Remembering the ANZACS
Trip Start
Jun 18, 2007
1
114
150
Trip End
Ongoing
Canakkale,
Canakkale,
Turkey
Saturday, April 26, 2008
So we took our first Turkish bus down to Canakkale, and that was an experience in itself. On time, clean, very comfy complete with a "waiter" in a bow tie serving tea, coffee and snacks....not quite as inexpensive as some of the countries we have visited but considering that petrol is very expenisive here (some locals are telling us it is the most expenisve country in the world), the bus companies aren't doing too bad. Petrol here is about $2.40 AUD a litre.......so those fuelling at home gripping at the bowser.....is this what we have to look forward to in the future??
Apparently it is heavily taxed here as is beer.
With the weather very bleak and cold, we didn't get to explore much of the town itself. There were still a few backpackers at the hostel from ANZAC day, but most people had moved on.
The sites at Gallipoli are quite spread out, so we hopped on a "Hassle Free" tour, which I would recommend
a mural for the turkey naval victory
. They looked after us, lunch was quite ordinary, but Murat our guide was very knowledgible and the sites were truely moving. The day was capped off with a bit of a party in the town as the 2 premier soccer teams of Turkey (one from Asian Istanbul, the other European), were playing. At first we thought there was a protest going on, but it was just the opposing supporters making noise outside their respective watering holes. The hostel put it on the hte big screen, and as the team the owner supported won the match, beer flowed freely.
Sitting tight waiting for the night bus to Selcuk, what better to do than watch the Mel Gibson film "Gallipoli"...while in Gallipoli ! Expecting lots of doom and gloom, I found most of the flim is quite funny, but unfortunately, there is no such happy ending.
All in all, Gallipoli is a must see, the sheer numbers of Allies and Turks that lost their lives there is just appalling. It is just as popular with Turkish tourists, and I guess they are quite proud as they "won". The trenches were a highlight, the conditions they has to endure were pretty tough and fighting when orders were given when they had just been living a few metres apart and communicating with each other, swapping food, cigrattes etc. (8 according to Murats renditions), average age mid-20's seems unbelievable.
We were happy to pay our respects without the multitudes of people around.
We opted out of Troy, after some pretty sad reports from others, and instead found the horse used in the movie, on the beach front in Canakkale to be fulfilling enough.
Next stop Selcuk.
Bye
Nic and Matt.
