# The world's coolest city?



## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

D'ohkay I was gonna make this a guessing game but nah, I won't piss about. 

Introducing the city: its population is 13 million, unofficial population nearer 20 million. Its thousands of years old and a heady mix between Paris, Damascus and San Fransisco (architecture aswell as outlook), East meets West, old meets new and what Newsweek is calling the new 'world's coolest city' (last time it did this was London 1995) precisely for the juxtapositions you can find so few places elsewhere- girls in miniskirts passing the mosques, ancient teahouses next to gay bars, swimming in the sea next to the palaces. It also happens to be one of the friendliest cities in the world.
In short Istanbul = zeitgeist. Its currently the world's best kept secret but not for long - tourism is expected to rise dramatically as the 'secret' gets out, and foreign visitors will reach 10 million in the next 2 years.











ok enough blah, I gives you the city on two continents. Many many thanx to the amazing pictures of Jakob, and sercan.de :


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

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20.a thanx to cityskyscrapers @ skycsrapercity.com for this one









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Jakob said:


> QUOTE=Jakob;14408404]























Istanbul art































































































Istanbulis love to protest  :














































































































snow



Jakob said:


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

Doukan said:


> *Istanbul: truly cool, truly magnificent, truly alive and truly sexy!*


Thanx to Doukan


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

I forgot to mention I think Istanbul is living proof you don't have to have the most money, or most fashionable or best nightlife, or most beautiful city and people to be the coolest, that is the essence of what makes it what it is - the juxtapositions, the intense plurality.

But hey everythings relative and this is just an opinion, just my 2 cents...


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## DiazZ (Jun 30, 2006)

I must admit, I never really expected Istanbul could look as beautifull as this. Really great pictures, I can just feel the vibe from it. Probably one of the city's I will try and visit as soon as possible.


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## philadweller (Oct 30, 2003)

That's impressive. What a gem. There is nothing Istanbul does not have.


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## UrbanSophist (Aug 4, 2005)

This city is fascinating. It was, for some centuries, the center of the world.


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## Xelebes (Apr 1, 2007)

Who had the bright idea to spam this thread with images? Please, to those who post images, please select the best photos. If you have a whole compilation, please post in the photo forum, not in the discussion forums. It hinders discussion, instead of adding to it.

Anyways, coolest city? Obviously Yakhutsk, Russia. That or Winnipeg, Canada.


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## ØlandDK (May 29, 2005)

I don't get this thread...Nice pics though


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## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

the spliff fairy said:


> Introducing the city: its population is 13 million, unofficial population nearer 20 million.


Oh, I love these threads where people exagerate things. So Istanbul has 20 million inhabitants, Lagos has 17 million, London has 18 million, and Mexico City has 30 million. Yes, sure. :lol:

In the real world the population of the Istanbul province (which is larger than the city of Istanbul proper) is officially about 11 million, but this figure is supposed to be an overestimate (a recent nation-wide people count found that figures from the 2000 census were overestimated because local municipalities artificially inflated their population figures to get more funding from the central government).


Xelebes said:


> Who had the bright idea to spam this thread with images? Please, to those who post images, please select the best photos.


Exactly. Some people apparently think the more pics they post, the better. In fact it works the opposite.


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## arzaranh (Apr 23, 2004)

well that was a painful reminder that i am here in crummy los angeles and not there in istanbul.


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## Justme (Sep 11, 2002)

I visited Istanbul last year and loved it. Despite this, I personally wouldn't call it the world's coolest city, but it was pretty good in many respects.

Good: Beautiful natural scenery and great historical architecture. Damn the Bosporus is stunning.
Bad: That beautiful architecture is crumbling and run down when closeup. It really is a "developing" nation still.

Good: One of the most beautiful shopping malls I've ever seen, the Kanyon Mall is a true asset for this city. Located in an area with at least one other major mall (though more dated) virtually next door.
Bad: The mall maybe beautiful, but the streets around it are crumbling. This is also the only country in the world where I've been where I needed to pass through an airport style metal detector and empty my pockets and pass my bag through a scanner to enter a mall. Jesus, how bad must crime be for these to be needed?

Good: A very cool (though useless) historical funicular and a nice, though tiny, modern metro.
Bad: This city has a terrible public transport network of a city this size and such a high population. What little it has is poorly integrated with each other, so just crossing town in a straight line, often takes far too many changes and is quite frankly silly.

Good: Some amazing palaces, museums and mosques to enjoy whilst in the city. Under the ground (Yerebatan Saray) or over it.
Bad: Some really old fashioned ways of entering these museums, totally inefficient and sometimes beyond comprehension. e.g. the Dolmabahçe Palace had an outdoor booth, where people lined up for more than two hours to get tickets to go to another line to collect them. Then you had to pay extra for the right to take photos! Duh.

In other words, this is a great city, but it is clear it's still in a developing country that has a long way to go. Istanbul, according to the people I met there, is far ahead of much of the rest of the country, but even with that, it is much behind the rest of Europe in so many ways.

For example, my wife was molested on the trams there, every time we used them. Not just once, but every time. Granted, it was during the busiest time of the year just after Ramadan, but that is still no excuse.

All that said, I think this city has a great future. When Turkey's economy improves, so will this city. It has a fantastic geographical location - one of the best in the world for a major city, great climate, incredible historical architecture, extremely lively and overall a wonderful place. But it still has a long way to go before I would call it the coolest city in the world.


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## Northsider (Jan 16, 2006)

Gorgeous photos! Truly a great city!


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## Sagaris (Nov 28, 2006)

In Poland, Doner Kebab stands are quite common in large cities and even ruraly, and almost always have good food. I cant imagine how great it must be in the actual home of this incredible culinary delight.


Xelebes said:


> Anyways, coolest city? Obviously Yakhutsk, Russia. That or Winnipeg, Canada.


 Winnipeg by far. :lol:
The good news is that after you freeze to death, you dont miss out on much.


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## Justme (Sep 11, 2002)

Sagaris said:


> In Poland, Doner Kebab stands are quite common in large cities and even ruraly, and almost always have good food. I cant imagine how great it must be in the actual home of this incredible culinary delight.


From my experience they were very nice, but much simpler than the Kebabs found in Germany, i.e. less incrediants, smaller and much less meat. But the meat was of good quality and the bread was fresher than found in Frankfurt Kebab shops.


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## Pas (May 12, 2003)

I heard a lot of nice things about Istanbul. have to go there soon.
Nice photos too .. 
what other cool cities are there?


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## Brazil_Gold Coast (Oct 23, 2007)

WWWOOOOOOOOWWWW Im amazed to how beatiful Istanbul is! I always dreamt of going to Turkey, since I was a little kid...hv no idea why. but these photos just made me feel like going there right now! It's definately on the top of my list when I finally get to go to Europe! Congratulations for the amazing photos
P.S. Some of those photos of the houses on the hills around the water reminds me so much of the houses around Sydney Harbour. Same style of constructions...


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## VikramRao (Sep 2, 2007)

Absolutely lovely. I do not however understand why Turkey is so interested in Being part of the EU, their history and culture so so much superior to Europe's. None the less im fascinated with this country.


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## _Sha_ (Sep 13, 2006)

VikramRao said:


> Absolutely lovely. I do not however understand why Turkey is so interested in Being part of the EU, their history and culture so so much superior to Europe's. None the less im fascinated with this country.


We are (as public) not interested in being part of the EU but our politicians. :bash:


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