Marmara Adasi

Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Sat 30 May 2009 15:03
40:36.214N 27:39.9E
 
Saturday 30th May 2009
 
We had a lie-in and a lazy breakfast and were in no hurry to leave as we planned to do an night passage to Istanbul, with a stop for lunch and a siesta at the next island - Marmara Adasi.
 
After a couple of hours pleasant sail, we arrived in Topağaç on Marmara Adasi, a bay with a village.  We decided to take the rib ashore and explore - that didn't take long!  We ended up with a group of children following along at our heels and concluded they don't get a lot of boats stopping here!  As always, they tried out their limited English and we tried out our limited Turkish and a conversation of sorts ensued.
 
We tried to get lunch in the quayside cafe, but nothing seemed to be doing, then we were beckoned over by a chap eating bread, cheese and olives with a friend.  We were invited to join him and he nipped out for another loaf and brought a new dish of olives.  He then offered us çay (Turkish tea) which we accepted, and that turned out to be our lunch!  The guy was the owner of the cafe who was having his own lunch and had been kind enough to share it.  We offered to pay and he charged us the princely sum of 3TL (about £1.50).
 
We were aware that the children had turned their attention to the rib whilst we were eating lunch, but they were only playing in it and did it no harm.  It just needed a couple of buckets of water tossed over it to clean the sand off!
 
Steve decided to row back to shore with a bag of sweets for them, for which they were very grateful!!