There are definitely hotel rooms in Istanbul with a better view than this. I'll bet it's nice to open the curtain and see the Blue Mosque with its 6 minarets right outside your window. Yigitalp Hotel has no view to speak of, even though "yigitalp” (pronounced "YEEtalp”) is Turkish for "big mountain.” Yigitalp Hotel is situated on a street in the heart of Istanbul's textile district and the view from my room, at least, was an alley strewn with cardboard boxes and broken mannequins. Not that we were in the room much. And it was even kind of interesting to see what the city looks like from "behind.” The hotel is surrounded by wholesale shops for bathrobes, bedding and men's clothing. Taxi drivers may have a hard time finding it if you just say "Gencturk” (pronounced "GENJturk”), so it's good to have the whole address printed on a piece of paper. The neighborhood is Sehzadebasi (pronounced SHEH zadehbasheh), named for a nearby mosque. All in all, it was not a bad place to stay in Istanbul. Provided you have a good pair of legs, you can walk to Sultanahmet (pronounced Sultan AHMET), where the attractions are. To save some steps, you can buy a "jeton” and hop on the tram. The closest stop is "University” (the campus of Istanbul University). The hotel itself is decorated in typical Turkish style, with lots of ornate, dark furniture, patterned carpets, upholstered sofas and chandeliers. We stayed for 3 nights, paying about $50 per person a night. That included a buffet breakfast with a passable, if unremarkable, selection of rolls, cheeses, eggs, vegetables and fruit. The room was clean, again a bit heavy on the patterning, but adequate. A bathroom feature that should be copied by ALL hotels was a shower curtain that slides on a track. No puddles on the floor to mop up with your precious supply of towels. And yes, you will hear the muezzin calling people to prayer at an ungodly hour of the morning. In Istanbul, there is no escaping it.