The breakfast at the Helen Park Hotel was fit for a king (and queen). Peter piled his plate with a selection of meats, cheeses and olives of every kind imaginable! I headed straight for the savoury doughnuts called Pisi and the sour cherry preserve, something I’ve become rather addicted to during our stay in Turkey….
After the ancient walls of Troy and sprawling plains, we turned our attention to the Troy Museum, a modern space that promised to bring the stories of this legendary city to life. It’s a short walk – just 800 metres through an avenue of pine trees and a central reservation dotted with Italian Cyprus, all…
After a frenetic day of travel to Canakkale yesterday, we face-planted onto the bed and slept as if we were under the command of Hypnos himself! Today, our intention was to take it easy (not really a word in my vocabulary, but I thought I’d give it a go!). Maybe we’d take a slow amble…
So, we had this half-baked plan to catch the 1100am boat from Marmara Adasi to Narli on the mainland. From here we could take a dolmus (we think) or taxi to the town of Bandirma, from where we could catch one of the Kamil Koc coaches to Canakkale, taking 5-6 hours. Bahar had made some…
We had well and truly been accepted into the bosom of our hosts at the Adasu Hotel. The breakfasts were phenomenal, and the hospitality we received here was even more so. One morning, I had to catch up on some emails, so Peter sat in the beautiful flower-filled garden, soaking up the sun. Before he…
After another amazing breakfast at the Adasu Hotel, we hopped on the minibus but this time headed west of Marmara town to the village of Çınarlı . The bus dropped us off in a square lined with huge plane trees. One particularly fine specimen, clearly the daddy of all the Çınarlı plane trees is vast,…
Marmara Adasi has four villages – Çınarlı, Topağaç, Asmalı, and Gündoğdu. Also in the north east of the island is the town of Saraylar, which is the centre of the marble production industry of the island. The bus service will get us to all of these villages so we plucked one out of the hat…
The morning we left Istanbul it was throwing it down. The heat had dropped a little, but the feeling was now one of a steaming sauna. Last night, before returning to our hotel, we had commandeered a taxi driver to pick us up from our hotel this morning – no time for the inclusive breakfast,…
The tram took us over the Golden Horn to Karaköy. My favourite way to cross is by boat, but the tram is faster. We began our day with a plan – to look for churches. Our reasoning was simple — wherever there was a church, there would once have been Greek houses. These were usually…
This post and our last day in Istanbul are dedicated to my amazing Aunt Janet, an incredible lady who inspired this very unique trip. Some time last year, Janet phoned me to say that a place that had been on her bucket list for many years was ‘Constantinople’ and she couldn’t think of anyone better…
The night before, I’d said to Peter, “Well, at last we’ve had a drama-free day.” Famous last words! Clearly, I should have touched wood, thrown salt over my shoulder, or kissed the little ‘mati’ I carry around with me, because this morning chaos came knocking at our door – quite literally. Just as we were…
This morning, there were more Hitchcockian shenanigans over on the roof terrace of the neighbouring Seven Hills Hotel. The hotel staff even provide the titbits for their visitors so they can get their Instagram shots. Today’s adventure took us out of the hustle and bustle of Istanbul and across the Marmara Sea to the Princes’…