Istanbul

I don't particularly like big cities. Still the European part of Istanbul is nice. The Asian part not so much, it is not unlike other big cities in the Third World Developing Countries. Hagia Sophia and Blue mosque are okay, although I did not like the 25TL entrance for Hagia Sophia, it is essentially a mosque after all, although now a museum. The other parts of the Golden Horn are less charming, a bit like Chandni Chowk in Delhi, which I also don't like.

Hagia Sophia

Blue mosque

Taksim Square was nice

Galata Tower

Istanbul's take on Mona Lisa

Like I said before, not a fan of big cities, some exceptions are Boston and London. So I only like the big cities whose names rhyme with my last name :-)

Riding in to Istanbul

"We should call a third rider (Mert) to accompany us. We will ride in close formation. Blah blah".

If this was an organized tour I would demand a refund on this dull ride. Riding in to the city was no more challenging than riding in to SF in the rush hour, actually a bit easier I think. There were no cars flying at 160-200 mph (yes MPH!) as claimed on a certain blog... No suicidal drivers, people cutting us off etc. GPS worked flawlessly and lead to the right address the first time. EZ PZ.

Getting out of Istanbul was even easier for me the next morning, around 9:30 am on a Friday. Granted this is going against the traffic, but still. In fact the most exciting part of the last day of my ride was getting chased TWICE by 2 different pairs of dogs near Luke's house in Sofia.

Now I am not the one to question someone else's experience, so I will say only this much. Istanbul traffic MAY NOT be bad, but than it may be bad, depends upon your luck :-)