istanbul

the only city on earth where one can walk from asia to europe, or the other way around.
istanbul not constantinople…

a view from boshporus
very old city which had many names throught the history like byzantium, byzantion, nova roma, constantinople and istanbul. there are many historical remains from every era, many churches from both constantinople era and ottoman period, few churches converted to mosques while many new churches build (catholic, anglican, protestant, greek orthodox, armenian orthodox, etc) during the ottoman period.
there are many other names coined to istanbul like islambol, sevenhills, dersaadet…
the hottest placeon earth! even though there’s a lot of poverty (especially child-poverty) and homeless people, it’s a place that means the world to people, who have lived there. honestly, it’s a place that’ ll touch you, if you visit it one day. there’s a great atmosphere and it’s probably the only city on earth, where old asian culture and modern western culture has a nice balance. a lot of great mosques and historical places to visit.
oh, and by the way: it-s istanbul! not constantinopel!! ok?! shout it: istanbul!!!!
a: istanbul use to be the capital city of turkey, but now it’s another city called ankara.

b: in istanbul there’s a place called the grand bazaar, where you can buy nice fake watches for dirt cheap prizes.
asitane is another old name of the city, in ottoman language…
cultural heritage and natural beauty meets in istanbul as asia and europe meets in it
the only place that “i feel home”. everybody wants to leave the known faces and known faces behind one day, and i can leave any face any place behind but istanbul… it’s my addiction.

and it’s strange that people around the world is more likely to know the name of the city -istanbul- more than the country turkey.
it is like knowing chicago and thinking that it’s a state rather than a city of the state illinois.

yes, it used to be the capital of turkey but back in the history it was shifted to ankara which was a safer place geographically and strategically.

istanbul, the place to be!
even old new york was once new amsterdam… why they changed it, i can’t say. people just liked it better that way?
so take me back to constantinople
it’s in istanbul, not constantinople
been a long time gone from constantinople
why did constantinople get the works?
that’s n-body’s business but the turks.
a beautiful city in turkey. greeks don’t like this name and prefer using “constantinople”, which is a latin name. on the other hand turks hate it when greeks do that and always use “istanbul” which actually comes from greek term “eis ten polin” -in the city.
istanbul, i will defeat you!

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