Turkey – Gallipoli
Well crossing the border from Greece to Turkey was an experience, we all filed off the bus and lined up to get our visa stamp put into our passports. A few us got through before a few men who obviously couldn’t be bothered waiting in line after us forced their way to the front of the line forcing their papers into the little office with the border officer inside. This didn’t impress our bus driver ‘Razor Ray’ who started putting his body in the way of the men trying to barge through. More locals came but as they now couldn’t get to the office window they started banging on the door of the office until the officer opened it and handed out stamps to them. So eventually we reached Turkey soil where we picked up our tour guide who was going to show us to Gallipoli and the surrounding memorials. We walked along Brighton Beach, which was where the diggers were supposed to land which was some 400m south of Anzac Cove. It was a surreal experience visiting such a historical place, which hold such importance in our growing of a nation. The terrain was so undulating, I couldn’t imagine jumping off a boat to be immediately being shot at while trying to find cover on such a small stretch of beach. Learning that 2000 men didn’t make it through the first night was horrifying – had they only landed where they were intended to so many lives may have possibly been saved. The water along the cove was spectacular, brilliantly sparkling some of the best I had seen of the trip. After visiting the cove we drove to the ‘Lone Pine’, which I had heard a bit about. A lot of Australian graves were situated over looking the coast in particular a wall with every soldiers name who did not make it back to Australia including a 14 year old boy who was injured during battle and died on a boat to Egypt where he was seeking medical attention.
That night we were staying at the “Crowded House” hostel in Ecealate (an Australian hostel). We played some Aussie classics including ‘True Blue’, and ‘Home among the gum trees’.
Istanbul:
We headed to Istanbul the following day were the staff at the hotel took our bags and brought them to our room, luckily for us because we were on the fourth floor. Spent the afternoon exploring the city eventually finding our way down to the riverbanks, which separate at the continents of Europe and Asia. A lot of the locals were fishing along the banks – no bait just throwing lines in with small hooks occasionally catching small fish. We had a look at the ‘Blue Mosque’ which was the largest in the world the only with 6 towers. We had a quick walk down the spice markets where I few one liners were thrown out such as ‘I have beautiful spices for your mother in law’ which was then promptly replied with ‘I also sell poison’. That night we had dinner at a restaurant that had over 4000 lanterns hanging from the room, which was quite spectacular but a lot were hanging very low resulting in a few heads butting into them.
Our first full day in Istanbul was spent doing a tour of one of the palaces followed by some shopping in the Grand Bazaar then on to the Blue Mosque the only one of its kind in the world with 6 towers. The Grand Bazaar was a whole new world, we walked through tunnels continuously getting lost while looking for men’s happy pants (those of which Aladdin donned in the Disney classic). After walking away mid batar with a few stores due to either ridiculous asking prices or lack of design we eventually settled with one lucky punter who’s starting price was 70 per pants – we got him down to 3 for 110 Turkish lira. The Blue Mosque was good to visit, I appreciated the scale, design and significance it holds but I still believe the churches and cathedrals throughout Europe were better.
That night we had a Topdeck extra which was a belly dancing show and traditional Turkish dinner for 70 euro (all you could drink). Wowee what a disappointment!!! The show itself was a joke as was the dinner and service. We ordered beers and after 20mins they still hadn’t made it to the table. One of the boys wasn’t happy and expressed it to a few of the waiters. They eventually got their act together until they ran out of spirits and had to send someone down to the shops for more which they only returned with 2 bottles of vodka for 30 odd people. By the end of the night we were behind the bar pouring our own drinks and find finger discounting a bottle of Raki and a wig off a mannequin for good measure. We kicked onto a local club (on a Tuesday night….) until it was time for me to go back to the hotel and wrap myself around the toilet bowl for a good 6 hours.
The next day – sickest day of my life, no point mentioning what I did because I barely left the hotel room.
