Well, I was sick when I got to Istanbul and so saw very little of it in the four days or so I was there. I stayed right by the Hippodrome, which is where all the tourist buses park, and there are a lot of tourist buses, let me assure you. More tourist buses than I have ever seen in all my days. On my last day, I felt slightly better and managed to get around and see a lot of the old city and even took a rather choppy ride in the Bosporus, in a small fishing boat. I liked the city when I got away from the Hippodrome, but to spend all your time there, as I mostly did, does not make for a particularly interesting experience.