Buyukada

After we had a great few days exploring Istanbul with Chris' parents, we decided to go off the beaten path (sort of...) and hit one of the Princes' Islands. They are a group of islands right off of Istanbul and the city ferries make a few trips to the islands each day. Despite our reading the ferry schedule wrong and missing the first one we wanted (seemed to be a theme of the trip, unfortunately...More on that later) we ended up driving a ways to another Iskele (Turkish word for ferry launch) to get over to the largest island, Buyukada (Buyuk in Turkish is Big and Ada is Island)

The islands are unique in that no cars are allowed. Of course being that we're in Turkey, the land where rules don't apply, this meant "No cars are allowed. Except for some. Sometimes. So don't expect to not worry about getting run over." Regardless, it was gorgeous. Comparisons were made to Charlston and to Bermuda. Huge, old, waterview mansions with amazing, fragrant flowers were seen at every step of our walk. We decided, despite the close to triple digit temps, to walk to the Monastery of St. George, which was up a long and steep hill. Chris thought it was fun, but his parents and I were a little skeptical. Here are the Emerson's at about 1/2 way up...

At the top, we started talking to a group of kids who had also climbed the hill. It turned out that they (with the exception of a friend visiting from Columbia, i think) were all Turkish and were former students at Chris' school. They had all just graduated from college, most in the states and one in Ankara. It was really interesting to chat with them all. This is the whole group of us at the monastery.

After chatting for awhile, we realized we were going to miss our ferry off the island, so we took a horse and carriage ride back to the Iskele. Unfortunately Chris had an awful allergic reaction and was sneezing and tearing up the whole time! But we did make it back just in time for the ferry home...