Walking in Istanbul
R is one of my friends who likes to walk. When faced with a choice of walking for an hour or a 15-minute (or less) bus ride, we will opt for walking. This has its good and bad points. In Istanbul, it took us a while to orient ourselves which lead to long, circular adventures to reach our destination. Not that we found that a bad thing: it gave us the opportunity to see many things and parts of Istanbul that we would not have otherwise seen. So, as we left The Blue Mosque, we found ourselves on one of our far-reaching adventures as we attempted to visit Hagia Sofia. In the end, we were on the homestretch when we were delayed by (yet another) carpet salesman. And, yes, this time, I did purchase a carpet.