Beyoglu and Sultanahmet, though each charming in their own respective ways, are merely small slices of Istanbul. In the last 100 years the city’s population has ballooned; once small villages have passed from suburbia into the urban. An ever-expanding march of development and the relentless drum beat of modernism in the construction hammers and the ever-present hum of traffic on the expressways snaking throughout town. It’s impossible to take in this sort of scale in under a week but nevertheless we did what we could. For me, the lens to gain insight into Istanbul was the writing of Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish Nobel laureate, in his appropriately-titled memoir Istanbul. This was my first foray into his work; it won’t be the last. Pamuk’s style blends an observant eye and intellectual view with an intimacy and relatability that endears the reader to the author almost immediately.

The book details his childhood and adolescence, impressions of a mid-century city long past its Ottoman glories and still finding its way. Istabul is seemingly still finding its way today, though the at-times bleak and faded view of a disappearing imperial seat and lost wealth presented in Pamuk’s book contrasts sharply with the bright sunlight filtering down on the street and the heady crowds, people on the move. The streets today feel more optimistic than Pamuk’s, visible in the constant motion of Taksim Square, a hopelessly vast patchwork of subway entrances, statues, patched pavement and vendors. It is rough at the edges, with streets that alternate between unfriendly and welcoming. For better or worse, it is unabashed and seems to fit the energy present in Istanbul today. Pamuk hovers on the idea of huzun, a Turkish concept of shared melancholy, as a central framework defining the Istanbullu, a central theme to life in the city. Though glimpses of this are visible today, it is at times hard to reconcile this soft nostalgia with the pervasive action and opportunity that courses through up the narrow hills and twisting alleys.

For me, Istanbul was literally a city on the move. I sought out the Marmaray, the only underwater tunnel (so far) that connects the European and Asian sides of Istanbul. We rode the tram, the century-old Tunel plodding up the hill of Beyoglu, the many ferries, and of course the Metro, a continuous work in progress casting its web farther and knitting places together tighter with each new station. To connect a metropolis of 12 million is never an easy task and its inspiring to me to see the efforts being taken to do just that. Certainly a convenience as well, and one I used to visit Levent, a skyscraper-dotted span north of the historic core that serves as a central business district for Istanbul. Home to the tallest buildings between London and Dubai, for the time being, Levent is a stark change from the crowded streets of Beyoglu.

It was telling that, in following the largest bulk of commuters out of the metro station, the path deposited me into a mall. A seemingly ubiquitous symbol of prosperity in quickly-growing economies worldwide, the mall provided the answer to our question of where do the middle-class and modern citizens of Istanbul spend their time. The Buyukdere Caddesi, the main thoroughfare outside, was similarly modern, a depressing ode to the passenger vehicle fed by a stream of parking ramps from lots tucked behind, before, and below the tidy rows of offices strung out. It seemed a place without a place, if you forgive the mall, and without some investigation may have remained as such. A hopeful stroll down a side street led to rows of tightly-packed villas and stocky apartment blocks, well-tended and low-scale commercial zones busy with after-work commerce. It was another side of Istanbul altogether, a side of the city different from the others we had explored, and a fitting reminder of the diversity jam-packed into the spaces between the city’s countless streets.

Between arrival and departure we had given ourselves 6 days – no eternity but at least enough time to get a taste for Istanbul. Turns out the city was appetizing and I found myself looking to go back again, to see how the Istanbul will change in the years to come. We covered a lot of ground in the time we had, and, I had felt, done a decent job of exploring the city. Taking the bus out to the airport on the Asian side, we rolled over one of the two Bosphorus spans and slogged through the grinding traffic, seemingly tied to no rush hour or other event. Neighbourhood after neighbourhood opened up between the curves and the hills, some old, many new, all showing off a new aspect of city. We had scratched the surface in Istanbul, but just that. The rest of the Istanbul will have to wait until the next time.