Istanbul's a real Turkish delight

The crowd sat transfixed as the lithe form seemed to float across the floor, abdomen rotating in time to the quickening rhythms of the haunting music – gyrating hips rattling a silken belt on to which were sewn hundreds of tiny silver medallions.

“Beautiful!” whispered my friend, Fusan, as she watched the dancer drift by. “Amazing eyes!”

The inhabitants of the next table – a boisterous local hen party – were less restrained, letting out a huge cheer, before stuffing large denomination banknotes down his belt. Yes, HIS belt.

For generations the preserve of women, it seems men have muscled in on the ancient Turkish art of belly dancing. And, according to the party girls of Istanbul, they’re making a pretty good job of it.

The dancer, and his more curvaceous female colleagues, are among the draws of Al Jamal – an achingly hip restaurant and club which feels like it belongs in the desert, but is actually in the bustling heart of the city. And, to this wide-eyed traveller, it was just another surprise in a city of conundrums.

Istanbul occupies a unique space – geographically, culturally and in the imagination.

Straddling Europe and Asia, it is draped over a range of hills at the very crossroads of civilization. It is unquestionably the most exotic of European cities and, at the same time, the most westernised of the Near East – as Al Jamal’s wine-sipping party girls testify.

It is a metropolis of soaring minarets and domes, Ottoman palaces, labyrinthine bazaars, and rooftop tea terraces where men play draughts while smoking water pipes of apple tobacco, and where the muezzin’s wail calls the faithful to prayer.

But it is also a city of sharp-suited executives, of glass office blocks, glitzy shopping centres and lively bars.

Where does one city end and the other begin? The simple answer is it doesn’t – one is piled on top of the other, like the honey-drenched layers in one of its syrupy baklava cakes.

It’s big, busy and beautiful – slung across the Bosphorus, which separates Europe from the Turkish heartland of Anatolia.

Amazingly, given Turkey’s reputation as a top beach destination, its largest city is often overlooked as a getaway by Brits. And we are missing a treat.

Evocatively eastern, it offers all the romance of the orient, with the buzz of one of the word’s biggest cities. And there is no better time to get acquainted with its charms than this year, with her all spruced up for her turn as European Capital of Culture.

The best way to get a handle on this sprawling metropolis is to take to the water. And thousands of Turks do just that on a daily basis.

The Bosphorus is spanned by a pair of impressive suspension bridges, but even the most loyal local flinches at the thought of its traffic jams. So the network of passenger boats which ply the waterway are a favoured means of transport. The water also acts as a cobalt blue lung for the city, sending cool breezes and the salty tang of the sea into the congested streets.

It is also along the Bosphorus that Istanbul puts on her best face. It is lined with castles, mosques, palaces and mansions, and it is from the water that you are treated to the classic profile of the city’s iconic forest of minarets. The historic heart of the city is Sultanahmet, and this is where its greatest historic jewels are found.

Given the scale of the city, its old heart is compact and a great place to wander and soak up the atmosphere – with endless teashops and street vendors to distract you from the serious business of sightseeing.

The most famous attraction is Topkapi Palace – the former home of the Ottoman sultans, and a harmonious walled city of gardens, harems, pavilions and cool terraces overlooking the water.

Many visitors head straight for its Imperial Treasury – a glittering collection of fist-sized gems and dazzling gold.

The standout items are the Spoonmakers Diamond (a luminous 86-carat sparkler the shape of a pear, and surrounded by 49 smaller diamonds) and the emerald-studded Topkapi Dagger, made famous in a daft 1960s film in which Peter Ustinov and his dubious cohorts hatch a dastardly plan to make off with it.

The thought of staging my own audacious heist did briefly cross my mind as I gazed covetously at its shimmering loveliness. But with the constant jostling of tourists snaking around the room, I figured that even if I had managed to get past the guards, I’d probably get piled on and roundly punished by the camera-clutching sightseers for attempting to jump the queue.

A diamond’s throw from the palace gate is one of the outstanding religious monuments of the world – Hagia Sophia.

This mighty domed church was once the cathedral of Constantinople and, indeed, the entire Latin Empire, and it dates – get this – back to the year 532! Even by Istanbul’s standards, that’s old. The largest cathedral in the world for 1,000 years, it has also served as a mosque – when its iconic minarets were added. It is now a museum.

Mirroring its sublime form is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque – or ‘Blue Mosque’ – a feast of Islamic architecture, though much younger, dating back to 1609 – which makes it practically a youngster in this town.

Befitting a city which prides itself on its tolerance, non-Muslims are welcomed to ditch their shoes and come inside to admire the lofty interior and fabulous blue tiles which give it its name.

Of course, Istanbul is about more than just spiritual enlightenment; there’s also shopping! While it offers all the usual designer outlets – trendy Baghdad Avenue on the Asian side being the haunt of those with a few lira to rub together – few places on earth can match the sheer joy of wandering in its cathedral to retail therapy, the Grand Bazaar.

One of the oldest covered markets in the world, its tangle of souks contain more than 1,000 shops and stalls – selling everything from carpets to jewellery, silk, spice, musical instruments, curly slippers, and, of course, the fez (though you won’t spot many people sporting one in Istanbul these days).

The downside, is it’s incredibly easy to get hopelessly lost. The only way to deal with it is to enjoy the confusion… though it pays to scribble down a note of which of the 11 gates you entered by, to show to a cheery trader should you get really stuck.

For something more mellow, take a trip to hip Ortaköy, an area of craft, art and curio shops in the shadow of the Bosphorus Bridge. It’s also a great place to sit with a waterpipe, sip a heart-jolting Turkish coffee, and soak up the humour and joy of an ancient city, which has lost none of its youthful energy.