As usual, it took me a while to get myself moving in the morning. Due to this, it was a 2:00 ferry that took me to the Prince's Islands rather than a more sensible 10 AM one. The day was sunny and bright. I managed to find a seat in the shade on the boat's deck. Halfway thorugh the ride, a man marched to the center of the deck and began pulling children's art supplies out of a large bag. He was selling sets of pastels, pencils, rulers and other useful materials for the budding artist. With the manner of a circus ringmaster, he produced a neat, clear plastic package of art supplies and announced the price. As if on cue, a child began pulling at his mother's arm and shouting, "Mommy! Mommy!" while eagerly pointing at the package. The man began his pitch. As far as I could understand, it was a variation on the "How much would you pay for this dice-o-matic food processor?.... But wait!!! You also get this dice-o-matic salad spinner and the power-potato peeler..." TV sales pitch. However, instead of selling food processors or a fancy knife set, the man was selling $2.00 art supply sets. The whole performance seemed like a lot for a $2 product, but it worked and a lot of people bought them.

He pulled out the individual items including: stickers, "not 10, not 20 but 25 pencils!", pastels, an eraser and a ruler. After expounding on the qualities of an item, he would say, "Is that all? No! That is not all! You also get...." and begin to glamorously describe a role of tape or whatever the next object was. When he came to the pencil sharpener, he sharpened a pencil and had a member of the audience feel its tip. She tested the pencil on the tip of her finger and gave a nod of approval. After he finished his pitch, he walked around handing out set after set in exchange for 1 million TL notes. The little kid who had wanted one from the beginning got one and sat silently contemplating his new possession. A little girl across from me was delighted by her set which she had carefully chosen so it contained a green ruler set rather than an orange one. I was tempted to buy one for myself. After all, I always need art supplies, the price was reasonable, and they had ruler sets in a lovely blue color. I held back, reminding myself that I am a professional designer now and should probably use expensive professional designer art supplies.

We approached the first island, Kinali. I hadn't decided which island I was going to visit but I remembered Lonely Planet described Kinali as "flat and fairly featureless" so I decided to get off at the next island, Burgaz. Since I failed to bring my guide book with me, I wasn't sure what exactly I was supposed to see (if anything) on Burgaz. I decided to wander in search of a nice view or something entertaining. The road I chose went up a hill. It started out rather unpromisingly residential. There were some nice houses with waterfront access and some tea gardens where people sat under the shade of trees. A little farther up the hill, the houses disspeared and I found myself with trees on both sides. There was a steep hill that sloped down to the sea. I could see Heybeliada, the next island with its church on the hill top and boats along the shore. The road reached a steep slope and then turned. This tree covered slope/cliff looked down on a beautiful cove with an abandoned beach. I rested for a while under a tree and watched the patterns of the sun on the water. In the distance was another island what seemed to have ruins of a fortress on it. There were a few people scattered on the hill but everyone kept to themselves maintaining a sense of Sunday afternoon peacefullness.