Istanbul. October 19

After an earlier start, with the intention of getting a tasty Dandin breakfast and then getting the ferry to the Prince Islands, we were disappointed to find out Dandin was not open early. Early being before 10.30am according to them. So instead we postponed our ferry until 12pm and got tasty coffee to wait out until Dandin opened. Sadly at 10.30am the chef was not there so no Dandin. We cried inside a lot. Then recouped and got breakfast elsewhere. Not as good but still tasty. Then we walked to the ferry terminal and caught the ferry to Büyükada, the main island. It takes about 100mins to get there and the ferry journey was pretty nice.

Arriving we got the traditional Turkish ice cream, which is really weird and stretchy, like so stretchy, and so delish. We then went in search of Trotsky's house, who once lived on the island. There was an exhibit there as a part of the Biennale, which meant his house was open to the public, a rarity, but sadly as it was a Monday it was closed.

Trotsky house

A part of the exhibition we sneakily spied

The whole island is full of Victorian mansions, which are either dilapidated or really beautiful and we both were amazed. Also no cars are on the island, only horse and carriages (with very sickly looking horses) and heaps of cyclists. We spent considerable time wandering the streets and looking at all the cool houses and talking to many cats. Elise actually had a proper cat conversation with one which basically went like this:

E: Hey cat!
C: Go away. My house.
E: Oh hey you're so cute!
C: No. Away with you.
E: Hahahahah oh cat.
C: I'm srs. Leave now.
E: Okay Ash we can leave now

Note: not conversation cat

Ash on her invisible horse carriage

And then we left and kept discovering the island. We then had to go to Starbucks because we had to online check in for our flight home. This took some time but we sorted it out just in time to get the ferry back to Istanbul. Back in Istanbul we literally ran back to our apartment because we needed to pee then we left to go get our last night in Turkey food, shake shack. Oops.

We spent the night packing and blogging, trying to finish before we get home!

Much love,
A&E