Today we overslept (too much fun at the Bath's last night?) - not that we had somewhere to be, but Brad wanted to take a ferry to an island off the coast of Istanbul and their departures are limited. Once he got online he found us a trip and we arrived on Büyükada of the Princes' Islands in the Marmara Sea by mid-afternoon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%BCy%C3%BCkada).
This place was packed with people - and it being Sunday it seemed like a lot of local folks were out enjoying a beautiful Sunday just like us. There are no cars here, so the only means of transportation are foot, bike or horse-drawn carriage. The instant we got off the ferry we encountered MANY Turkey ice cream stands. The next thing we encountered was a HUGE line - for what we did not know. We set out to find a place to get a horse-drawn carriage, but before we could find that we decided to rent some bikes. We ordered a lunch to go and packed up our things for a bike trip around the island. We had a map, but didn't really know where we were, or where we were going. We did know that there was a beach somewhere and we wanted to find it. The streets here were very narrow and filled with carriages, bikes and walkers. The houses were built into the hills and were incredible.
After not too long I noticed something was amiss with my front tire. Sure enough - there was a screw stuck in it. I told Brad and decided we should turn around so as to not be stuck with a flat tire on the opposite end of the island. About a 4 minute ride from the rental location the tire went completely flat, and so, we walked. We figured out that the huge line was for the horse-drawn carriages and debated if we should do that, or head back to Istanbul to see the whirling dervishes. I told Brad that we can go to Mackinaw Island some day and do the carriage thing. This is our last night in Istanbul and we had to see the dervishes.
The whirling dervishes are incredible. They are part of the Mevlevii Sufi order, founded by Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, a mystical brotherhood of Islam. The dervishes represent a spiritual journey and the whirling includes both prayer and turning, along with Sufi music. It was really incredible. These young men spin around like nothing I have ever seen. Meaning no disrespect, I don't know how it is possible to twirl like that without falling down, throwing up, or hurting yourself and/or others. I took some great pictures and video and look forward to sharing them.
One thing to note, the performance took place in a beautiful train station. After the show I realized that this train station was the original destination of the Orient Express. How cool is that?!?
After the show we had dinner and then took a tram back to our neighborhood. The tram was PACKED with people out on the town - mostly young men. There is apparently something interesting about a blond, fair-skinned woman here and it was very uncomfortable tonight cramming myself onto a train filled with young men. Brad and I laughed the whole way home.
And thus - another day in Istanbul. As this was our last full day Brad had big ideas about packing it all in tonight. I had big ideas about packing it IN, so he's out down the street smoking a huka, which is a traditional tabacco water pipe available in all of the coffee and tea houses here. Alas, I missed out on this experience.
Good night everyone! It is late here and we have too much to do before we depart tomorrow to waste anytime sleeping in. The next time you hear from me it'll be with the title, "Amsterdam - Day 1." Fun!
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