full of mistakes: Buyukada

We finally made it to Buyukada, the biggest princess island near Istanbul with our girls. Even with the fast sea bus, it is a 45 min trip in a confined space, not an easy task for our team. Still, even though it is just a 45 minute ride away, it feels like a different country. It, indeed, is touristy, but the fish restaurants right by the water, the horse carriages to tour the island, the streets full of old, beautiful wooden houses remind you of an older era. As if time has stopped there. One of such buildings was the Splendid Palace, probably the most beautiful big building on the island.

It was recently renovated. I would love to stay there one night, maybe without kids. During this trip, we first had a simple but very tasty fish lunch by the pier. Happy campers below...

Then walked around the island. It was a little tricky. Lula was not sure about walking on the same streets with the horses. Not because she was scared. Because they pooped onto little sacs that were attached to their backs, carrying the poop around with them and the streets did smell a little bit like manure. Finally, she and John had some sort of an agreement and our group started the stroll. Many cats, many nice buildings.

We returned to the pier to catch our ferry back and had a quick Turkish coffee at a nearby patisserie before that. Turkish coffee is becoming John and my to go hot beverage in Turkey, something we will miss a lot back in US. It is not easy to see in this blurry photo below but the pier is an old building with very nice architectural details and a dome roof. It is the one at the end of the street.

The trip back was with the ferry, not the sea bus and was two hours long. It was a long trip.