Travel and Leisure 2: My trip to Heybeliada Island

When you visit Istanbul you will notice that the most people are using the ferries to travel between the European and Asian side. It is a daily routine for the most people and some of them even live in the nearby Islands. They call them the princes Island (Adalar) and of one of them is Heybeliada and it is the one that I will share with you today.

In Istanbul you dont really find any nice beach where you can spend the day swimming and sun bathing. So in order to enjoy your summer days you have to visit the islands or the other famous cities like Izmir or Antalya.

The Islands are very nice and peaceful. Once you reach there you experience a different life style than what you experienced in Istanbul. People are using bicycles and horse-drawn carriages. No cars allowed there and thats why it is very quiet. You only hear the waves, the yelling seagulls and the barking dogs. Very beautiful old architecture and colorful flowers everywhere.

Food choices were limited there, so we had normal Turkish Kabab and the famous Turkish drink "Ayran". If you dont know what is Ayran then you must try it. It is a drink made of yogurt, water and salt. Very tasty and refreshing, mostly in the hot summer days.

We had to pay 45 Turkish Lira to go the beach resort at the other side of the island. Everything was supposed to be included. The transportation, beach umbrella and chairs. But when we reached there, it was very crowded and no places available. The weather was very hot and we had to wait more than 30 minutes in the sun for the stuff to arrange a place for us.
It was a bit funny and unexpected. After leaving us waiting all that time, he came back to tell us that we can rent a place for 150 Turkish Lira. We refused and requested to see the manager, who was so nice and gave us this king size bed for free :)

After relaxation and sunbathing we had a Turkish coffee and watched the animation. It was amazing to see people happy singing and dancing. Many cats and dogs walking around, looking for new friends to cuddle.

It wasnt really the best choice for swimming as expected. The sea wasn't very clean and I was quite surprised to see many Jellyfish there. I think we went in the wrong time, but could still have fun collecting shells. As you can imagine, with hundreds of thousands of them the choice becomes difficult.

We took our ferry back to the front side of the island and from there the other ferry back to Istanbul. It was worth the visit and and we enjoyed a beautiful day outside the city.