The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey is the size of four soccer fields, a shopper’s Nirvana packed to its mosaic rafters with pashminas, pottery, exotic lanterns, evil eye keychains, and rugs, rugs, rugs. Every day about 250,000 shoppers teem through its corridors and tunnels. While there, the lack of female salespeople surprised me. The beginnings […]
October 11, 2015. On Sunday we had a free day to hike the historic neighborhood of Sultanahmet, and had a chance to visit three mosques. Being in a holy place on Sunday felt right, even if Christian churches are scarce. Much like Goldilocks with the three bears, we sampled small, medium and large mosques, and […]
October 10, 2015. After an 11 hour flight from Boston, we arrive at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul. A young man in a suit and tie holds up a sign, “David Standring.” In a foreign country, it’s sure nice to have someone know your name. His name is Wassim, and he navigates us through the crowds, […]