Istanbul

As we drove to our Istanbul hotel from the airport we couldn't help but press our noses to the windows and exclaim at every mosque and market we passed. Our driver, a smiling man who sang a lot and spoke little English, tried his best to communicate with us. One line he said seemed to be repeated by many of the other people we met later on our trip: "Muslim? Christian? Jewish? No problem, no problem!"

This welcoming, all-accepting attitude is adopted by the whole city. The hospitality of people in Istanbul is astonishing. If you can look past the pushy merchants who'd do anything for a sale, you can find a very open and friendly atmosphere in which joking with store keepers and chatting with locals is an every-day occurrence.

If you're not someone who tends to mingle with the locals, Istanbul will still welcome you with its bright colors and cheery landscape. The city itself sits on two continents and two bodies of water, the sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, which means that at any moment you'll feel the elegance of Europe and the zest of Asia being swept towards you by a cool sea breeze. The shops are tightly packed together, each one offering a new spread of charming tea sets or "Aladdin pants". If you venture into any of the bazaars, every inch of wall is draped over with hundreds of pashminas, each one with a different color and pattern, or clothes of every shape and style.

The city is truly an entertainment for all the senses. You can lose yourself in smelling the freshly ground paprika, running your hands through a beautiful silk pashmina, looking up at the glowing orbs of color in one of the many lamp shops, listening to the melodic and commanding sound of the call to prayer, which captivates the entire city five times per day, or sampling the many flavors of Turkish Delight as you walk down the street.