Thursday May 3, 2012

 Today we  decided to head back to the Princes' Islands to stroll around and have a lazy day since I had my egg retrieval yesterday.  The train is closed from Fatih to Pendik right now so we had to take a cab to the train station in Pendik and ride it to Bostanci.   We decided to try some different street food and since we had an hour before the ferry was to leave we walked down the boardwalk in search of something new.  There were shops selling fresh fish and small seaside restaurants making traditional Turkish food.  One of the popular street foods is Durum.  Skewers of different meats, cheese, or a combination are cooked over hot coals and then wrapped in an unlevened Turkish flat bread called Yufka.  John chose a sausage and cheese durum that was pretty good. 

Here you can see the refrigerator case with the choices of Durum

Sorry for the glare on the photo..here is the gentleman grilling over hot coals

They wrap the meat and cheese up in Yufka and then grill that too

Finished Sausage and Cheese Durum

 
   From Bostanci we again rode the ferry over to the islands.  This time we sat outside in the cool air and were joined by a nice your couple that asked us to take their picture.  I believe they were Turkish but you never really now as this is a melting pot of many from all over Europe , especially the Baltic areas.  He had with him a beautiful string instrument, called a Baglama, that is used to play traditional folk music. 

Baglama traditional Turkish string instrument for folk music

On the way to the Princes' Island. called Buyukada

                                                  playing music

                                               signing and playing music
   

  Once we arrived in Buyukada I decided I wanted to try some of these donut holes I had seen last time we came to island.  They have a little vendor cooking the donuts, which are called Lokma, right as you walk up the hill into the town square.  When you go up to them the gentleman asks if you want them hot...um yes please...so we had to wait a few minutes.  Once cooked and drained they drop them in a vat of hot honey syrup and then sprinkle them with cinnamon.  Holy cow they were awesome!  Very sweet, but hot and crispy and light as air.  

Lokma

We spent the afternoon walking the streets, eating lunch at the same restaurant we ate at last time and finally finishing the afternoon with John eating hazelnut gelato and me grabbing some more Lokma.  I could not resist and since we split a chicken wrap for lunch I didn't feel too guilty.  

 I was really tired on the ferry ride home and just wanted to sleep but John was hopped up on gelato or something and pestered me the whole ride home.  He wouldn't stop singing an Adele song, (in a key that doesn't exist and that he doesn't know the words to)taking photos of me, or bugging me to pay attention to him. Kinda of reminded me of a Labrador puppy wanting to play ball.  Good thing I love him...  

Ferry ride from Buyukada, Princes' Islands

More on our journey to come...