It was a beautiful sunny 70F degrees day in a large ferry traveling one hour to the Princes' Islands. There a four of them but we went to the last island to find a little bit of Key West flavor of architech of homes as well as modern style overlooking the large sea. A Honeymooner's dream place with carriage rides and no cars. Bikes a plenty with cows and horses and fruits lining the streets. The gelato as well as waffles could fill your sweet tooth dreams along with kebobs bread and baklava. The only not so pleasant reality is that the only trail to the monastery is up up up up up up a large elevation climb with little reprive for a breath or lack of muscle pain for the bikers. I feel after the day we made a wise choice renting a bike although I really think the travel book should have stated the degree of difficulty like a disney ride or trek. I hated to see the horses having to gallop up the hill with a load of people and their goods.
We stopped half way up in a large shaded grass park area with free roaming horses. We shared our two clementimes with them but they contiued to put their noses in our bike baskets looking for more. Had we known we would have brought the apples.
As we rode I stopped and talked with an older gentlemen painting his gingerbread. His house as well as many others was lined with cats and kittens. Hannah was excited to take the time to play with them and I to chat with the Papa of the island. It was his summer house for many months and then will return with his wife to Istanbul for the winter.
We seemed to do well with realting although he spent 20 minutes telling me how to find a chinese restuarant in a different area then where we are staying. I don't like chinese food but somehow the discussion went that way so I followed . After that we returned our bikes and heading to a new ferry to haed back. Guess we were alittle relxed as we both fell aseelp from the rumble of the motoer to wake in a not so smart mind frame and go off the ferry on the asain side of istanbul. We didnt know exactly where we were for about 45 minutes as we went to eat and use the toilet which were both on the top of the to do list. When I found someone to share the map with me we were told that we were in a spot that wasnt even on the map...too funny. The only way to get the the European side was by boat again or swim. We did make it back after a beautiful boat ride again sitting outside the ferry with the breeze in ur faces. We took the tram back to our sto and for the 5th time lost our sense of where our hotel was. We fianlly had someone ask us if we were lost and we agreed to find help on a map and a bit of guidance. When we returned to our hotel they procededed to give us a cell phone for the next three days. We were never afraid as people are very friendly and helpful..but we were tired of walking back and forth and up and down.
