How I spent 72 hours in Istanbul away from the tourist traps

Sprawling Istanbul and the dazzling Bosphorus (Picture: Aslanyus via Getty Images)

Istanbul feels like several cities rolled into one.

Turkey’s largest metropolis, home to 15 million people, famously straddles the Bosphorus Strait with one foot in Europe and the other in Asia, but it has many moods and faces. 

Of course, you can’t visit and not tick off at least one of the big hitters: the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii), a staggering example of Ottoman architecture, or the magnificent Hagia Sophia, built during the Byzantine period over 1,500 years ago. 

However, if you’re l...