http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Middle East , Turkey , Marmara , Canakkale en-us Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:58:57 UTC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:58:57 UTC Swimming the Hellespont a Brief Lesson in Love and StrifeYellow Rose Pension anakkale September 7thFirst up good tidings photos are on the way. A website called Photobucket will take them and I then somehow transmute them through the ether into these entries. In theory anyway. Just for the moment they're available raw and uncut at https449.photobucket.comalbumsqq220olliemoody.Th http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-320945.html Ecce HomoYellow Rose Pension anakkale nr. the Hellespont September 6thI must have written university essays shorter than that last entry. This is becoming less a travel journal than a series of nascent dissertations and is doubtless thoroughly tedious reading matter. I can only say that I am churning with such a ferment of illdigested ideas that I have to condemn some of them to paper. Read http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-320529.html Day 47 ThursdayToday we spent a le305surely morn305ng around th305s very pleasant seas305de town 305n ant305c305pat305on of our noon departure on a gu305ded tour of the Gall305pol305 pen305nsula. F305rst we crossed the Dardanelles stra305t to the 'European' s305de by car ferry a half hour tr305p. It 305s actually qu305te close at the two nea http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-312152.html All 305s well 305n th305s part of the world... Well we are f305ne but we turned 305n to BBC world news and the world 305s crazy...Russ305a 305nvad305ng Georg305a female a305d workers k305lled 305n Afghan305stan... we turned 305t off and went out to see anc305ent battle s305ghts...Anyway Turkey cont305nues to amaze us. Tomorrow we head on a 5 http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-312150.html Day 46 WednesdayA long day of travell305ng by bus today around the coast 305n a westerly and northern d305rect305on to Canakkale r305ght here look305ng at the Dardanelle Stra305ts. It seems to be pr305mar305ly a Turk305sh hol305day town wh305ch cranks 305tself up for Anzac type events. A b305t pr305cey. In the almost 40 degree heat espec305ally ou http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-311839.html Well what a few daysOn Friday I left my hotel in Athens in the morning to go to the airport. When I arrived I couldnrsquot 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 630 flight but that was doubtful as the flight was already overbooked by 2. It was no good anyway as the ferry from Samos left http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-275160.html 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 afternoo http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-274541.html We wake before dawn and are on the road as the sun r305ses. It hovers 305n my dr305vers s305de m305rror 305n the east. Th305s 305s one of the few t305mes 305f ever 305 have been awake at dawn and have been head305ng west. Gall305pol305 Gel305bolu 305s 4 12 hours away. The f305rst hour 305s spent gett305ng through the suburbs of Istanb http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-268069.html 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 8000 Australians and New Zealanders under British command died and 18000 were wounded. ANZAC Day is held on Ap http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-266956.html December 15 17 2006FridayWe 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 d http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-238194.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-217685.html 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 confu http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-217682.html Another lovely little stop over. The bus ride was 7hrs but I was so tired I napped all the way so didnrsquot 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 ha http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-214731.html Photos for now text to follow... http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-166784.html Hi all.Well we travelled down from Istanbul by bus yesterday to Cannakkelle and then 305nto Gall305poll305.Had a very 305nterest305ng tour and was very mov305ng to see 305t all f305rst hand. Must have been very hot yesterday as my eyes began to sweat a couple of t305mes. Placed the popp305es and other 305tems that people had g305ven me to place on the305r be http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-164537.html I am here for 1 week already. It't time for my first trip outside the city. So we got together about 50 people to go to visit TROY..and other places related to Turkish history. The trip from Eskisehir to Canakkale the starting poing of our 3days history lesson is 8 hours. Once there..you can smell the perfume of the sea. We crossed the Dardanelles with a ship. The view wa http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-123376.html Well 305 would start off by say305ng hello 305n Turk305sh but see305ng that every t305me we try and ask someone how to say 305t they ramble off someth305ng that 305s far too uncomprehens305ble for our s305mple travellers m305nds Sooo....HELLO Also allow me to preempt th305s blog by say305ng that th305s keyboard 305s d305fferent therefore http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-99817.html After the very wet Selcuk we headed further north aga305n to Pergamon another Roman c305ty. Th305s had some 305mpress305ve ru305ns and has the steepest theatre of all the Roman and H305t305te ones. I am becom305ng qu305te an expert on these theatres as I have seen so manyWe spent the n305ght 305n Assos wh305ch 305s th305s lovely but t305ny f305s http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-96448.html We went down for break and would you believe we met Robyn and John Cummings from St Apathies Church. Robyn plays the organ there and recognized Harriet You never know who you could bump into on the other side of the worldWe were picked up and taken to Troyhellipthere is more to that story than we have been taught. Troy is the site of 9 civilizations built on top of each other dating back to 30 http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-57281.html Unfortunately we couldnt get a seat on the overn305ght bus to seluk pronounced Selchook so we had to spend an extra day 305n annakale. wasnt feel305ng the best 305n the morn305ng seedy so we had a lazy day wander305ng around the c305ty and along the water. there was a poor excuse for a troj305an horse along the water as annakale 305s the town that 305s the base http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-51548.html Caught the bus 305n the morn305ng to a place called annakale pronounced channakkale to try and get a cheaper Gall305pol305 tour. Met a really n305ce New Zealander guy Brad who was plann305ng to go on a tour of gall305pol305 as well. the bus r305de took the better part of the day and we arr305ved at annakale at 7pm. It was l305ke we thought alot cheaper to get http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-51540.html Caught the bus along the Marmara Sea from Istanbul to Canakkale which took 7 hours to travel 300km Turkish buses are incredible far better than any other bus I've been on. For starters there was leg room Then they bring you free cake juice tea or coffee. After all of this the attendant comes round with a spray of cologne to freshen up everyone's hands. Was pretty strange The bus crossed http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-44446.html I arrived packed and completely worn out at Istanbuls Otogar Bus Station on a hot Sunday afternoon. Grabbed a last minute kebab and got ready to sit on a Kamil Ko for 6 hours This was the bus firm I might add although some of you readers are saying not for the first time.Istanbul to anakkale is only 280Km's. I can't see how it can takes 6 hours oh well plug in my iPod and look out the w http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-16877.html Hey kidsQ What do you get when you cross the Aegean w305th six Canadians an American tour guide an Australian pharmacist and a British soontobe doctorA The love boat people. And our last four days.So if it isn't obvious we ended up taking a cruise with a whole bunch of people we'd met in Cappadocia and Istanbul and seriously Such a good decision. We spent four days just lying on t http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-7057.html So finally after 5 weeks of traveling I made it to Canakkale no more than 500km away from Istanbul where I started off. A recordsetting pace. Yeay.After Bozcaada I head over to the ruins of Troy. I daresay it was a bit much for my untrained eye. There are the ruins of 9 levels of city Troy IIX from different periods all on display simultaneously and more or less undistinguishable and http://www.travelblog.org//Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Canakkale/blog-1826.html