Istanbul Travel Guide
Introduction
Istanbul is notable for two things: its vastness and its chaos. It is a megacity, one of the two largest in Europe (the other being Moscow, Russia), and among the busiest and most cosmopolitan in the world. It is also an exotic city at some level, a blend of East and West, of Asia and Europe, filled with grand bazaars and spice markets, rug emporiums and sweet shops, waterfront districts lined with European-style cafés and chic boutiques, famous palaces such as Topkapi – of Topkapi heist film fame – and historic mosques that have wowed visitors for almost as long as they have drawn the pious. There are antiquities here from the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, seemingly at every other corner, and street vendors offering everything from nuts, figs and fish to fake perfumes and even shoe shines. Ultimately, though, here is a city of music, food and people theater, a city where noise builds with the first call to prayer, a city where traffic chokes the streets and ferries and tankers ply the Bosphorus, weaving across from Asia to Europe, a city that sates your senses with its sights, sounds, smells and flavors, a city, indeed, that you won't soon forget – like that sickly sweet Turkish Delight.
Location
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