Hagia Sophia & Blue Mosque
Before Turkey, I though Russia had cool churches! The Hagia Sophia The church or the city? Beats Sophia on the outside In 537 AD, the Emperor Justinain I completed the Hagia Sophia as a testament to the power of Christianity and place Istanbul (then Constanople) had in that realm. The…
Read MoreMy Turkey Travel Companions
Ya gotta have a cool crew to travel right! Claire, Arthur, Ann Mmmm! Any trip you take might be shaped by the place and tim, but it is defined by the people you travel with or meet along the way. My trip to Istanbul was defined by three people really,…
Read MoreTurkish Lira Fun
You think you can add fast? Try math with seven zeros on each number! The Turks have a crazy money system, even crazier than Russia’s New Money. See, there are 240,000 lira to the US dollar, and falling fast. So many zeros make it hard to figure out what your…
Read MoreIstambul’s City Fortifications
For 2000 years, only twice did the city walls of Istanbul fall! A section of the wall The city of Istanbul has stood for two thousands years, falling only twice to invaders. Since it sits on a peninsula, the only way to attack the city was a land march along…
Read MoreEver Take an Elektrichka?
There is a reason they call it ‘hard class!’ I was all prepared to write about the singular experience of riding a Russian elektrichka when I read this article in the Moscow Times. Bill doesn’t exactly write in my style, I would have spoken more about the people on the…
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