Istanbul in $5700s-$7600s RT

You guys are probably all familiar with BA's super-low first class fares by now. And you also know we'll keep sending them as long as they keep being great deals.

So here's something you don't already know: In Istanbul, on the second level of the one-and-only Hagia Sophia, there's a 1,000-year-old piece of graffiti left behind by a bored Viking mercenary. No one knows for sure who this particular warrior was, but he may have been part of the Varangian Guard, an elite unit of Norse bodyguards who protected the Byzantine emperors for centuries.

We do know one thing, though: his name. The runes he carved translate roughly to "Halfdan was here."

You can find Halfdan's work, along with countless other pieces of graffiti, on the parapet surrounding the south gallery of the Hagia Sophia's second floor.