"Istanbul is Europe's new party capital"

Istanbul is thriving as the new party capital of Europe, wrote Andrew Finkel in British daily The Observer yesterday. He said that Istanbul's covered market, an "early shrine to shopaholism," is about to celebrate its 550th anniversary with a multimillion-pound facelift. "In fact, the entire city is in the throes of a multibillion-pound makeover, as what was once an outpost on the edge of Europe rebrands itself as a regional magnet," he wrote. According to the article, Washington-based think tank the Brookings Institution said that Istanbul had beaten Beijing and Shanghai to claim the title of 2010's most dynamic city.