A Rainy Day In Istanbul

Today was my last day in Istanbul and for the first time on my trip, it was cloudy and a little rainy. A little unfortunate since my plan was to go to the Prince's Islands to do some biking and swimming. Well, I figured, what the hell, I won't have a chance to go again and worst case, I'll just wander around the islands and come back earlier. To get to/from the islands you just take one of the city ferries which run roughly every 90 min. Then the ride is about 90 min. From reading the travel guides, I was warned that the last island, where most tourists go, is a complete trap if you want any kind of food. Like try 30 lira for a doner (meat wrap that you get in the city for 5). So, I went to the next smallest island.

Because of the weather, I didn't have to worry about the ferry being crowded and it was a pleasant ride into the sea of Marmara and out to the islands. You get a good view of the Asian side of Istanbul along the way, which just stretches forever with plenty of high rise residential buildings. The islands themselves have no cars (except fire & police) so everybody bikes, walks, or takes the horse drawn carriages. They used to be primarily used by the Istanbul elite who wanted to get out of the city but some of the places are quite run down now.

When I got to the island, I just started wandering. I couldn't go too far since the island is only a few kilometers square. First, I found a very large farmer's market where the vendors were selling tons of fruits and veggies to the locals. Lots of great looking stuff there. After that, I headed slowly up through the town, which has a very Greek feel to the architecture. Eventually, the houses faded away and the forest was left with a couple of roads to wander through. It was quite pleasant.

I had brought along my swim trunks because I might have the opportunity to go to a beach and get a swim in. It didn't work though. The "beaches" were all private spaces with lawn chairs where you could technically enter the water and swim for maybe 25m. For the privilege, it was 10 lira. I guess they're really trying to catch the sand bums, not the water bums. It makes me wonder, why don't people sunbath in the desert if they won't use the water?

It took me an hour to wander all the way around the island and I found the cemetery and a military facility complete with some big turret guns. The rain started about when I got back into town and it was an hour and a half before the next ferry, so I sat down at a cafe for lunch. Because of the warning about rip-off restaurants, I was originally planning on just buying bread and picnicking it, but with the rain, I wanted somewhere to sit. So, I checked the prices and they weren't absurd also they did try to upsell me by offering me lots of extra things, which I kept having to refuse.

When it was time, I hopped back on the ferry to head back to Istanbul. On the way back, I saw some dolphins pacing the boat that were having fun. There was also a fleet of single man sailboats that looked like they were practicing for racing. It was a nice and relaxing ride.

Back in Istanbul, I didn't have much I wanted to do. I've done pretty much everything touristy this city has to offer. So, I just wandered a bit and found some mulberry molasses, then went back to the hostel. It's been a fun time in Istanbul, but it's time to move on, which I'll do tomorrow when I fly to Paris.