Day Twenty-Five: A Turkish Fourth of July

Happy Fourth!  I hope all the celebrations are going great back at home.  For some reason, they aren't nearly as into the Fourth of July over here as I thought they would be, but I'm sure the Columbus Day celebration more than makes up for it.
Even though Istanbul went on with business as usual today, we had the day off.  Our group went to an island in the Sea of Marmara, very close to Istanbul.  Though still considered a part of the city, the island is apparently predominately a place for summer homes, with 80% of the population living in the city in the winter.  We arrived by a speed ferry, which is basically a ferry that looks like a huge speedboat.

It's also faster than a regular ferry.

When we got there, it looked fairly busy to me, but it may have been lent an air of business by the horses that were trotting around everywhere, pulling carriages.  Apparently all the transportation on the island is either horse- or bike-related.  Not sure why, but it was nice.  It was very hot, but there were lots of awnings and trees and Coke in glass bottles, the superiority of which is something that America could definitely learn from its European friends.

After a brief period of exploring the city and sweating, we headed to the beach.  The walk there resulted in even more sweating, but we got to see some very nice trees.

Aren't they nice?  I thought they were nice.

When we got to the beach, we were momentarily disappointed by the fact that it consisted mostly of rocks, the discomfort of which is something our European friends should definitely learn from our American beaches (although I should point out that I've been to several beaches in Europe that are very nice and sandy).  Anyway, although walking on the beach proved painful, the water turned out to be much more comfortable than the frigid Black Sea waters in Constanta.  I'm not sure if I covered that in an earlier post or if my fingers were still frostbitten at the time, but it was cold.  The water was perfect today-uncomfortably cold at first, then refreshingly chilly, then perfect.  It was the first of what I hope will be two (maybe even three) excellent beach experiences I've had in Turkey (we're going to the Black Sea coast for the weekend, too).  We walked back up from the beach to a restaurant with a stunning view, this one:

There was a very cool haze all over the Sea of Marmara that almost entirely obscured the bottoms of the islands and the Turkish coast, at least from where we were sitting.  We could see the island pictured above as well as some of the coast of Turkey.  It surprised me how built-up that area was, given how far we were from the parts of Istanbul I knew, but the city just keeps going down the coast on the Asian side, evidently.

I don't know if you can see it, but there's a whole mess of buildings over there.

After lunch, we witnessed a ceremony naming a hill (with nice trees) after a local who was apparently a big part of the founding of Kadir Has University and loved the hill so much some people (I like to think there's an Istanbul Chamber of Hills that deals with these matters) decided to name it after him.  Then, as if that weren't enough excitement, we decided to rent some bikes and ride them around the island.  The island was plenty hilly, as islands tend to be, so there was a lot of walking up hills and squeezing the brakes on the way down, especially since I hadn't ridden a bike in a few years and these ones were of questionable stability, but it was a great way to see the place.  Around pretty much every corner were stunning views like this:

My attempt at a panoramic shot

At some point, on one of those hills, Alfonso and I started singing "The Star-Spangled Banner."  Other than that and wearing a red-ish shirt (and boxers) today, we didn't do too much to celebrate America specifically, but we observed the holiday as George Washington would have wanted: by chilling on a Turkish island and listening to music on the speed-ferry back to Istanbul.  U-S-A!  U-S-A!

For no particular reason, here's a picture of a typical ferry.  For some reason I just find them really cool.  These babies are criss-crossing the Bosporus and Golden Horn all day, every day, and our trip to the island taught me that they go out into the sea as well.  They're always full of people and there are just so many people trying to get places in Istanbul that I don't think I've ever seen one (ship, not person) without being able to look around and quickly spot at least one more (actually, that's true of people as well).  Coming back to Istanbul at about six, it looked like there was a whole convey headed into the Bosporus.

I just think they're awesome.  Anyway, thanks for reading, and happy Fourth of July!  I'll leave you with a picture of me, Thomas, and Feng standing proudly by one of our nation's most hallowed and ancient symbols.

One more thing Europe needs to get on board with: Krispy Kreme.