I decided to go visit the Theodosian Walls, the famous and mostly intact walls of old Constantinople, on a sunny afternoon. Too sunny, as it later turned out, and I hate the heat; but you never know till you try, I suppose. The walls were initially built by Constantine the Great, and surrounded the city on all sides, protecting it against attack from both sea and land. Unfortunately they did not prove effective in its last stand of 1453; but that was a series of unfortunate events and at that point the Ottomans were determined to take the city, which itself lacked the sufficient people to man and defend.
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| Mosque that I passed on the way there |
It really was too hot that day, and the neighbourhood was apparently a bad one, so I didn't want to loiter. I ended up doing a bit of walking around the bits of wall that I could find, and that was it.
After I got back I decided to visit the Blue Mosque, which was a) 5 mins walk from my hostel, and b) right opposite the Hagia Sophia. It should have been straightforward enough in theory, but I had the misfortune to encounter not one but two very persistent Turkish men who would just not take no for an answer.
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