I’m in Istanbul this week and next working on a meeting. This is my first trip to this city, and to Turkey. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but had pre-conceived notions that it would very Muslim influenced. To a certain extent that is true, but I find the city to be much more European in it’s feel. I imagine as you go further east in the country onto the Asian continent that the Muslim influence is stronger. I am in the part of Istanbul that is on the European continent but Istanbul is also part of Asia, making it the only city in the world to span across two continents.

But there are reminders of the Muslim heritage here. The skyline is dotted with mosques, including the famous Blue Mosque, which I can see from my hotel window (but not so well that I would include my own picture of it here). Morning prayers are broadcast across the city at 5am, and then at other times throughout the day, but because I am in the hotel ballroom most of the day I rarely hear it. Most people on the street are dressed fairly contemporary, but there is also a fair percentage of women wearing a hijab.

Security in the hotels is a little tighter than what you would experience elsewhere. Often cars need to stop before they pull up to the entrance, and a guard will scan the underside of the vehicle with a mirror and some kind of sensor. When walking into the hotel everyone walks through a metal detector alongside an X-ray machine for bags. This is a little daunting at first, but at the hotel I’m staying at they’re pretty relaxed about it. When people walk through the detector while talking on their cell phones security doesn’t seem to care.

The hotel rooms are typical, but one difference is that there is a compass rose in the bottom of the desk drawer so people know which way north is when it’s time to pray.

An interesting bit of censorship on the television – all cigarettes, pipes, cigars, and other smokable things are blurred out. They were showing Quiz Show the other day, and the period piece had a lot of smoking, so a lot of blurred mouths and hands. Very amusing, since nearly everyone here smokes.