Gallipoli

This morning we got up at 6 and by 6:30 we were having breakfast and were out of the hotel by 7. We had a long journey ahead of us. About 5 hours drive to a small town called Canakkale(Chanakkale pronounced in Turkish). The drive was quite interesting. The scenery was constantly changing and there were some spectacular views of the Aegean Sea. The buses were organised by Imaginitive Traveller, our tour company. Quite comfortable, only I noticed the driver switching off the AC once in a while and then switching it back on! Maybe it was part of the let`s torture the tourist plan! :)

Anzac Cove Memorial

The guide whose English was pretty good took us to several landmarks and memorial sites. To be honest I never knew anything about this and involvement of Turkey in the 1st world war. Gallipoli peninsula is where the Anzac (Australian, New Zealand, British and French armies) were fighting against the Turks during the 1st world war. We did a coach trip around the memorial sites and museum. The memorial sites were quite touching. In some places during the war the oppositions would be fighting each other during the day and yet would be throwing each other presents at night. About twice as many Turkish as australýans and new zealanders together died in Gallipoli. we were able to walk through the trenches and see the places where they fought and dýed.

Lone Pine

One of the main memorial sites was called Lone pine. This is where two Australian brothers were fighting. one of them was killed and the brother surviving, took a pine cone resting on his brother and send it to his mum as a memento. His mother planted the cone and in later years the Turkish government asked her to send them the mature tree so they could plant it at the memorial site. it commemorates 3,268 Australian and 456 New Zealand soldiers who have no known graves, and the 960 Australian and 252 New Zealand soldiers who were buried at sea.

We arrived in celcuk this evening about 8:30. The night ended with walking down the road to a nice kebab house and having a delicious donnor kebab and heading back to our very basic hotel room. Unfortunately with no AC! :( But the night here is pretty cool and the breeze coming from the sea is quite pleasant. And oh yes! I had an itsy bitsy problem with the cash machine. It decided to swallow my card! I think it was more hungry than me! Tomorrow I will deal with that. For now I shall return back to the room, have some cold water, nice shower and get some sleep by fanning myself to sleep with some paper or something like that! Steve tells me there is a fan in the room. I donit trust him! I might just make him fan me instead!

Trenches

:)

Unidentified species

View of the Aegean Sea