‘To be travelling through the middle of a city as great, historic and forlorn as Istanbul, and yet to feel the freedom of the open sea – that is the thrill of a trip along the Bosphorus.’
Those are Orhan Pamuk’s words, not mine. In this feature for How to Spend It magazine, I explored the many faces of Istanbul – old and new, European and Asian, Islamic and secular.
Only a couple of years ago, Istanbul’s multiple identities were happily rubbing together, cheek-by-jowl. Now those days feel desperately far away…