Every guide book we had told us not to do the trip to Princes Islands on a weekend. But we had our own mind an planning, and thought it can’t be that bad, as we’re still off season. Well.

Ok, the boat was full, but not as crowded as the other ferry next to us. We had a lovely 90 minutes ride over to Büyükada, the biggest island.

The islands are car free, except for the police, and ambulances, so it was supposed to be a quiet retreat from crowd, loud Istanbul.

 

However, the crowds were there before us. It’s the weekend getaway for the locals, and they come in droves. It was rather ridiculous… the little town was swarming like a beehive. A real sight in and by itself.

We decided not to use one of the horse carriages that carry visitors around the island – considering the long queue around the block, this was a rather easy decision. We walked ourselves…

We hiked up the first hill, through some calmer streets, with a couple of nice mansions, and into the woods, running into a couple of free roaming carriage horses and their young, enjoyed some nice views, and passing the former Greek orphanage, a huge wooden building now in decay.

All that, only to find out we had to walk most of it down again and up another hill, to get to the monastery which was our destination…

We made it up there, at a slow pace considering the way was really steep, and were rewarded with a great view, over the Marmara Sea, and the coastline (that is basically one massive city all the way to Istanbul).

The hilltop was swarming with tourists too, and we had to queue 45 minutes to order our food. But thank God we did, because the hike down was quite long…

 

When we arrived, we only managed to get some ice cream and hopped on the first ferry back – no trip to a second island.

We just sat in the sun on the deck, enjoying the sunset over the sea and the city, took some kitsch pictures… and once we were home and on the couch, there was absolutely now way to get up and go out. That last day really left us knocked out.