Traveling with Mackenzie Elrod to Istanbul

I'm excited to start a new weekly column called "Traveling With..." where you share your awesome travel destinations. It was sort of a New Year's Resolution slash I came up with the idea in the middle of January to blog a lot more often. I'm hoping this column will give me the push I need to blog more. Plus, who doesn't love reading about people's travel stories? Just me? Okay...

I excited to start the series with my real-life friend, Mackenzie Elrod, who blogs over at Elrod's: Sending Love from the West.

"From the moment I landed in Istanbul I felt transported. Italy and Spain were amazing but Istanbul made me feel like I was truly somewhere special. The calls to prayer, the spire shapes, the texture and depth of pattern infused in everything made the ordinary feel romantic."

Sipping small glasses of tea with sugar cubes plopped in while sitting in a chair surrounded by a myriad of other spindly chairs soaking in the sun. You hear snippets of other languages and plop in more sugar cubes.

The spice market is teeming with color, fragrance, intrigue. The sheer amount of teas and spices is overwhelming and soaks up a large chunk of time if you let yourself just be curious. Spilling onto the street you can buy fresh roasted chestnuts from street vendors and happen upon parks that seem to manicured for the surrounding areas but beautiful nonetheless.

Getting fresh squeezed pomegranate juice at 10pm while you wander over to the blue mosque feels washed in a bit of magic. At the mosque you don a headscarf, remove your shoes, and step onto the most lavish handmade wool carpet that stretch across the whole expanse of space. The texture and pattern inside span every surface and below hangs a 16' chandelier that rests just above head height and is full of flickering candles. You're allowed to just lay there, soak it in.

I think I'll always romanticize my trip to Istanbul, it was the first place I went out of the US, but I think if I went back I'd still feel the same. Something about it just reaches inside you and fills you with wonder."

Thank you for sharing, Mackenzie! If you would like to share your city or travel destination please send me an e-mail at coffeeandcleveland@gmail.com. From there I will send you more information on requirements for posting.