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I had a WONDERFUL time, and highly recommend Istanbul as a destination. But not in the summer. Some people cope well with sightseeing in 90 degree weather, but it shortens my days. By 2 or 3pm, I'd had it, so didn't see absolutely everything I wanted to see, but I saw a LOT and just loved it. I often thought of that old Noel Coward song, "Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun." And American tourists.

While planning, I'd stupidly been thinking about this trip as comparable to my Morocco trip of last year.
Ignorance on my part. Morocco, which I also loved, is very much a still-developing economy, not very modernized except in random ways, and in the larger cities shepherds are still grazing their animals on highway medians because they can't afford land of their own.

I spent most of two days in and around the Turkish city of Izmir as well, the 3rd largest city. I can't speak for the towns and people in the far reaches of Anatolia, but Istanbul, a city of about 15 million, is bustling (though it didn't feel any more crowded to me than any large city in tourist season), modern, fascinating, young and hip, welcoming and friendly, rich in culture and history, and entirely easy to navigate and learn to love, even on one's own. And it seems women have many more options in dress, in education, in jobs, in cafes, in attitudes, than they do in Morocco.
More to come, you'll get tired of hearing about it by the time I'm finished.