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For visitors, the big city offers an abundance of museums and famous historic sites, night clubs, taverns, and bazaars filled with silver and copper objects, carpets, and gold jewelry. Istanbul, of course, is in a category of its own. A seperate introduction is needed to its own unique landscape. The big cities also allow ample opportunity to sample Turkish cuisine at good, well-established restaurants. Eating is not taken lightly in Turkey. Dinner in a good restaurant may take four, five hours in the company of friends and family, sipping drinks and savoring the endless procession of hot and cold dishes while engaging in conversations that begin with light-hearted humor, often turning into recitations of mystic poetry and reminiscences of the past. Turkish cuisine is next only to French and Chinese cooking in its variety, healthiness and exquisiteness. Most visitors want to experience the old city.According to tradition, each alley or courtyard of the bazaar specialized in a craft or trade corresponding to the old guilds. From Belgrade to Damascus, the cities of the Ottoman Empire were organized in communities formed along religious lines. These were integrated with the rest of the city and the larger soceity via n |
