Arriving in Istanbul can come as a shock. You may still be in Europe - with tree-lined boulevards and chic cafe bars in many areas - but step away from the main drag and most likely you will find you have entered a completely ailen environment. Traders with handcarts , hamals (stevedores) carrying burdens of merchandise twice their own size and weight , limbless beggars and shoeshine boys all freuquent the backstreets around the city centre , loudly proclaiming their busines until late at night. Men monopolize the downmarket public bars and teahouses while women scurry about their business , heads often covered and gaze ever downcast. In summer , dust tracks take the place of pavements, giving way in winter to a ubiquitous slurry of mud. Where there are pavements ,they are punctuated at intervals with unmarked pits large enough to swallow you without trace. And this is before you even begin to crosss any bridges into Asia.

Yet istanbul is the only city in the world to have played capital to consecutive Christian and Islamic empires. Their legacies are much in evidence , newhere more prominently than in the cultural centre of the city , where the gerat edifices of Ayasofya and Sultan Ahmet Camii glower at each other across a small park. The juxtaposition of the two cultures would be fascinating enough in itself but it is made more so by the fact that the transition between them was a process of assimilation and adoption. Mehmet the Conqueror , and most of the citys churches were reconsecrated as mosques - not least Aya Sofya itself , which was a constant source of inspiration to Islamic architects.

Monumental architecture aside, the very confusion of sights and sounds initially so alienating soon becomes one of Istanbuls greatest fascinations. Even if the city did not have such a varied and vivid history , it would still take any number of return visits to begin to discover the source and meaning of the cacophony. Exploration reveasl ancient bazaars which still function as they have done for centuries , including the largest covered bazaar in the world, the Kapali Carsi. The modern city, located around vast emptiness affords to some a feeling of relief after days spent in crowded , dirty backstreets , and at night Taksim and the adjacent Istiklal Caddesi take on a new lease of life as a centre of friendly bars and clubs while the area between Taksim and Galata offers some of the citys best restaurants. The Bosphorus - the straits dividing Europe and Asia - should be visited as often as possible during the course of a trip , since howmuch you enjoy Istanbul may well depend on how often you can escape to its shores. The coastal villages offer incredible views as well as some of the citys more interesting historical sites , parks and esen open forestland , and the best fish restaurants in this part of the world. The Princes Islands , traditional refuge from political turmoil on the mainland , are worth visiting for their unspoilt natural beauty and for the possibility of finding a secluded beach an hours ferry ride away from Eminonu.