Gallipoli

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what a trip, wrong turns, no sleep, freezing cold, thousands of people, a amazing dawn service and a very memorable experience. it started terribly in england with the plan being that we all meet at the place im staying, and get a taxi to gatwick airport. it seemed to be going to plan with three of the 5 at the destination, until we got a phone call from fordy and Jb who tell us that they got on the wrong train and are now headed back to bristol. they asked us to come pick them up, but we would have got lost aswell so they had to get an expensive taxi to gatwick airport. us three who were ready to go, Suggy, Shaun and myself head off to meet the wayward travellers at the airport. we get there in good time and start to go through customs when suddenly another wrong turn occurred, this time it was suggy. he printed off the wrong boarding pass off of easy jet. so now hes in the line with the departure gates closing in 35 minutes, he gets given his boarding pass and scrapes into the line with 5 minutes to spare. so we just made it onto the plane to start our trip.
we land in istanbul and meet up with our fanatics tour, get to the backpackers surprisingly no worries, i was expecting a flat tyre or something. the tour take us around istanbul to see the huge mosques and to be flooded with the words 'You buy, you buy'. i was suckered in and bought a fez that he offered to me at 10 lira and eventually bought it for 3. once we finished our walk around istanbul with the worst tour guide ever we sat down at the backpackers appreciated where we were, had a feed and a beer or 2 and enjoyed each others company.
soon enough we were on a bus for 7 hours to Anzac cove. many stop overs were to come and at each we were putting on another layer of clothing. once we got to gallipoli beach we were all in beanies 2 jumpers, 2 t shirts, 2 trackies, to combat the temperature of 3 degrees, sleeping bags to follow as well.
when we got to the beach it was like a big sleep over, thousands of people spread out on the grass snoozing away, no space for us, so we found a spot and waited there from about 1am till the dawn service.
the dawn service started and we knew that this was a special thing to be apart of, and were in awe of what the young men that had came here all those years ago had done.
the dawn service was completed and we started our tour of the battlefields, and up to lone pine for the Australian service, and in total a 10km walk all around the trenches and at a cliff edge you could see where the Anzacs landed and the hill face they had to climb was very steep and full of scrub, and they got up it all whilst dodging bullets .

we did all this and then back on the bus back to istanbul for a party at the backpackers, this time we slept the whole way back. as the bus got closer to the place we were staying, the streets got narrower and eventually the bus was scraping against parked cars and the driver didnt think twice, kept on going. we got changed and ready to go within about 10 mins, and off to the backpackers. once we were there it just felt like being in australia, there were people drinking everywhere and a game of two up was going on in the corner with John farnhams your the voice blasting out of the stereo, was a very good night.

that was the end of the trip and when i got home i slept for Australia.


cheers
Paddy

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