"Arriving in ISTANBUL can come as a shock. Most visitors head for the old city in and around Sultanahmet , where though you're still technically in Europe, there are immediate differences: back streets teem with traders pushing handcarts, stevedores carrying burdens twice their size, and omnipresent shoeshine boys. Men still monopolize the public bars and teahouses, while many women cover their heads, averting their gaze. Yet this is merely one aspect of modern Istanbul; only a couple of kilometres to the north you'll find the former European quarter of Beyoglu , with its trendy bars and cutting-edge dance clubs, while north again are the pavement cafés and restaurants of Ortaköy and the swish Bosphorus suburbs of Arnavutköy, Bebek and Etiler. These days the city has a social and cultural diversity to match any of its Western counterparts. "

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