Orange Town

Like the famous Turkish apple tea and deserts, Istanbul presents itself as a sweetening. By the shapes of minarets, numbers of mosques created impressive Islamic skylines for this city. With the geographical characteristics, being in between seven hills and expanding over two sides of Strait Bosphorus, Istanbul did become a symbolic and unique city, like Venice and Amsterdam.

The strategic location and dramatic terrain destined the nature of intermingled mixture that Istanbul is formed by three main parts with three different characters, the south Europe side, the north Europe side and the Asia side. The south Europe mainly framed by three great monuments was the heart of Byzantium, Constantinople and the Ottoman Empire. They are Aya Sofia, Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace. By extending three main infrastructure lines, the area outside the old walls can be reached by the only metro line and the only tram line.

In the north part of Golden Horn is the north Europe side later developed. To continue its historical context, city government Istanbul re-emphasized on Area Taksim by having numbers of bars, cafes and restaurants. Along the newly decorated boulevard, the ground floors of buildings which its upper floors mainly for business in the daytime turn into the place the youth vented their energy. Though it was 3 o’clock in the morning, the stream of people flew still like in the crowded evening. It seems the citizens of this city do not need to sleep.

Accordingly to the trends of development, some new expansion with the atmosphere of academic and business grow up from here to the seaside of Bosphorus and the local vacation resorts start from here along with the strait to Black Sea.

Across to the Asia side, it is the newly local residential area by tearing down a lot of old hill settlements. With rich flavors of turkey, two spectacular mosques stand in back of the city harbor and more locally recreational activities happen here. A contrast to the Europe side, the Asia side obviously is the place the Turkish prefer. The air here is really different from the part tourism.

Istanbul, an inverse of Dutch cities, is really a chaotic city but existed esthetics of disorder combined with intensively touristic activities. Behind that, there is a specific fragrance and vividness like a Tilamisu with strong and sweet flavors.