A bridge between east and west

Istanbul is Europe's largest city and the worlds 5th largest. It's home to 15 million people and you feel every bit of that because of the density. The traffic congestion is thick and moves at a snail's pace. It's a popular tourist destination for people from the east and west and I was surprised at the amount of foreigners walking the streets.

I stayed in Sultanahmet which is arguably the best place for travelers due to it proximity to parks, attraction and significant sites. It's also one of the oldest parts of Istanbul and given what I saw of other areas I definitely stayed in the right spot.

As you could imagine the food is excellent and the smells are awesome. Despite the heavy population and the appearance that everyone drives cars, Istanbul is surprisingly peaceful and almost quite.

Amusingly, all the cafes and restaurants offer breakfast but none of the open until about 10:30am meaning you can expect breakfast to be served a bit past 11am. Actually nothing really opens until then. I've visited other highly populated cities and commonly each one of them moves at a speedy pace with a sense of urgency but not Istanbul. It moves slowly and calmly and the locals express a no fuss mentality.

Let's say you need to buy something for the home or yourself. In Istanbul you don't visit a shop or a street, you go to a neighbourhood. And when your there you'll find blocks of streets creating a shopping neighbourhood selling identical goods. A neighbourhood of shops selling light fittings or blocks of streets selling shoes or carpets and this is repeated for kilometres.

The Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, Gulhane Park and Topkapi Palace are all in walking distance from the Sultanahmet Square plus many other places of cultural and historical significance.

I'm satisfied with my time spent in Istanbul but have unfinished business with Turkey. It was here where I finally resigned to the fact that I couldn't travel any longer. Lethargy, complaisance and general loss of interest told me it was time. All good things come to an end but it wont be forever.