eaving Tashkent at an early hour, we really enjoy the Business Class on the five-hour flight of Turkish Airlines. We cross inhospitable-looking barren mountain ranges and the desert of Turkmenistan. (I can’t imagine those poor Silk Road traders and the armies of old doing it on foot and camel). Then out over …
I still can’t believe that we were walking into the Blue Mosque just before prayer time to see the spectacular blue ceramic tiles in fifty different tulip designs on the interior walls, and ended up in a carpet seller’s shop! It doesn’t matter how we got there but there we are sitting comfortably with a …
Blaring loudspeakers spruiking political messages and others blasting out Turkish music adds to the cacophony that greets us as we step off our ferry boat at Üsküdar on the Asian side of Istanbul.What are we doing here? We are in the care of an unbriefed Turkish woman guide who was raised from her sleep …
It’s tough! Looking out over the minarets from my room at the Witt Istanbul Suites. I’m up the side of a steep hill in Cihangir, a trendy neighborhood with a bohemian flair. I have to watch where I’m walking in the narrow and uneven streets. That becomes even more difficult with local distractions and so …