I was headed to Buyukada, the largest if the Princess islands. To see a former orphanage, one of the largest wooden-only structures [anywhere, in Turkey, the western hemisphere I dont know. I didnt read that far], and Leo Tolstoy's old ruin of a house. Mainly just to ride out somewhere. The trip involved a ferry ("ferriboat", to echo the words spoken by those helping me find my way) from town to Harem, an hour ride southward along the coast, and the ferry out to the island. I disembarked when the ferry pulled up. Only when I started riding the island did I open up maps.me. It must be off, I thought. It has me on this little island over here when I'm supposed to be on this larger island over here. Oh well, figure it out. How hard can it be to find a massive old wooden building?
The ferry landing is at the shore. The island is, as uslands are wont to be, so much regurgitated terra from some volcanic explosion aeons ago. Meaning- everything is UP. Rather than push Loretta UP I took what i assumed would be a longer crisscross stretch of road. I turned a corner. An old man pushing a cart flagged me down. I could not understand him butbhe seemed friendly. After some repeats I got the word he was saying and why he was pointing the direction he was.
"Monastery".
I looked at the map at where it had my location - on the smallest island, one third of which is covered by the grounds of a Greek monastery. Oh well. Let's go see a monastery then.
I rode along. Could not find an opening in the gate but no matter. The island structures were fascinating enough. Everything about being anywhere new is splendid. The colors of what grows. The buildings - are they inhabited? Who lives here? Are they retired? Are these vacation homes? Oh look - a turkey. In Turkey. Gotta photograph that, caption it "meta", and see who gets it.
The ride back was adrenalising, again. Part of the way I had a bike lane. Part of the way I rode with commuter traffic. I thought - hospital-grade painkillers. That's what. To the voice that asked me if I was fucking crazy riding in the streets at this fast dark time. Look, there's nowhere else to ride. The sidewalk is dodgy, people are on it, it cracks, ends, gets cutoff by a lamp post. Just pedal fast, pay attention and worse comes to worse you get some really good pain meds.
Today I caught the 3pm ferry out of town. I'm still keen to see that damn orphanage. I read it's really eerie. The whole trip, including two bags of nuts, four ferries, a coffee, three waters and a can of ice tea, set me back $8. Paradise.
Tomorrow I'll get an earlier start. If I catch the 11am out of town, get out at the right stop, then I'll have another intetesting thing to look back on when I'm older and grayer.
Wow Cynthia you never cease to amaze me I am so glad you're having such a good time that's f****** awesome congratulations on 60 days way to go are you a cat whisperer much love my friend thank you for the awesome pictures they are badass and so are you your friend will
ReplyDeleteThanks Will! Glad to see someone's reading. The pictures have a lot of detail when enlarged in my phone but seemed to lose detail once posted here. That's a bummer. There's some cool stuff to see here. Wish I could see it all but even I can eat enough to fuel THAT much ride, ha.
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