Princes Islands - Buyukada

Yes. I will retire here. When I get a different job that pays real money that is. It's hard to retire well on a saving the world paycheck.

The Princes Islands are a group of islands not far from Istanbul, easily reached by one of the city's vapur (public transportation boats). Also time out to appreciate a city that includes boats in its public transportation!

 

Transportation on the islands is a completely different story. While it seems official vehicles are allowed, all other transportation is limited to bicycle and horse drawn carriages. In addition to nearly being run down by a couple of the carriages, we encountered several horses just kind of hanging around. If you saw the ParMieux Adventures Facebook page then you might have seen some of the teaser pictures I put up; including one of a horse wandering through the trees. And if you didn't see our Facebook page, look us up and like us! I just can't resist fun filters in Photoshop so I took the horse picture and did this:

I was a little tempted to add a horn but managed to restrain myself.

Other than avoid getting run down by inconsiderate and inexperienced bicyclists and carriages, there's not a lot else to do except eat fish and wander around and steep in jealousy over the gorgeous houses. We did a lot of that!

Love this outdoor stairway

 

White seemed to be the theme but there were a few houses that were of more interesting color schemes.

 

I could so love here. This is just about the right size for me.

This is really the perfect place to live. You get water, hills, and forest. Granted you have to put up with annoying tourists but, if I owned one of these houses, I'd be insulted if people weren't taking pictures of my place!

 

 

There was even something rather romantic about some of the more run down places.

And of course once you got over house envy (if you could!) then you had to contend with view envy.

Love the island hiding in the mist

 

We couldn't resist all the pretty flowers and my friend Elisa put some of the mini daisies in my hair.

photo by: Elisa Dun

Photo by: Elisa Dun

I can't believe there's a picture of me I don't totally hate!

And like Istanbul proper there are plenty of friendly cats hanging around to pet and play with! This guy liked to bite and gnaw at my hand the way my own cat does.

Posing pretty!

And once again because I cannot resist color effects:

I have to admit that there is more than fish to eat. There's also ice cream and donuts!

Photo by: Elisa Dun

I've not had lokman yet so I really wanted to try these. I wasn't quite sure what to expect other than 'donut'. Wow. Yum. Yum yum yum. They're like donuts, but donuts that have been deep fried in honey then sprinkled with cinnamon.

Photo by: Elisa Dun

Despite eating an order of lokman, a small one in my defense, we had to have ice cream. When it's 25+ C, sunny, and you've spent two hours walking up and down hills a person darn well deserves ice cream!

Photo by: Elisa Dun

We met this couple visiting from Connecticut and he was fascinated with my ice cream choices; walnut, lemon, and chocolate.It was deserving of his fascination; it was delicious. Especially the lemon. I'm not a huge fan or sorbets so when I can find a lemon ice cream I am absolutely thrilled.