Leaving Istanbul and Arriving on Marmara Adasi (Island)
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, though the roof terrace may not be the best place to eat in this weather. The boat will depart from the port of Yenikapi, and although almost walkable, we wanted to keep it nice and easy.
Yenikapı Ferry Terminal (Feribot Terminali – an easy one to translate for us!) is Istanbul’s largest ferry terminal, opened in 1989 by the Istanbul Sea Buses Corporation (İDO). It connects Istanbul with several destinations, including Bandırma, Yalova, and Bursa. The terminal is modern and almost akin to an airport waiting lounge. Purchasing the tickets was simple, though trying to fathom the gates was confusing, as all the signage was in Turkish. It was to our relief that we found a member of staff who spoke English to point us in the right direction.
At the expected time, the gates opened and everyone rushed towards the boat – honestly, all tickets are issued with a seat number, so why the stampede! Just as we stashed our luggage at the back of the boat and began the task of finding the correct seats, we heard an audible moan, and everyone began to exit the boat. We didn’t have a clue what was happening, though the flailing arms of a crew member were in no doubt telling us to get off the boat. As we passed, Peter asked what was happening and the one-word answer was “broken”.
I’d actually read that this happens frequently with the IDO boats. I don’t know if it’s because not enough tickets have sold for the early boat, but there was another boat scheduled soon after, which we were moved onto. What happens with the seat numbers then, we had no idea. We were soon to find out. After waiting in the lounge for another 30 minutes, the doors to the quayside were opened again and this time an even bigger crowd pushed their way through. We hung back a bit until it had settled. We boarded the other boat and stashed our bags, and went into the lounge where chaos ensued. The boat was slightly different in size to the one that had been grounded, so we doubted our seat numbers would apply to this one. We quietly took seats near the back and hoped for the best. Others had also done the same, but 4 rows down, someone claiming to have the golden tickets to seats that had been taken by someone else wanted their rightful seats. All holy hell broke loose. It all got very heated, and in the end, two crew members had to move in to sort things out. As the people got evicted from their seats and made to move elsewhere, Peter and I just looked at each other and waited with bated breath.
Nobody came to claim the seats we’d commandeered, so we settled in for the journey. I’m not a fan of these seated boats, especially on a 3-hour journey, but it went by fairly quickly, and soon we were arriving at our next destination of Marmara Adasi.
We’d only booked our stay here the day before and hoped that our host would be expecting our arrival. Just a note about booking accommodation in Turkey whilst currently in Turkey – you may or may not be able to use Booking.com. In 2017, Turkey banned Booking.com following a court ruling that accused the Dutch-based online travel agency of engaging in unfair competition against local Turkish travel agencies. The Turkish Association of Travel Agencies filed a lawsuit arguing that Booking.com operated in Turkey without the necessary licenses and circumvented local regulations, thereby undermining Turkish businesses. Now I say ‘may’ as the message on top of the b.com screen that notified us that we couldn’t use the website seemed to be intermittent. However, we could use Hotels.com, and although not as user-friendly, it did the job.
About a 10-minute walk from the port and with Google Maps to guide us, we arrived at the entrance to the Adasu Hotel. Through the wrought iron gate, we found ourselves in a beautiful, flower-filled garden with a large shaded pergola to the left and other seating areas dotted around. Our hosts were indeed expecting us, though I’m not sure they were expecting English speakers.
The hotel is owned by a lovely lady whose daughter, Bahar, based in Dubai, translated a welcome message to us on the phone. She told us that whatever we needed, she just needed to WhatsApp her and she would be there to help. She also told us that the hotel was the perfect place for rest and relaxation – just what we needed after Istanbul! She also said that all the preserves we would have for breakfast were produced from their olive grove and orchard surrounding the hotel. I think I’d already fallen a little bit in love with the place!
Before we were shown to our room, we were invited to sit and have tea, so we joined Bahar’s mama under the pergola, where we were introduced to Leila, who brought us glasses of tea and some homemade pastries and gooey chocolate balls covered in coconut. This was a very nice welcome indeed!
Our room was on the ground floor with a large terrace partially shaded by olive trees. The room is simple but immaculately clean and will do us nicely for our 3 nights here.
There are several reasons why I chose Marmara Adasi as our next stopping off point. We needed to head west towards Greece, and we could have gone several ways, two of which were overland. The boat journey, which went directly to Marmara Adasi, was far more efficient than the alternatives via several bus changes. Given the choice of boat or bus, the boat will almost always win.
It was also interesting to discover that the Greeks had colonised all the Marmara Islands since antiquity. Marmara is the largest of the archipelago of 7 islands and was formerly known as Prokonnesos, said to have been named after Poseidon’s son, though no concrete evidence from what I can see. Anyone who’s stumbled across a place with Marmara as its name will know that the word means marble. A word with its root in the Greek language which was then adopted in the Turkish language. Marmara Adasi was one of the ancient world’s main sources of fine white marble — so famous that ‘Proconnesian marble’ was exported all over the Roman Empire. Such high quality was the marble from the island that it was used in Agia Sofia and the Topkapi Palace.
The islands were folded into the Byzantine Empire and peppered with monasteries. Under the Ottomans, the islands remained Greek in character, with Orthodox churches and Greek-speaking communities lasting right up until the 1923 population exchange. That was the end of the story for the existing locals. It will be interesting to see if any traces of the Greek past can be seen here or if everything has been scrubbed out and started again. We set off for an initial exploration.
The Adasu Hotel sits at the eastern end of the harbour, where olive groves and small holdings with plots of seasonal vegetables abound. Carts of produce on an honesty box basis seem the norm.
Nearby is a properly functioning port active with larger ships. (Our IDO boat had just pulled into the quayside further down). This port is where the Gestas ferry company will moor. Gestas ferries run services between several of the other islands of the archipelago and also over to the mainland. This is important to know for the next leg of our journey which will take us further west.
As we passed the port, a convoy of three or four trucks carrying massive blocks of marble rolled onto a ship that had just arrived. Marble, it seems, is still very much a part of the island’s economy. Beyond the port is a marina where fishing boats are moored. Fishermen had spread their nets across the walkway, carefully repairing them in preparation for the next day. The brightly coloured threads looked almost like pieces of textile art, laid out in intricate patterns.
Every twenty metres or so, a modern marble sculpture punctuated the promenade, a goldfish, a hipster, a mermaid, a pelican and more. Of course, there are numerous statues of national hero Ataturk in different phases of his life. The main street was lined with shops and restaurants, one called Birol looking out onto a small water inlet took our eye for later. Just beyond here was the 17th-century Marmara Central Mosque and the Ottoman Ali Bey Çeşmesi water fountain. Behind the mosque was a graveyard that also dated back to the late Ottoman period.
Just as we reached the end of the main drag of the town, we saw what we (I) am confident is the remains of an original Greek house. It was like playing a game of Through the Keyhole but in reverse. I knew the answer, but had to run through the clues to come to a conclusive answer. The timber frame with wooden cladding, the overhanging sahnisi suspended on carved wooden brackets, tall, sash-like windows, and it’s old – more than 100 years old. Who lived in a house like this? Greeks, I tell you – it was the Greeks! Seriously, my amateurish knowledge of Ottoman period architecture and my sleuth-like determination says this is so!
Behind the row of shops at the back of the promenade, everything begins to climb steeply and houses are staggered amphitheatrically on the hill. This is not a large town by any stretch of the imagination – definitely more of a village.
The road brought us to a corner with an ‘I ❤️ Marmara’ sign, now looking a little forlorn, and it is again surrounded by a collection of modern marble sculptures depicting Poseidon and his horses rearing their heads up through the waves. Maybe even the Turks want to reference the island’s namesake.
Beyond here are a couple of small, narrow stretches of beach, the main one being Sifali Su Beach, which is organised with municipal umbrellas. The outward-looking view across to the other islands in the archipelago gave me a real hankering to visit, but it won’t be on this trip. There are definite signs that the season is coming to an end, and it’s clear that the mainstay of tourism here is from domestic travellers. Those escaping the cities to spend time somewhere a bit more tranquil, away from the noise and chaos. And who could blame them!
Although the town of Marmara is fairly geared up for tourists, it hasn’t gone all out and boutiqueified itself. It still has a sense of a working island with year-round residents. I mean that marble isn’t going to quarry itself, nor are the fish going to jump into the nets. It has a genuinely nice, authentic feel, and that’s my favourite type of place!
We walked back to the centre to find the small bus station and ideally a timetable to see if it’s possible to get around and see other villages (of which there are only a few). There are a couple of minibuses parked by the harbour, and indeed, there is a timetable enabling us to plan our stay.
Later that evening, we went to Birol for dinner. All the waiters were uniformed and at first it felt quite formal, but we were shown to a chilled cabinet filled on every shelf with an array of appetisers. The Turks really know how to do a good appetiser, and there were a couple of things on offer that were a little bit different to the norm. I chose Ali Nazik, a dish with a base of smoked/charred aubergine purée, a layer of yoghurt and topped with a tomato–butter sauce. I’d had this several times before in Istanbul, and it had become a firm favourite. We also selected a couple of other yoghurt-based appetisers, one with charred hot chillies, and I can’t remember the rest, but they were all delicious. In addition to this, Peter had eyed up a peculiar-looking dish which the waiter told him was cow’s brain. Peter likes this kind of thing, so of course, he had to have it. Our main meals were marinated beef for me (very flavoursome and tender!) and Peter had octopus washed down with wine. To finish, we shared a dish of heart-warming baked halva. Delicious!
Now we can begin to settle into a slower pace of life, albeit for 3 days. A much-needed little piece of paradise!
