April 2026

In April, our humans were going to a conference in Istanbul and they would be exploring the ancient civilisation at Gobeklitepe as well. Check out the map to follow our route.

Click each photo to enlarge

Dublin Airport, April 2026

Our humans were going to a conference in Istanbul in Turkiye - it was not called Turkey any more.

We were invited to follow them, so we packed our gear and went with them to Dublin Airport. We were going to fly Turkish Airlines, which was not the first time. Here we are at the gate waiting on our Turkish Airlines aircraft to arrive.

Istanbul Airport, April 2026

We arrived the huge airport just north of Istanbul. When Roger realized the airport's name was Istanbul Airport, something dawned on him.
"McBear, haven't we been here before, and you called it Istanbul's Havalimani Airport?"
"That's right."
"Howcome all airports in the Istanbul vicinity are called havalimani-something? Could it be that havalimani simply means airport in Turkish?"
"Well, I...eh..."
Things also dawned on Tom, and he started giggling.
"Does that mean, we have now arrived Istanbul Airport Airport?"
"Well, I...eh..."
Poor McBear. He felt a bit embarrassed as we left the havalimani in a taxi.

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, April 2026

Our humans were going to stay at a guest house at the Yildiz university campus. Since we were going to be on our own for some time, they handed us a pile of Turkish Lira notes in case we needed to buy something. Now, since Turkish inflation was among the hightest in the world, we had to use the liras fast.
"That's absolutely no problem, believe me!" Roger assured our humans.

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, April 2026

The conference were going to be held at the Yildiz Technical University Campus and we had a walk around to get familiar with the area.

Istanbul, April 2026

We went down town to the old parts of Istanbul city. Here, we saw the great Haya Sophia Mosque. Unfortunately, the mospue was wrapped in scaffolding. Restoration works were ongoing, and it was said, that it was going to take around 40 years to complete the restoration.

Istanbul, April 2026

Not far from the Higia Sophia is the Blue Mosque located, and fortunately it was not wrapped in scaffolding.

Istanbul, April 2026

According to legend, a cat saved Mohammed's life. This has resonnated well into modern times, and even today Turkish citizens look well after cats in the streets. People can buy food for cats at this machine.

The Bosphorus Strait, April 2026

The harbour, Bosphorus Strait.

The Bosphorus Strait, April 2026

The Bosphorus Strait separates the European part of Turkiye from the Asian part of Turkiye. Only two bridges connect the two parts. This beautiful suspension bridge is one that spans the strait.

Yildiz Technical University, April 2026

Next morning we were going to register for the conference in this beautiful, old building. Oddly, our names did not appear in the list of delegates.
"Just typical, said Roger. Human organizers don't seem to realize the existence of bears..."
Roger went over to talk to the organizers and came back with good news.
"They organizers agreed that we should definitely be granted slots tomorrow for our presentations. So, we have to finalize all the presentations, we are working on."