The Ham Nomads

29 Jun 2015. <TR> Istanbul —

Today we go out to the Prince's Islands. The ferry calls in turn into Kınalıada, Burdazadası, Heybeliada and Büyükada. We have been advised that the last, the largest, Büyükada, is the place to go, so that's our plan.

We got ourselves up to Kabataş, where the ferries leave from. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the 'slow ferry', was only ₺4.00 per person — a very cheap cruise!

We passed fairly close to the Maiden's Tower

A couple of highlights from the cruise itself — the birds. The seagulls seem to love soaring in the air currents created by the moving ferry, and a lot of the passengers had great fun throwing pieces of bread up into the path of the birds. One passenger had the dubious honour of hand-feeding one of the gulls — when her finger became part of the target meal, she quickly revised her intentions!

Anyway, we stopped off at Kınalıada ...

And then at Burdazadası ...

And then at Heybeliada, where there is a naval cadet school ...

Magnificent tiled murals on the Cadet School

And finally we disembarked at Büyükada. We had been watching the skies as we came in, and it looked as if we were in for some heavy weather.

We went around some of the streets at the embarkation point — as you get off the boat, there's a street that is wall-to-wall ice-cream vendors!

We went down by the waterfront, and found a restaurant, By Şükrü, where we went in for lunch. We chose this restaurant because its operator had met us at Kabataş and had given us his card. Interestingly, he had beaten us to the island (presumably by taking the faster ferry), and he welcomed us as we arrived. The lunch was very pleasant — this is primarily a fish restaurant, but we chose a 'mixed grill' — not the same thing you would expect in Oz, but every variation they have of grilled meats here in Turkey. A very pleasant meal — and very timely. While we were in the restaurant, the heavens opened up, and there was a wild thunderstorm — which only lasted the duration of our meal!

The racks of drying bluefish had to be taken out of the rain...

.... and so did groups of tourists, who sheltered under umbrellas

A couple of Australian tourists at the next table were intrigued by a seagull that had taken a stong interest in their meal. They weren't in a position to interact with the bird, but Warren was able to get a good shot of the interloper!

Most of the taxis in Turkey are yellow!

Flower garlands in the hair are the in thing!

Bicycles are very popular on Büyükada

One steers, three push — that's how the deliveries are made!

One of the old-style houses once common round Instanbul

We had been planning to have a donkey ride up to the monastery on the hill on this island, but the rain storm put paid to these plans, Instead, we enjoyed our lunch, then wandered around the waterfront shops, before taking the fast ferry back to Kabataş — not much more expensive, at ₺6.00 per person. On the trip back, it was obvious that a lot of the people had had a long and tiring day — but not Suzie!!

We got back, and took the funicular from Kabataş to Taksim, where a travellator took us to the Taksim station on the M2 line, and then to Hacıosman, and the bus home — quite an easy trip! So now we've used the bus, the subway, the light rail, the tram, the ferries, and the funicular — is there anything left?

We made every connection with split-second timing, even having to run for the train at Taksim, but when we got to Hacıosman, we found we had a 24-minute wait for the bus. Not bad when you take the day as a whole!

So, back to Kumköy and another night in!

Distance driven — today, nil; to date, 22,733 miles ( 36,586 km )