Princes' Island

It's has been our best day in Istanbul. There are a series of islands which lie about 20km southeast of the city. The price of public transport here is criminally cheap. We paid $8 for the family to take the boat one way. The tram to the ferry cost $4 which was about 8km. I think it is all subsidised by the highest petrol prices in the world (almost) at $3 per litre. 

The tram is very modern but with 20 million people in Istanbul it can be very crowded. On our return journey we were packed in like sardines and luckily Holly was sleeping.

The ferry out to the islands was a real treat. We had views of the city including the famous Blue Mosque, Aya Sophia and the Palace. But every area of Istanbul looks amazing. 

The kids also loved exploring around the ferry and on the way back we sat along the side. By about 4pm it starts to cool down and we found it much easier to cope.


We stopped off at two of the islands. The first was Heybeliada. We walked along the main street, found a local fruit market and swam on a beach (kind of) with the locals.

After a couple of hours we re boarded the ferry for the main island of Buyukada. The ferry terminal is a beautiful building built in 1899. We walked out into the town straight into a beautiful area. We found a cycle shop with restaurant and had lunch before hiring bikes.

The riding was fantastic but hard. The roads climb and drop all over the island. There are no cars on any of the islands but horse drawn carts are used to get tourists around. We preferred the two wheel transportation. Beautiful streets but it wasn't long before we were climbing up to a high point of the island. The lanes were narrow and quiet.

 

We coasted down to the other side of the island and found a beach. There was sand for sitting on with a mass of beach seats but the water reached up on stones. I think the enclosure was to keep people safe as it became very deep quickly. I dived down just beyond the barrier and could only just see the bottom. In this part of the world it costs to go swimming in the sea. It cost $20 for our hours efforts but I suppose that's how it works.

Off we went again on our bikes. Towards the end we got a little lost and were told off for riding through the shopping area. We found our way back to the shop and made it back in time for the 4.20pm ferry.