from Eminönü to Uskadar

My inital assumption was that the European sections of Istanbul would be modern, the Asian side conservative. This wasn't the case at all -- each neighborhood has its own character that certainly does not reflect the stereotypical east/west divide. Uskadar, just across the Bosphorus in Asia, was pretty quiet and headscarved. But several stops farther, in Kadikoy, were cafes and used book shops and people we wanted badly to befriend.