Gallipoli and final day in Canakkale

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Nessie and I took quite the extended tour of Gallipoli today. I thınk I have now officially seen every gravestone of every dead identified soldier during the "Gentlemens War". I was elated that we decided to do the guided tour because the entire site spans 35 km, and as much as we have been adventurous (often too adventurous, such as in the case of the house of Mary where we walked 6.6 km uphill) it was nice to have an airconditioned van waiting for us. All the other people on the tour were Aussie and it was interesting to see how significant it was for them (most of the soldiers who died were English, French, Aussie and Turkish). There were only 49 Canadians who lost their lives, all from Newfoundland.

To get to Gallipoli we took at 30 minute ferry. We were happy about taking the ferry because we were able to get our "ferry" fıx. We had consıdered taking the ferry to Istanbul from Cannakkale but logistıcally it ısnt goıng to work out. We are taking a five hour busrıde instead which doesnt require any layovers or stops. We want to get to Istanbul earlier rather than later so that we can take advantage of our last day there. I still need to see Hagia Sofia, one of the largest mosques in the world until the 16th century, and we have lots of shopping to do at the grand bazarr. We have decided to ship things back that we buy for our apartment in the fall as well as the souvenirs we have bought so far. Hopefully postage isnt to expensive, but I dont want to be carrying around our things until I come home in August. We also havent visited a hammam (turkısh bath house) yet, so if we can squeeze it in, we are going to do that as well.

Tuesday (the day my new little niece will arrive) I fly out of İstanbul and have a night flight to Dubai where I will transfer for my flight to Bangkok. Ive heard good things about the airport in Dubai, so Ill see what İ can explore in the couple of hours İ have there.

More from Thailand when I arrive.

Lots of love,

Poke/Nıcole
xo

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