place, and I just took the train and went there. Hopefully and thankfully, I did that because it was such a calm and peaceful place. It used to be a clinic for those who had mental diseases during the Ottoman Empire period. The doctors of that treatment center believed that the music was the strongest way of healing people and making them find the solutions in their hearts.



Folks, can you imagine such a clinic, where you get treated by music and the sound of water which is dropping continuously? It is so cool and when you get inside, you see the whole room in a kind of panoramic view. Each patient's room is separated from each other in a pentagonal shape and the fountain is located in the middle of the room. Also, the musicians' place is located so close to the fountain, and the echo is very good, so each patient can listen to the music to get cured. Of course, it is out of question not to think how beautiful it is to treat people in such a way, especially at that time.

In my opinion, the other most important thing in order to understand the real essence of a city and to catch its spirit is to take long walks in different times such as sun rise, down, or in the evening. I have done all of them, and listening to the prayer in the garden of Selimiye Mosque with the friendship of different kinds of birds was marvelous. There was no light other than shining stars, and a small spot light of the mosque which was kind of scary, but at the same time exciting and peace-giving. Also, I loved my long walks in Edirne's long, but narrow streets which I call the ruins because city itself is such an open museum and wherever you go, you would definitely find something interesting and old coming from Bizantine or Ottoman Empire period.




Of course, one has to mention about the great rivers of Edirne when talking about that gorgeous city, called Arda, Tunca, and Meriç which are connected to each other and go through the city. Meriç is the biggest and the longest one among them and it draws the border between Greece and Turkey. When you go to that city, you have to see the rivers and enjoy the calm atmosphere by having such a great Turkish Cuisine in many different kinds of restaurants located on the way of the river and just tell them that you would like to try "Raki" which is our national and traditional drink. It is a kind of alcohol which is hard to drink, and one needs to learn the rules of how to enjoy it because if you do not know, it might kill your day by making you completely drunk all day long. :) I am kind of exaggerating, but it is better to be careful about it. :) I am posting a link about Raki.

The last advice is that go to that city by taking the train, so you can watch the good and bad sides of Istanbul; such as, the beautiful coast and Marmara sea including beautiful houses located on the coast, but also, poverty and poor areas, over populated places, and thousands of houses. Do not forget to open the train window and take yourself slightly out, so you can feel the warm and fresh summer breeze on your face and in your lungs.

Have a great trip if you go to Edirne one day and I hope that I have been kind of helpful to you all.

Southwest Airlines' Success and Gary Kelly as a CEO

Today I would like to talk about a legend in airline industry, Southwest Airlines. It is a well know airlines not only in the US, but also all around the world with its huge profits and permanent success being the most profitable airline in the world. At this point, I should add one more thing that Southwest does not mostly fly overseas. Although its flight range is limited by US, it can still be the most profitable airline. Just one question comes into our minds: How do they do that?

Of course, there are many different kinds of answers to this question, but I would like to mention one of the most important for the sake of the airline, the CEO, Gary Kelly. He is the guy who keeps Southwest one of the best airlines in the world with its forecasting, emotional, and comprehensive skills. He started working as an accountant and he never thought that he would have got CEO position one day, but he did. What are the gems that he has in order to keep the company the best one?

Recently, as all of us know, the world has suffered from gas prices, and it was one of the worst periods not only for all different kinds of industries in the world, but also, especially, for airline industry. However, even though many companies' sales have extremely fallen down, Southwest managed to be the best even at that time. The important factor and name was Gary Kelly, the guy who realized what was coming up, petroleum crisis. He made fuel hedging contracts and kept the fuel price much lower than the current rising price and that smartest attempt made the company be able to keep ticket prices low as well in comparison to the other airline companies' prices. I think this strategy brought such a big advantage to the company, and it still is taking advantage of the hedge contract while other companies are still trying to put their budgets together.



Secondly, he has great communicating skills. He tries to know everybody in his company and whenever he takes a ride, he never uses first class. Instead, he always prefers leaving the front seats to the customers, and he travels with his wife at the back side, which is the loudest part on a plane. Moreover, He is a humble guy who can get into communication with all kinds of people either from his staff or from his customers.

There is one more point that I would like to emphasize, and that impresses me a lot about the company. Whenever you get on the plane, you might realize the difference of the treatment to the customers. Once every 3 months, top executives take a position at the check-in desks and help employees. Also, flight attendants are most of the time so energetic and funny. I would like you all to watch this video because it is hilarious and I call it the real spirit of Southwest airlines. :)


The last advantage of the company I would like to add is its plane types. For example, when we look at Delta airlines' planes, we realize that they have all kinds of different planes from a wide range mostly being used for the flights to overseas. However, Southwest has a clear understanding and policy about their planes. "We are trying to be the best airline fliying with the lowest fares, so we have to keep our prices low and the first we can do is to keep our planes in one or two kinds, so we can reduce our maintenance cost and the repair time." Hence, the company has mostly Boeing 737 to apply this smart policy and guys it works so well because Southwest's success mostly comes from its reduced flight costs.


Therefore, we have covered some aspects of the success of the Southwest Airlines. I am attaching a couple links that you can check out if you are interested in.

McDonald's Hamburger University Tradition

In today's rapidly changing world, taking such an important part in business either as an individual or as a company is getting harder. Also, such a harsh competition forces people to become more concerned their career and how they try to reach their dream jobs.

Although there is no such a certain way to figure out how to become a professional in an area, there is one sure thing that big multinational corporations have already figured out; it is training, and job education, whatever your position is, covering a wide area from line to top managers of a company.

From this point of view, McDonalds has started the education related to the job to be a professional worker in all kinds of positions. It is called Hamburger University, established in 1961, and located in Oak Brook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. This corporate university was designed to instruct personnel employed by McDonald's in the various aspects of the business, and so far it has given around 70,000 graduates. Moreover, many people might think that it is not a real university, but the answer "yes, it is". Also, it is an international university spread around the world to educate and certificate those who are most likely going to take a professional position for the company after graduation.

The most important reason why I wanted to write about the subject is laid under what the founder of McDonals, Ray Kroc says, "If we are going to go anywhere, we’ve got to have talent. And, I’m going to put my money in talent." Therefore, we can easily see that the company takes its workers, their efficiency and directly the company's effectiveness as the first requirement in such a diversified work environment which the company has been aiming for a long time.

If you would like to get more information, please check this webpage out and there is a funny Hamburger University commercial which I would like you to see.