It was an absolutely gorgeous day to be out in the
water. The sun was sparkling on the sea, it wasn't too windy, and everyone was
excited to be going to spend the morning on one of Istanbul's Prince's islands.
It took about an hour to get there, and as we approached, we began to see the
colorful summer homes nestled along the shore. The island itself is only about
two square miles, so there really are very few year-round inhabitants. Most of
the homes are just for vacation purposes because unless you own a small restaurant
or convenience store (which are often one in the same) there is really not much
to do and hardly anywhere to work. Moreover, there are no vehicles allowed on
the island, which presents another obstacle to living there. For us, however,
it made for a very nice and quiet place to spend the day, away from all the
commotion of the city. We also got to ride in beautiful old horse-drawn carriages,
which is always a bonus.
We took the carriages up to an Orthodox church that
had a beautiful view of the sea. The church was very small, but they are making
efforts to start a school there. It is very important to them and they already
have architectural plans drawn for a library and dormitory. However, the demand
for such a school is not very high, considering that less than one percent of
the Turkish population practices a religion other than Islam.
The final perk of the day was making friends with the captain and riding back to Istanbul in his cabin.
No comments:
Post a Comment