If you remember, I checked off one destination on my travel bucket list last year when I made it to Istanbul, Turkey. I spent an entire week there and felt like I didn’t even scratch the surface. 1. because the city is massive and spans over two continents, Europe and Asia and 2. It is such a unique place that you need to really travel around the different main city centers to really try and fathom how it all works.
Believe it or not the historical center of Sultanahmet is the one of the most religious areas and also home to the old mosques, while the more European feeling part of the city is actually across the Bosphorus waterway on the Asian side. Here you’ll find women dressed just like you’d find them anywhere else in the western world as is the case with majority of the rest of the city, like in the Taksim area where you can find every retailer and restaurant you’d find in Europe or America from KFC to Louis Vuitton.
But what was the most interesting thing about Istanbul for me is how the people seem to just get along. You see women completely covered from head to toe, men with huge beards walking along the sidewalk with teenagers wearing skinny jeans and tight shirts. There is a mutual respect for people’s beliefs that I think is not so evident in other parts of the world where Islam is the dominating religion.
The food is great in Istanbul, the sights are great and there is more to experience than you could possibly do on one vacation and that’s why I’m going to look for cheap Turkey holidays shortly so I can really try and explore a bit deeper and really see what makes the city tick. I suggest you do to!