Hard Times for Istanbul’s big man December 25, 2013 · by Guest Author · in Guest Opinion ‘You arrive on Friday afternoon? Good luck.’ Damn right: Friday afternoon, Istanbul traffic-jams make Rome look like Switzerland. It takes me two bloody hours on a stinky bus to get from the airport to the city center. As the bus approaches Taksim Square, I get a good look at the modern, flashy, new center of Turkey’s largest city: Dubai-style skyscrapers, more than a hundred floors high, looking down at the old town as stubborn ladies. I guess this is how all of the country should look like in the next few years, if …