Girls Night in - I love you my best friends :)

Istanbul Istanbul!

Always fun and girly when I am in Istanbul with the girls. :) 
I stayed at Burcu's place in the posh Mashattan skyscrapers. and we ofcourse held the "1st Official Girls Night in PJ Party" with chocolate strawberry and some Champagne.
I went to Burcu's place as it is my second home really.

We decided to have a girls' pj party after a long afternoon at Istinye Park to check some dresses.
I am in love with Yves Saint Laurent (1), Vakko Couter (2) and Jenny Packham (3). But still I am in love with the African fabric (Vlisco that I got from Abidjan).

After Istinye Park visit, we ended up at Burcu's place for Girls Night-in.
Mujde initially ordered chocolate strawberry and Burcu prepared one her excellent salads. 
Perfect night with best girlfriends!

I love you girls and this was one of the shortest and most lovely trip to Istanbul.

We will have more fun in May and August. :)

Cheers,
Gizem

Francophone Africa - Cote D'Ivoire

Bonsoir Mesdames et Messieurs!!!!

I decided to practice some French after visiting the Francophone part of Africa. Oh lalalaaaa, everything is beauty everywhere is beauty products!

My trip started with some fun: I missed the flight while waiting for the exchange guy! Just a little explanation here, exchanging Naira into USD or Euro is the most difficult task in Nigeria. There is no exchange office and banks also don't want to deal with it. So we have an official exchange guy who brings us foreign currency we need it in the office. :)) Anyways, the guy was supposed to come at 9.30 but I -for some reason- forgot about the "African time" and took the man seriously. Of course, he showed up at 11 and I missed my flight at 12.25 thanks to Lagos traffic. 

Luckily, the next day we found another ticket and I got the order from my maid: don't go to office, go directly to the airport otherwise you are going to miss the flight again! OK, mom :))) 

My flight was with ASKY airlines (heard first time in my life) and it was an airline from Togo and connecting through Lome (Togo capital - heard it for the first time). After getting some reassurance (as it was the subsidiary of Ethiopian Airlines), I decided to take it. Lome is a very very small airport with two mid-size rooms and 5 departure gates. When the time comes for the flight, they announce one of the gates and here you go! 

After 2.5 hours (Lagos-Lome 35 minutes, 1 hour lay-over, 1 hour Lome-Abidjan), I arrived Abidjan. My sweet but silent driver Paul picked me up from the airport. Since I was entering with business visa, they led me to the police station to leave my passport for 1-2 days. It was a scary experience and if Paul was not there, probably I would have freaked out as not many people speak English in Cote D'Ivoire.

Cote D'Ivoire used to be a French colony and became independent in 1960 (the same year with Nigeria). That's why everything everything is French even the Coke adverts.

Another French effect is that people are stylish and give importance to their beauty. Everywhere was full of savon (soap), body lotions, deodorants, nail polish and hair extensions & all kinds of hair products.

This is our beautiful cosmetic store lady :)

Hair extensions for Ivorian Ladies!

Little beauty salon in the open market

Kim's show is the most popular program and in all the billboards

Our hotel was in Plateau which is a nice and affluent neighborhood in Abidjan and our visit started with Cocody which is a nice suburb. That's why my initial impression was "wow, this place is really cool and different than Lagos".

Then we went to the biggest open market in Cote D'Ivoire called Adjame Market and welcome back to Lagos mainland. :)) 

chaotic, busy, high traffic open market...

I also have to talk about the different cabs colored according to neighborhoods. Around Cocody, the taxies are yellow, around Adjame green and in Yopugon they are blue. 

There are also red cabs which are allowed to go everywhere in the country.

and everything is portable in line with most African countries!

and of course seafood everywhere...

The next day my friends (on facebook who have never been to Abidjan but thanks to technology :)) recommend me the place called "Chez Georges" which scored the 2nd best in Tripadvisor. However, i kept this reco for my next visit in February.

Before I forget, I got to know the most fashionable African fabric brand - Vlisco thanks to Temi. :) some of their fabrics were around 500-1000 Euro. Crazy but there are obviously designer brands in African fashion. :)

Bye bye Abidjan for this time and see you in 3 weeks. :)