My Turkish adventures, part 3.

As I already mentioned, after being in Istanbul for a few days, Gwen and I decided to take the public ferry to a near-by island for the day. We somewhat randomly chose Heybeliada (Lonely Planet recommended it) and though we were kind of confused the whole time we were there, it turned out to be an absolutely wonderful day.

Right near where the ferry let us off, there was a church, a military academy, and a bunch of restaurants but after that, the island is just kind of wilderness and houses (some beautiful, some very run-down.) It was VERY quiet, and we had no idea where to go, so we wandered for a long time before finally finding the public beach, which was pretty tiny, but no one else was there, so it didn't matter. The day was so incredibly relaxing... just napping and swimming from time to time and then getting dinner on the water before catching the ferry back to the city. I ended up getting horrendously sunburned* (like blisters and nausea and peeling-for-four-weeks sunburned) but, for that day, I was happy and loving life. It was quite beautiful and reminded me a bit of central coast California... but you can see for yourself:

*I promise I was wearing sunscreen (I really tried my best) and it wasn't as bad as the time I had to wear bandages for a week. But it was still pretty bad (I ended up wearing yoga pants for the rest of my time in Turkey because real pants hurt too much.) The next morning, I hobbled out of bed down to the lobby to ask if they had any Tylenol-type stuff (and you know if I was asking for medicine, it was not good) but they didn't. One of the owners ended up going to the pharmacy and brought me back some Turkish pain relievers and chocolate pastries. He was THE nicest guy ever. Really.