dilshan
12-30-2008, 06:32 AM
Our little convoy of four i IOs rolled up slowly to the parking lot alongside the Parthenon style monument, and on the spur of the moment we decided to park them in an out-of¬bounds area so we could take pictures of them against the structure. This is when the aforementioned cavalry showed up, and I was just tensing myself for a fatal volley of shots when it became clear that they were just curious about the cars, the i 10 having just been introduced in the country and therefore a rare sight on its roads further, our cars were gaily decorated with stickers of all sorts as well, making them true stand¬outs. While Hyundai's reps fielded questions from Turkey's finest, we quickly concluded our shoot and decided to make ourselves scarce, in case the soldiers had a collective change of heart and began reaching for safety catches.
What were we doing getting up to minor mischief in Turkey, however? WelL Hyundai had decided to organise an event wherein a couple of i 10 Kappas would be driven from Istanbul to Paris, through several European countries, arriving in time to be displayed at the Paris motor show. There was to be a Turkish leg too, an Istanbul-Ankara round trip, before the cars set off for neighbouring Greece. and this was the section I had been assigned, along with other colleagues from the automotive press. As to why I wasn't going to Greece as well, don't ask there lies a tragic tale of last-minute preparations and recently expired Schengen visas. In point of fact. I was lucky to have been there at all, acting as a stand-in for Srini who. in one of those providential Ifor me, not himl twists. had been struck down by a passport with insufficient pages. I certainly wasn't complaining; it's been a long standing wish of mine to go to Turkey, and the chance to drive around inside that country was an added bonus.
334
It was in Istanbul. that fascinating city and erstwhile gateway to the Orient, that the drive began. We had arrived on a beautiful. sunny day and begun our Turkish sojourn with an excellent meal of kebabs. salad and mind alteringly good Turkish coffee, after which a siesta was in order. Duty called, however. and we changed into our official Hyundai threads and were ferried to the company-run showroom which happened to be on another continent. You see, Istanbul enjoys the unique privilege of being situated both in Europe and in Asia, with the Bosphoros river cleaving the two sections, and we were headed for the European half of the city.
As we discovered, Istanbul is huge; it took us almost an hour to get to our destination. through fairly normal traffic, and we arrived to get our first glance of the cars we were to be driving. A bevy of attendants were fussing over them, lovingly applying stickers on their being, and at the end of it all the cars looked really natty. The i 10's a cheerful little number to begin with the stickers upped that quotient a fair bit. We busied ourselves in the showroom premises, drinking endless cups of excellent machine-made coffee and fiddling with the cars on display. There's hardly any difference in the way a Turkish and an Indian Hyundai showroom are set up. by the way; the layouts, colour schemes and so on are almost identical. A couple of photo shoots later (the entire top echelons of Hyundai Turkey were presentl. we heard the welcome words 'Shall we proceed to dinner?' The said meal was a truly memorable affair. with a breathtaking riverside venue, a great view of one of the bridges across the Bosphorus (it's a real sight when they switch on all the lights on it) and, of course. all manner of sumptuous dishes. Ever seen a whole fish baked in a three¬inch thick casing of rock salt? Turkey's the place to do it.
What were we doing getting up to minor mischief in Turkey, however? WelL Hyundai had decided to organise an event wherein a couple of i 10 Kappas would be driven from Istanbul to Paris, through several European countries, arriving in time to be displayed at the Paris motor show. There was to be a Turkish leg too, an Istanbul-Ankara round trip, before the cars set off for neighbouring Greece. and this was the section I had been assigned, along with other colleagues from the automotive press. As to why I wasn't going to Greece as well, don't ask there lies a tragic tale of last-minute preparations and recently expired Schengen visas. In point of fact. I was lucky to have been there at all, acting as a stand-in for Srini who. in one of those providential Ifor me, not himl twists. had been struck down by a passport with insufficient pages. I certainly wasn't complaining; it's been a long standing wish of mine to go to Turkey, and the chance to drive around inside that country was an added bonus.
334
It was in Istanbul. that fascinating city and erstwhile gateway to the Orient, that the drive began. We had arrived on a beautiful. sunny day and begun our Turkish sojourn with an excellent meal of kebabs. salad and mind alteringly good Turkish coffee, after which a siesta was in order. Duty called, however. and we changed into our official Hyundai threads and were ferried to the company-run showroom which happened to be on another continent. You see, Istanbul enjoys the unique privilege of being situated both in Europe and in Asia, with the Bosphoros river cleaving the two sections, and we were headed for the European half of the city.
As we discovered, Istanbul is huge; it took us almost an hour to get to our destination. through fairly normal traffic, and we arrived to get our first glance of the cars we were to be driving. A bevy of attendants were fussing over them, lovingly applying stickers on their being, and at the end of it all the cars looked really natty. The i 10's a cheerful little number to begin with the stickers upped that quotient a fair bit. We busied ourselves in the showroom premises, drinking endless cups of excellent machine-made coffee and fiddling with the cars on display. There's hardly any difference in the way a Turkish and an Indian Hyundai showroom are set up. by the way; the layouts, colour schemes and so on are almost identical. A couple of photo shoots later (the entire top echelons of Hyundai Turkey were presentl. we heard the welcome words 'Shall we proceed to dinner?' The said meal was a truly memorable affair. with a breathtaking riverside venue, a great view of one of the bridges across the Bosphorus (it's a real sight when they switch on all the lights on it) and, of course. all manner of sumptuous dishes. Ever seen a whole fish baked in a three¬inch thick casing of rock salt? Turkey's the place to do it.