modern.istanbul

Shortly after Istanbul modern we took a funicular uphill to Taksim, the modern city center and it was really crowded on Saturday. From there we connect to Metro to a super modern and mega shopping mall called Istinye Park.

It is located at the suburb north of Begloyu. It was hard for me to imagine that I am in Istanbul because this futuristic gigantic mall is like any of the American mall and the brands that it carries also made me believe that I am being transported to USA.

It is very atmospheric even though Turkish in general not celebrating Christmas but this is the first time I heard of Christmas carols that proclaiming the birth of Christ....

People enjoyed seeing Santa clause and all the Santa babes dressed in funky red dress. It puzzled me a bit as awhile ago, some of the Dutch schools were afraid to even put up a Christmas tree in fear of offending the muslims (whilst Christmas tree is not even a religious symbol) but yet right in this Istanbul, a city of muslim country, there are Christmas trees every where and even Christmas carols...It is really ashame of the Dutch who marginalize their faith...

On the ground level, you can find all the big names (from LV, Miu Miu, Giorgio Armani, Burberry etc) under one place and outside there are plenty of posh cars standing in line to pick up the passengers after the shopping.

I did hop over to another shopping mall before heading back to Taksim. From Taksim I walked the so called vibrant and lively (too lively, too crowded) Iskender caddesi. It was drizzling and in principle too much of human traffic that made the stroll a bit uncomfortable. There are plenty of shops and eateries around but I didn't checked out any of them...


The Byzantine Istanbul at Sultanahmet area may be old an full of historical evidences but the modern Istanbul is really modern...