Day 72 - Princes Islands

A few people had told me that I really should go on a ferry ride, either along the Bosphorus, Golden Horn, or Princes Islands.  I decided on the latter.  There are 9 islands in the group and it lies 20km southeast of the city in the Sea of Marmara.  Only 5 of the 9 islands are populated.  I’m going to Buyukada, the largest island of the group.  There are no vehicles on the island so getting around is walking or hiring a donkey or bicycle.

I left the hotel with cheese sandwich in hand and ran down to the ferry terminal, only to discover I was at the wrong place.  I then spent the next 25 minutes walking to the right on, and then had an hour wait before we departed. 

The ferry was an experience in itself, packed with a group of high school students who were having fun singing songs and generally being boisterous. 

There were loads of tourists as well, some who started feeding the seagulls who followed the ferry.

The seagull ended up coming and snatching the food out of his hand!

I met a couple on the ferry who were both born in Turkey but live in Sydney.  They asked if I wanted to share the cost of a horse and cart ride through the island to St George Monastery, that sits between Buyukada’s 2 highest hills.  So that is what we did, hired it for as far as we could go, then it was by foot along the steep path for 20 minutes.  It really was worth it, I didn’t go in the mosque but the view of the water and surrounding land and islands was gorgeous.  I had a beer with the couple then I left to walk down through the streets.  I was surprised how much the architecture reminded me of New Orleans.

On the way back people were going past in both directions either on foot, bicycles (that could be hired on the island), or via horse and cart.

I didn’t feel well in the stomach when I finished the walk and had an ice-cream, thinking it was hunger (not a good option in hindsight).  I got through the ferry trip back to Istanbul (lucky because and adolescent boy threw up not far from us – real OH&S issue but none of the ferry staff would clean it up!!), then decided to get a taxi directly to the hotel instead of wasting time with the tram.  I picked a bad time to not be paying attention as got ripped off by the taxi driver, not a lot of money but enough for me to be annoyed at myself – hope he chokes on his next kebab!

Got back to the hotel, threw up, arranged for my transport to the airport the next day then went right to bed...I really feel unwell.