Well, what a few days! On Friday, I left my hotel in Athens in the morning to go to the airport. When I arrived, I couldn’t see my flight to Samos on the departures board, and sure enough, the flight was cancelled. They offered to put me on the standby list for the 6:30 flight, but that was doubtful as the flight was already overbooked by 2. It was no good anyway, as the ferry from Samos left at 5:00. So, after talking with my travel agent back in Australia, I booked a flight for 5:30am the next day, in case [View Full Entry]

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I got up this morning and checked out Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, the one site that I wasnt able to get to in the previous days. It was the Sutan's castle and was built around the 13th century, and was quite pretty. It was a cool morning, and after I checked out the palace, it started to rain. I was glad that I was able to check out the palace, and it didn't matter because I had booked an afternoon bus to Canakkale. The hostel was really cold last night, and I woke up feeling on the verge of a head [View Full Entry]

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April 25, 2008, marks the 93rd anniversary of the Allied landing at Gallipoli, Turkey, in World War I, 1915, and the beginning of the Gallipolis Campaign. It also marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during WWI. More than 8,000 Australians and New Zealanders, under British command, died and 18,000 were wounded. ANZAC Day is held on April 25 each year. In both Australia and New Zealand, it is a sacred day. ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, which is what they formed for this war. Briefly, WWI in [View Full Entry]

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We wake before dawn and are on the road as the sun rıses. It hovers ın my drıvers sıde mırror - ın the east. Thıs ıs one of the few tımes ıf ever ı have been awake at dawn and have been headıng west. Gallıpolı - Gelıbolu - ıs 4 1/2 hours away. The fırst hour ıs spent gettıng through the suburbs of Istanbul. The aır ıs crısp. We pass "ınto rollıng farmland" (Traılways Bus - Paul Sımon). Thıs sunrıse and temperature ıs what they must have experıenced ın 1915. we keep the water on our left as we traverse gentle [View Full Entry]

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December 15 - 17, 2006 Friday We pulled into Cannakale after dark and with not much of a clue as to where we would be staying for the night. The bus from Selcuk dropped us at Cumhuriyet Meydani, an open square between the ferry docks at the end of the main street of Cumhuriyet Boulevard, a corridor of busy shops, hotels and restaurants with a narrow park running down the center of the avenue. We dropped our bags on the sidewalk and took turns popping in and out of the nearby hotels, ultimately settling on the neat Canak Hotel. Saturday Cannakale [View Full Entry]

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Our room at Anzac house hostel has no windows and therefore no daylight to wake us up naturally. We slept till around eleven when I got restless and checked the time. A room with no windows is a dangerous thing when you are constantly tired as we are. Yesterday we had both agreed that going to Gallipoli was too expensive considering our lack of interest in it. We were both vaguely interested until we read that the majority of the trip consists of visiting cemeteries which for £22 each did not seem worth it. We had both agreed to look at [View Full Entry]

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Another lovely little stop over. The bus ride was 7hrs but I was so tired I napped all the way so didn’t really get to check out the countryside. I booked a room at Anzac House and asked a young man in a book store for directions. He called Anzac and told me how to get there (turned out to be 20m up from the harhour). I found my hostel, dumped my bags, then went for a little explore and happened by the bookstore again so went in to say hi. Resat is 24 and lovely. We had a cup of [View Full Entry]

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The guys who worked at Paris Hotel wrote down the numbers of two buses that went to the main bus station which is actually pretty far from the centre. We stood for a while at what we thought was the right stop until a really friendly guy indicated using German and Turkish that we should be on the other side of the road. The shuttle bus seemed to take forever and got pretty crowded. We are so confused as to the hıerarchy of seat priority in Turkey. İn some countries men always stand up for women of any age and in [View Full Entry]

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Photos for now, text to follow... [View Full Entry]

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Hi all. Well we travelled down from Istanbul by bus yesterday to Cannakkelle and then ınto Gallıpollı. Had a very ınterestıng tour and was very movıng to see ıt all fırst hand. Must have been very hot yesterday as my eyes began to sweat a couple of tımes. Placed the poppıes and other ıtems that people had gıven me to place on theır behalf - at the NZ memorıal and on the headstones. Was surprısed how few actual headstones were there but of course all were lısted on the walls of rememberance. Havıng the guıde explaın ıt all was the best [View Full Entry]

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