It’s hard for a Canadian to wrap his mind around a place like Istanbul. In Canada we have a few hundred years of recorded history and little of monumental significance to show for it. Does the CN Tower qualify? For that matter, will it even exist 100 years from now?
The contrast between Vancouver and Istanbul couldn’t be more extreme. Istanbul has been the capital for two of the world’s most powerful empires – the Roman and the Ottoman – and the evidence of that deep history is everywhere. With its strategic position on the Bosphorus, the channel separating Europe from Asia, it’s also been a staging ground for epoch-defining events, like the Persion invasions of Greece (550-ish BC), the eastern military conquests of Alexander the Great (320 BC), the capture of Roman Constantinople by the Muslims (1453), and the many military forays into Europe of the Ottoman Turks.
With a population of 14 million, Istanbul straddles both sides of the Bosphorus, and its East-meets-West geography is evident everywhere. The streets are filled day and night with masses of people. Women in full burkhas (not many), women wearing Niquab headscarves (quite a few) and many women who would not look out of place in Vancouver. The men look European, albeit more swarthy than Euros from the north. But wherever you go in this city, you are reminded of its strong Muslim roots five times a day when the call to prayer is “sung” by the muezzin through loudspeakers on the minarets of the city’s many Mosques.
Hitler once derisively called Britain a nation of shopkeepers. I doubt he ever came to Istanbul. This city has more shops and keepers than anywhere I’ve seen. Standing at the crossroad of Europe and Asia it’s always been a trading hub. So Istanbulus, with hundreds of generations of trading experience, really know how to sell stuff. I speak of this from very recent experience.
The streets are lined with small stores and cafes, but to really intensify the shopping experience there’s the Spice Bazaar (built 1497) and Grand Bazaar (1463). Both are completely indoors, offering a warren of enclosed alleyways and narrow side streets with tiny shops jammed into every crevice. 
The bazaars are covered by a brightly painted domed roof stretching into the distance. Kind of a Byzantine version of West Edmonton Mall. Except none of these shops can fit more than 2 or 3 customers at a time. And there’s no skating rinks.