A million first impressions of Istanbul. This massive city is a brilliantly noisy, pushy, fascinating, tough and delicate swirl of tastes, sounds and sights. Definitely not European, but not really Asian either, it’s something quite its own. Our 5 day stay had us making our way down narrow market streets and up wide promenades in sweltering heat and scorching sunshine. Turkish teas and gritty thick coffee, water melon and roasted cobs of corn. Delicious cuisine (although meat is just ‘meat’ – no specifics). People, people and more people. Drivers leaning on horns. Stray cats nearly everywhere you look. Ramshackle housing and architecturally marvelous mosques.

Istanbul has long been a merchant town – there is no doubt about that. Gorgeous textiles and shining ceramics – all propped and polished to perfection. An endless choice of colours, shapes and textures. Don’t look too long (a glance is enough) – and the shop owner/cafe worker/ trinket peddler is in your face with an amazing coincidence – his best friend happens to be from the country you’re from! Now that calls for a ‘special price just for you!’

Mega sense of humor- some (they know you’ve heard it all a thousand times and have a little fun with it), and a warmth of character one might miss encountering with more regularity elsewhere. You tune out the aggression a bit more each day, but it never ceases to violate your senses just a little (which, if nothing else, might be just the thing you’re looking for..).

Watch your pockets and trust no one. Market merchants and café managers are making a bundle – one price for locals – double, triple, quadruple that for tourists (because it’s possible) – which is both understandable and infuriating – knowing you get to play the fool no matter how good you are at haggling (which I am not). But never mind, you’re here to explore – and there is no better place for it. From the Galata Bridge to the Grand Bazaar, the New Mosque to the Blue Mosque, the side streets of Sultahamet and the great dome of Haghia Sophia – every place fascinates.

Take Istanbul for what it is though, and it quickly reveals itself to be one of the most fantastic, and at first glance – wonderfully chaotic, places to lose yourself in. The calls to prayer are mesmerizing to listen to (even at 4am) and the mosques are imposing, magical.. even calming. 5 days barely covers an introduction. To know Istanbul would take a lifetime, and then some.

• See more of this Istanbul photo set on Flickr

Have you been here? What did you think?