Expedition to the Big Island!

On our first official vacation day, we went with a group of my work friends to Büyükada, which is the biggest of the Princes Islands in the Mamara Sea just off the coast of Istanbul. We left the apartment pretty early, around 8:15am, caught a nearly empty dolmuş down to Sarıyer to meet up with everyone. There was some hope of taking a commuter boat from Sarıyer to Kabataş, where there is a pier for boats to the islands. Since the ticket office door was still locked at 8:45 (and there was no boat waiting), we took a bus instead. The bus made remarkably good time--it seems that Istanbul has emptied out for the week long holiday--and we caught a 10am boat to the islands with 15 minutes to spare! The trip to the islands took about an hour. Here we are at the beginning of the trip:

Good-bye mainland!

Hello island!

Beautiful gardens, beautiful houses...

Beautiful cats!

 One of many horse-drawn carriages

The majority of the other tourists on our boat to the island were from Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia, most likely), and they hired the carriages--the Europeans and Americans generally chose to walk. It was quite a steep uphill walk, but the views were well worth the effort.

A more humble abode

So, there is a story for this photo; the dog was tied, but determined to catch the birds. It kept rushing at them, and would get held back by the leash. The cats just watched this poor, deluded dog...

At the beginning of the real uphill trek

Wish-strings--apparently people tie these to trees and if the strands don't break, 

then their wish will come true.

Wish tree--these are labels from water bottles and wet wipes!

Abandoned orphanage--a huge wooden structure

Our destination--the monastery of Saint George

It wasn't clear if services were still held here, 

but there were lots of signs for people to be quiet to respect worshipers.

Cats waiting for us to drop something from our lunch

On break....

 Bee houses?

The House of the Masons?

Arty House

GELATO!

 

Tired feets

Good-bye islands!

Hello city...

The end of a fine day