Walked around the souk after a couple hours of reading with a bit of kefir in the cafe. Quite different at night. There's a qualitative difference between these sorts of bazaars/markets and the attempts to replicate them at theme parks, etc. Three hundred years ago, someone (along with several dozen others) thought it might be a good idea to put a booth with some baklava and coffee across from the mosque, and it's still a good idea now. They didn't set out to construct the atmosphere of the place. (Though the modernization does smooth things out a bit.) Much kitsch, of course, but there are still worthwhile things if you know the right sections of the market to look. Very famous section of hammered copper work hidden in a small side alley off the main spot.
Completely modern city, of course, bars and nightlife blocks packed full of folks with their drinks, tables set out on the road wherever the yellow line bounding the driving space allows enough curb. Distinctly Turkish vibe, in some tension with the Moorish style of the brightly lit Austro-Hungarian architecture. Rock music blending with the evening calls to prayer.
Lingered outside a mosque, looking in for a bit -- the fountain, the oudoor prayer spaces. Comparatively, filing in and briefly sticking a fingertip in a bit of water before finding a place in a pew seems downright puritan. Liturgy opens us up for the encounter with these things. God doesn't need liturgy. And sometimes a more careful approach to the building itself can be very useful. In the Midwest, they don't even use the door anymore. Since everyone drives to the church, and the parking lots are usually away from the road, people just head in the side entrance, bypassing the carefully designed entrance to the space.