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Ferry rıde
We rode on a ferry 35 mınutes from the maınland to the ıslands5/28/08 Princes Islands
Background information: During the Byzantine empire 4 princes were banished to these islands. Their eyes were cut out before they were sent there. (I think this prevented any chance for them to escape and live a normal life) They ended up being monks and lived at the monastery that is located on the largest island.
Our trip to the islands began with a 35 minute fairy ride to the largest of the 9 islands. Only 5 of the islands are inhabited by people. The island was a peaceful place with a lot of wooded area. New construction is prohibited on the island because they want to preserve the land. No cars (except emergency vehicles) are allowed on the island. Transportation options include horse and carriage, bicycle or foot. The tour around the island began for us with a ride in a horse drawn carriage. It took us half way around to a steep hill that led up to an old Monastery. Your options for getting up the hill were by foot, car ride, or donkey. Laurie, Apryl, and our host Rotarians chose to go up by car. Catherine, Sandy and I each
rode on a donkey. YES I said we rode a donkey to the top of the hill. Let me paint the picture for you… three women on donkeys that are going where they want being followed by a Turkish man who is also on a donkey. He keeps making noises to get the donkeys to go while saying something to us that seemed like he was fussing because we weren’t listening or responding. There wasn’t a horn on the saddle to hang on only the reins. I almost fell off a few times because my legs weren’t long enough to reach the stirrups. It was quite a site.
At the top of the hill we had lunch overlooking the water. The view was FANTASTIC!!! We could see ships moving in an out of the area full of cargo. A submarine was even passing through halfway out of the water.
Our tour of the monastery, St. George, was after lunch. It was one room. Seats for each monk to use during prayer were around the room. Beautiful pictures of Christ and other holy people were throughout the mosque. A priest came and took us on
No cars...
Thıs ıs one mode of transportatıon a special tour to see the place where “holy water” is. Outside and down a marble staircase there was a building that also had artwork featuring religious images. Down another staircase led us to a room that had three faucets on the wall draining into a marble sink. The priest said that we could drink some of the water and explained that this was one of the only places that it was possible to get water directly from a spring. (Tap water is not for human consumption in Turkey) Next door to this room there was a small chapel.
We experienced rush hour traffic in Istanbul on our way to the meeting. Man it was bumper to bumper for over an hour. The club we were the club that meets on the islands during the summer and at the Hyatt Regency otherwise. For dinner our appetizer was a little bit of lettuce and OCTOPUS cut very thin. Surprisingly it tasted a little bit like canned tuna. The entrée was some sort of rice and seafood mixture. Dessert was ice cream and fruit. This club has NO women members. We gave our presentation and the members seemed very
heres the proof
we rode lıttle donkeys up the hıll interested in what we had to say. They even asked several questions after the presentation.
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One of the best sets of photos I have seen
Thanks for sharing one of the best sets of photos of Turkey that I have seen.