Istanbul’s Cihangir ranked as one of best places to live

ISTANBUL

Istanbul’s small district of Cihangir ranked among the best places to live alongside Portland, Hamburg, ; Maui and Santa Cruz according to the Guardian’s article.

Istanbul’s small district of Cihangir ranked among the best places to live alongside Portland, Oregon, U.S.; St. Pauli, Hamburg, Germany; Maui, Hawaii, U.S.; and Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Spain.

According to the Guardian’s article that rated the “best places to live,” “On account of Turkey’s wooing of both the EU and east Asia, the past decade has seen the city turn from lovely-if-decrepit museum piece to lovely-if-decrepit museum piece with great bars, economic growth and an OK public transport system. Not all of the change has been for the best. But spots like Cihangir make it all seem worthwhile.

“This is an Orhan Pamuk kind of neighborhood. You’ll still pass woodturning workshops, button warehouses and old ice-cream parlors en route for that dark, urbane bookshop. It still feels old and ancient and unretired and a bit shabby,” said the article.

“There are still whiskery grocers who’ll deliver figs to the door,” added Guardian writer Tom Dyckhoff. “The dervishes still whirl up the hill at the Galata Lodge. Only now there’s a great rooftop bar or six with views over the Bosphorus (I’d consider moving here for the views alone) and a good modern art gallery at the bottom of the hill. What with culture and economics so shifted to the east, this feels like where the world begins.”

living,