The second day trip from Istanbul (the first was the Culinary Walking Tour) was one that we organized ourselves. It didn’t require any real organizational skills , and to be honest if we would’ve actually given it more thought we would’ve realized that going to an island on a Sunday would not be a great idea. The island I’m referring to is Heybeliada, one of the nine Prince Islands.

I kind of painted the picture well in my introduction. It was Sunday, which meant weekend for the locals. So needless to say, when we arrived at the the Kabataş ferry station at 10am it was already incredibly busy. We were just in time for the ferry at 10:30am because the people behind us couldn’t get through the fences. This probably should’ve meant that the ferry was full. In reality, the ferry was over packed. And it continued accepting more people on board at the Kadıköy stop. All kinds of different Titanic scenarios went through my head (how many lifeboats are there? Forget about lifeboats, how many life jackets are there? Wait a minute… there are no emergency exits on the inside, how can we get out in case of emergency?). Luckily, and as usual none of my doom scenarios came into being.

Heybeliada was the fourth stop on the ferry. The good thing about this ferry is that even though it is completely full, not everyone gets out at the same stop. The ferry stops at two other islands before reaching Heybeliada, and after that there are a few more island stops.  I don’t actually recall what made us choose Heybeliada, but I’m sure we figured that this island would be just as good as any of the others. One of my main considerations was that it isn’t the biggest island (because that usually means busiest) and that it would have the old-fashioned mode of transportation, which I believe all Prince Islands have.

They don’t have motorized vehicles, so instead people move around by bicycle and by horse and wagon.

We first decided to explore the area on foot, so we walked a bit through the main street and admired the rustic looking houses. Is it just me or do these houses look absolutely beautiful? I have an obsession with paint chipping like this on doors and windows, but even on houses it looks incredibly beautiful. I would be the kind of person to purposely create this effect on my own house if I would get the chance.

Our main goal on this walk was to reach the Halki Palace Hotel (Halki is the name the Greeks had given to this island). From the back of this hotel the view over the landscape is beautiful. You can see the hills, the harbour but also the monastery perched on top of one of the hills.

We walked back and had lunch by the harbour. Contemplating what we would do (or could do) next on the island, didn’t take us very long. We had seen the monastery from the Halki Palace Hotel, now we wanted to see it up close.

Agia Triada Monastery
This next decision can kind of be fully blamed on me. I had never ridden a horse and wagon so I thought it would be a fun idea to ride up to the monastery in one. In my enthusiasm I missed the fact the horses looked quite thin; and little did I know that the path to the monastery would be as steep as it was. I guess it’s the owner’s only form of income living on this island, and I guess the horses get treated better when there are a lot of customers, but it did hurt my heart a little bit seeing them work so hard. The reason I said that the blame is fully on me is because my friend, who loves horses (I do too by the way), wasn’t as smitten by the idea to start with.

When we reached the monastery we had fully decided to walk back and to not torture animals any further.

This Greek Orthodox monastery used to house a seminary – theological college- , however, this was closed in 1971 when the Board of Trustees refused to become part of Istanbul University. The high school is still theoretically open, but it does not have any students.

This was the view on the way down. We really didn’t regret going on foot.

Conclusion
At 3pm we took another over packed ferry back to Istanbul. Initially, I had to sit on the floor but some older people scooted over and offered me a seat. This is the thing that struck me most about my holiday in Istanbul. People were super kind. I was offered snacks on the ferry and people tried to strike up a conversation even if they didn’t have any knowledge of the English language; but with our hand and feet we managed to communicate. I never had any real bad preconceptions about Turkey, but I didn’t think people who be as friendly as they were; especially considering Istanbul is a big city, and in any big city people tend to be a bit more rude.

All in all our five nights in Istanbul were perfect. The weather was great in May; it was crowded but it was manageable; and our two days were enough to see the main sights and the two tours offered us a different insight into the Istanbul culture (the food & the island life).