A good weekend in Istanbul

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Last weekend was great. On Sunday, my roommate Kate and I took a ferry to one of the Princes’ Islands, which is about an hour and a half away from the shore of Istanbul. It was quiet, gorgeous, and there were NO cars! Well, there was the occasional police vehicle and a couple of delivery vans, but that’s it. There’s a rule that there are no personal motorized vehicles allowed on the island. It was a great day trip, and cost us approximately one dollar each way on the ferry.

We treated ourselves to a dinner of fresh fish and tea.

Our day on the island included:
Trying to get past one of the military bases on the island to a Greek orthodox church that we saw (which we couldn’t get to), going into abandoned buildings, stepping over barbed wire to get to the edge of the Marmara sea (so worth it!), walking past a cemetery and wondering about the burial procedures here (I’ll do some reading about that), and being told by a guy to go away when we tried to climb up an old water tower. Well, we think that’s what he said - it was, of course, all in Turkish.

Mom called me on my cell phone while I was on the island, which was a bonus.

That evening, on the ferry ride back, we met an Australian and a German who were visiting, and went out to dinner with them. Kate and I had already eaten, so we just led them to a restaurant that we like, and ordered drinks while they ate. Then, we all hung out in a park near the Blue Mosque and talked for a long time.

The next morning, Kate and I went to a café that serves fresh-squeezed orange juice and pomegranate juice, so we got some juice and pastries for breakfast. Then we went to the underground basilica cistern, which was amazing. Then, we went into a bunch of mosques and looked at the paintings and mosaics on the walls/ceilings. Afterwards, we looked for a church that we saw on our map, but never found it. However, we eventually came across a Bulgarian orthodox church which was absolutely stunning. We stayed in there for maybe an hour, just sitting there silently. It had been awhile since either of us had been inside a church, and it felt comfortable and familiar.

Then, we found a pomegranate tree, picked one, and ate it while we waited for the ferry to go back to the Asian side and come back home.

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