Because of a sandstorm in Sulaimaniyah, our plane was told it couldn’t take off from Istanbul, so we had to wait for 24 hours. Luckily, Paul from Exeter had allowed me to share a twin room in the nice Airport Hotel. In a way, it was a good coincidence to have been delayed because I was able to meet some interesting and kind people, including Omer from Baghdad who accompanied Paul and I on an day excursion to the Sultanamet part of Istanbul. After reading Dalrymple’s From the Holy Mountain twice , it was nice to return to Constantinople and pay my respects to Hagia Sophia.