TURKEY

Turkey has advanced in many ways in the last quarter century. Istanbul continues to be a city of amazing historic sites, Byzantine churches, Ottoman mosques, palaces and bathhouses, and splendid museums. But instead of the somewhat drab, downtrodden place that it used to be, it also has become a cosmopolitan city filled with color, life, and modern amenities, where restaurants and cafes serving great food and beer are overflowing until late at night, and where tourists from all over the world are made to feel welcome. On this last trip, I noticed how civilized people were. Nobody pushed anybody; no one cut in front of lines. Traffic was well organized. Nobody looked at you in a strange way. Going into mosques was a pleasure rather than an enterprise fraught with sartorial uncertainty� >>> Full text