We again rose at 7:30 for breakfast, as today we (Jill, Steph, and I) were traveling to one of the Prince’s Isles, a group of six islands off the coast of Istanbul, traditionally home to wealthy Jews. We took an hour-and-a-half ferry to the sixth island, where I immediately craved and bought an ice cream cone (it was no gelato) and we waited in line for our hour-long horse-drawn carriage ride around the island (as I typed that I noted that I have been to quite a few islands this trip…). We fit five in a four-person carriage and sat erect, camera-ready, watching the vacation homes and apartment buildings pass us by. We had a ten minute break, after which the driver picked me out to sit up front with him and navigate the buggy. I gladly accepted and enjoyed the far superior view for most of the time, save the moment when the carriage in front of us ran over a small boy on his bicycle outside of a school and left him crying and attending his apparently pained backside. After exclaiming “polis!” the driver told me to get back in the carriage and I grudgingly obliged, as steering horses is quite entertaining.
After our carriage ride we had time to wander the island and have a beer before enduring the 90 minute, incredibly uncomfortable and hot, ferry ride back to Istanbul’s mainland. We showered and then bought sandwiches at a deli across the street from the port before changing for our one night of going out on our last day in Turkey. We cabbed to Taxim Square, a popular shopping and terrorist area, to find a bar to invade. As we walked we saw “Welcome Explorer!” in a bar window and, assuming that was us (as our ship is the MV Explorer), we entered free of charge. It was mostly empty save for a few SAS kids and several Turkish people. After a couple hours, as seems to be tradition with us, the bar was full to the brim with SAS kids. After two Sex on the Beaches I was feeling rather sick (this is why I do not drink hard liquer—I watched him pour rum, vodka, and tequila in my drink!) and Steph walked me to a cab so that I could head back to the ship.
The next morning we went back to Taxim Square. The previous night I had seen a Topshop near the bar, and as there is only one in the US, and the one is in NYC, I made it my mission to go there. As I am low on money and have had much more than I anticipated transferred into my account after realizing I had not budgeted enough, this was a very smart/sane decision on my part. It was a bit more expensive than I would have liked (I thought that it would have been less expensive than usual, as Topshop is based in England and therefore uses very expensive currency in comparison to lyra), but the clothes were excellent and I walked out three items happier (as I had a surplus on my credit card, I technically only spent 100 dollars—no more shopping for me). Jill wanted to continue shopping, and I found myself in three more stores (I only purchased another 8 dollar shirt) before we went back to the ship to leave for Bulgaria! We are currently anchored several miles from Varna, however we cannot clear customs until tomorrow (BOOOO), which is actually fine because I have a paper due at midnight and need no distractions…such as writing in my blog.
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