I drew up a list of possibilities - Prague, Istanbul, Florence or Lisbon - with the aim of being able to immerse myself in a different culture and forget everything about home. Finally, I let my boyfriend decide for me. It was the least I could do, seeing that he was pretty unhappy that he would not be able to join me. That evening he let me know his choice by handing over a box of Turkish Delight confectionery. We roared with laughter, but I was delighted with his choice. I knew I would love Istanbul.

Getting a flight was easy enough, but choosing a hotel was difficult. Normally, I would have chosen the most luxurious one we could afford (I had my eye on the award-winning Four Seasons), but I decided that, seeing as I was going solo, I would rather stay at a smaller hotel in the heart of the old city, within walking distance of the cafes, bars and nightlife.

With the help of a customer agent at HotelTravel.com, I finally opted for the Richmond Hotel. It turned out to be a great choice. A small four-star hotel, it is in the centre of the city's most hip, cosmopolitan area. With loads of restaurants and shopping in the surrounding alleyways and streets, it was ideal. Its best asset was the great view from the rooftop bar - a great place to sit and watch the sun go down.

Before leaving, I had read all the guidebooks to Istanbul, so that I could make full use of my three-day break. What an interesting place it appeared to be. I learnt that the Bosphorus Strait (which connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara), splits the city into two parts - one in Asia, the other in Europe. Adding to the obvious mix of cultures this provides, is the fact that major trade paths have passed through the city for thousands of years.

I also discovered that it had been chosen as the European Capital of Culture for 2010. It is nicknamed "The City on Seven Hills" because the peninsula was built on seven hills, also represented with seven mosques, one at the top of each hill. Armed with my guidebooks and maps, I was ready to tackle the city.

I left London in the morning. Late that afternoon, I had already checked into my hotel and was strolling down the city's most famous pedestrian avenue, the Istiklal Caddesi (Independence Avenue) in the Beyoglu area. Packed day and night, the avenue and its side streets boast loads of chic café/bars, bistros, restaurants, movies, shops and music clubs.

For many this is the heart of Istanbul - when 19th-century travellers spoke of Constantinople as the Paris of the East, they were thinking of this area with its half-European, half-Asian culture. After doing some shopping and stopping off at a few sidewalk cafés to people-watch, I ended up at a travel kiosk, where I booked tours and excursions for my three-day stay. The first would be an eight-hour tour of the city, starting the next morning. Determined to be up fresh and early, I had an early supper at a restaurant off Istiklal Caddesi called Haci Abdullah. It was a great choice, with excellent food and wines and a spotlessly clean bathroom.

Our fist stop was Aya Sofya (The Church of the Divine Wisdom). The cathedral, built by Emperor Justinian in 537, was the largest church in the world until St Peter's Basilica was built in Rome 1000 years later. The inside is covered by 30 million gold tesserae (tiny mosaic tiles). At the moment they are being restored, so scaffolding may spoil your interior shots, but not your amazement.

From there we went to the Sunken Palace Cistern (Yerebatan Sarnici), one of the hundreds of Byzantine cisterns which lie beneath the city. This is the biggest, with 336 marble columns and covering 2,4 acres. In the James Bond movie "From Russia With Love" the scene where Bond is rowing in a small boat through a forest of marble columns was filmed here.

The final stop of the morning was the Byzantine Hippodrome and its monuments. The Hippodrome was the heart of Constantinople's political and sporting life, and the scene of games and riots through 500 years of Ottoman history. The most impressive structure in the calm park of today is a 3500-year-old red granite obelisk brought from Egypt and erected here in 390 AD.

In the afternoon we started the Ottoman sector of the tour with a visit to Topkapi Palace, home of the sultans and the Harem, where the monarch lived in hundreds of rooms with hundreds of concubines, children, and white and black servants. One easily understands why the palace and harem are Istanbul's top tourist attractions. Then we visited the Blue Mosque of Sultan Ahmet I, a magnificent building named after the blue tiles on its upper level. However, it is the six minarets that made this a masterpiece.

Our final stop for the day was the Grand Bazaar, Turkey's largest covered market. Home of bargain hunters and tricksters, the bazaar is considered a small town in itself, with miles of passageways, mosques, banks, police stations, restaurants - and 4000 shops. Although my bargaining skills are not great, I did well (by London standards) with my purchases of sequinned scarves, little boxes and fridge magnetsshops. I found the shopkeepers highly entertaining, and more than one offered to marry me! My favourite section of the market was a street where only shawls were on sale. Shop after shop displaying hundreds and hundreds of shawls - how could I resist?

The next day I had two cruising experiences planned. In the morning I went on a Bosphorus Strait Cruise. This started at the Egyptian market on the Golden Horn (which is a natural harbour). The voyage took us towards the Black Sea, passing the Topkapi Palace and a host of other palaces and castles. We visited Rumeli Hisar, a large fortress, and checked out the fabulous art collections housed in the Sadberk Hanim Museum.

In the afternoon I took a ferry trip to the Princes Islands, a cluster of isles in the Marmaris Sea. The ferry stopped off at one of the larger islands and I took a ride on a horse-drawn carriage (motor vehicles are not allowed). The islands are an oasis of quiet for city residents needing to get away from it all and I fell in love with the wooden art nouveau-style summer mansions dotted around the island.

That night, as I lay in my hotel bed, I looked back on my stay. Tomorrow morning I would get in a last stint of shopping and then I would be off to the airport. London seemed a world away from here. The trip had succeeded spectacularly in that I had hardly thought of my work (or my boyfriend) the entire time I was in Istanbul. The city overwhelms the senses with its clash of sights, sounds and smells. It may not look like Paris or Barcelona, but it is totally intoxicating. If you get the chance to go, grab it.