From Hick to Uber Hip: Istanbul is the Coolest Place to Be

In the last decade, a once squalid Istanbul quarter has become the place to be.

I'm sitting at an outside table at a cafe called Unter, halfway through an organic omelette with a side of smoked salmon, when a hipster - no helmet, skinny jeans - pulls into the laneway and parks his black Vespa opposite me. A girl comes over and they kiss, one side then the other.

Berlin? Paris' Left Bank? It's Karakoy, once a rough, tough waterfront district of Istanbul, just across the Golden Horn from the former capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires. 

Read more on The Sydney Morning Herald: From Hick to Uber Hip: Istanbul is the Coolest Place to Be

Posted in: The Sydney Morning Herald,Travel