Sunday 13th was a bit of a tough one as it involved a 6hr drive to galipoli over very bumpy roads although worse to come. Gallpoli itself was mainly aimes at the Australian and New Zealand Contingent in our group but obvioulsy the brit were involved. A fait number of important landmarks form part of the Galipoli peninsular. The whole campaign was originally aimed at getting a stronghold over the dardanelles and subsequently stronghold over the route through to Russia. The problem was that the anzac troops got the plan wrong and the turks won. 500,000 men killed over the 9months or so period in 1915. Criminal. You could say it was a cockup in bad planning and it took Kitchener to see sense and pull the remaining troops out with some clever decoy tricks on the way out. will leave it to the history books to fill in the gap. Learned that "doing a jolly" came from the fact that the commander in charge used to Jolly the troops to keep them happy in the trenches.
After a long day ended up in a hostel at Ecebat called T.J.s in a dormitory. Basic but OK.
Following morning monday 14th, onto an early ferry at 7.45am over to Cannakale for onward travel to Troy and the famous horse and this chic called Helen.
The original horse has now been replaced by a thing that looks more like a shed in the shape of a horse. A bit naff to be honest, but you have to climb into it and have to climb into it and have your photo taken looking out of the window. Knocks the street cred a bit!
The rest of the site dates back around 5000 years and is partly excavated but still lads to uncover. Homers Iliad is famed in this location and was something to do with a beauty contest he rand between three women. He favoured one woman all along so she was bound to win and the others got the cold shoulder and so he got no nookie from them! My summary of important history is not what the history books would prefer!! Oh and he wrote the Iliad in the process slightly famous book of poetry.
Today was 34degrees for those stuck in the cold back home....gloat..gloat
Another long drive then onto Ephesus where we will proceddd from tomorrow morning. A nice little hostel nearby with pool and a hammock..oh to chill out for a while. Within 10 minutes of arriving had jumped in the pool and then into the hammock. Can relax now and enjoy the evening.
Until the next thrilling episode....
Bye for now
Jeff
