NOTES, COMMENT AND BUZZ FROM EUGENE KASPERSKY – OFFICIAL BLOG
April 18, 2025
One of the main reasons for my recent trip to Turkey was our annual global partner conference, which brought together 100+ business partners from 35 countries – from Chile to Japan. The weather outside was chilly (in Turkey!), but the event itself went off without a hitch!…
Let’s get started!…
April 17, 2025
Turkey’s main city is Istanbul – there’s no doubt about that. But the capital of the country is Ankara, and that’s where we needed to go last week for a variety of important business meetings. Ankara Airport is a modest one but it all the same impressed us with its interior design – featuring even a pool (but without the fish). Ankara Airport also gave us an adventure unlike anything I’ve ever encountered in my highly active and lengthy travel experience!…
So here’s how it went….
May 9, 2024
Hi folks!
After Budapest, next up – Istanbul. Out the window of my hotel room – a nice view, with the weather bearable ->
Nice bridge; not nice traffic:
I was looking forward to some tourisms the following day as it was a weekend; would the weather hold out?…
July 13, 2022
Hi folks!
Pamukkale’s known for its travertine terraces, but that’s not all; it’s also known for the hot air ballooning that goes on here aplenty. 100% Must-do. The only problem for some folks – you have to get up at the crack of dawn to experience it… ->
Even how they inflate the balloons before dawn is a spectacle worth seeing. First it’s all quiet, calm and peaceful. Then they start up the noisy furnaces! And slowly, several, then a dozen, then scores of hot-air balloons all start bulging and rising up from their sides into the air (with the basket still on the ground). And they get big. Real big! ->
July 12, 2022
Travertine? Never heard of it? Is it an indie band? Is it a type of floor covering? Is it an errant world-traveler? Actually, none of those. Actually, if you don’t know what it is, that might just point to the fact that you’ve never visited Pamukkale in Turkey. For if you had, that’s where you’d have learned that this, is travertine! ->
The terraces of Pamukkale, which means “cotton castle” in Turkish, are without a doubt among the most beautiful and unique natural objects on our planet (so, of course, they feature in my Top-100 Most Beautiful Places in the World). The travertine is the sedimentary rock deposited by mineral water at the exits of the hot springs here that has formed a colossal cascade of pools with stalactites hanging down off them – and everything as white as snow.
June 8, 2022
Hi folks!
Been a while, I know. Let’s just say… I’m traveling less of late (. However, occasionally I do manage to fly off somewhere, and since I’m a die-hard kerosene-head, doing so duly preserves my sanity ).
So where was I off to this time? Generally – south. But I’ve never known a flight to a destination in the south take such a bizarre detour: first it was almost sharp east, then directly south, followed by sharp west. Oof:
Yes, as you’ll have guessed, I was headed for Istanbul. Hurray!…
October 28, 2021
It wasn’t all sad down in Turkey. It was also amazing. Plenty…
First amazement: it turns out that in Turkey there are around 150 ancient theaters! Some well-preserved; others – less so. I really didn’t know just how keen the locals here were millennia ago when it came to theater-going. Well now I do…
October 25, 2021
Flying around in a helicopter is always a pleasure; flying around in a helicopter in the fall – along a shoreline, in clement weather – that pleasure is multiplied several-fold. And that includes down in sunny Turkey…
Oh my glorious!
November 23, 2020
Most everything’s strange this year. A lot’s been cancelled, a lot’s been changed, a lot’s been postponed, some things have been transformed into different formats… And Formula 1 racing hasn’t been spared either; still, at least it hasn’t been canceled this year: it’s still going strong, and still… as incredibly awesome as ever!
I won’t dwell on our team’s poor results. A hundred reasons will always be found for a losing streak – but I’ll leave that to others to discuss. All I’ll say is that this really strange year has been a really strange one for Ferrari too.
The strangest thing of all this year for F1 is that the stands are completely empty, and I really do mean completely! Not a single spectator to be seen the whole season. I should know – I was at the Turkish Grand Prix recently ->
Strange year, strange F1, and here, now – strange post!…
October 24, 2019
I’ve already shown you the oddly shaped rock formations up on the surface here at Cappadocia. Turns out the unusual shape theme continues underneath the surface too: man-made caves – ‘upside-down skyscrapers’. Well, why not? After all, pumice is very soft for a rock, so it’s not crazy difficult to carve out (as it no doubt was in Baalbek); also – it doesn’t need strengthening; also – due to the dry climate there’s no water needs pumping out from the underground depths.
Then it seems that everything was forgotten about and abandoned (as often happened), and the caves were taken over by dust, decay and depression. Then, centuries – or millennia – later, Homo sapiens rediscovered them, and archeologists, historians and researchers got down to revealing them though their archeological digs. Today, many of the underground ‘neighborhoods’ have been dug out, cleaned, tidied, fitted with staircases and electricity (!), and probably will have free Wi-Fi fitted very soon too – all to cater for the many tourists who visit.
