After Gallipoli we headed back to Istanbul, about 3 hours by bus. We have completed the full circle. We returned to our original hotel, Hotel Centrum, in the Old city. We had another walk through the spice markets and bought some more stuff, then had dinner. Back to the hotel to re pack the bags and get ready for the flight to London in the morning. We have thoroughly enjoyed out tour of Turkey and sorry it has come to an end. I hope we can return in the future as I would love to spend more time in the wonderful city of Istanbul, but for now, new adventures begin tomorrow. Tomorrow: 10.30am Depart Istanbul on Turkish Airlines TK1989 12.30pm Arrive London, Heathrow... read more

Çanakkale was great. It is a town on the southern (Asian) coast of the Dardanelles. There is a lovely seafront walk where you can stop for a meal, beer and/or coffee. This is a great communal area and you can see the Trojan horse which appeared in the Brad Pitt movie. There was a soccer riot near our hotel, with tear gas and everything. It was great to be 3 stories up and just observe. The morning after there were bloodstains on the ground in the town square and some more on the roundabout down the street. It was the final of the Turkish Championship, all I know is the red and yellow guys won and the yellow and black guys were seriously peeved about it. Our tour guide was happy as her team was the ... read more

Kuşadasi is a major tourist town, even for Turks. Located on the Agaean Sea, 40km from the Greek Isle of Samos. Its' normal population is roughly 50,000 but in the summer it swells to nearly 500,000. Mark and I wander into town while Zac passed out in the hotel as his head cold had not improved and he was feeling dreadful. Both Mark and I fell in love with Kuşadasi. Firstly the view from our room was outstanding stretching across the Agaean Sea, just amazing, and the atmosphere of the town was capturing, just lovely. Visiting Ephesus today, the ruins of another ancient city. The site is over 1km long, contains two theatres, a bath house, a library, terrace houses, marble slab streets, a whole bunch of stuff. The population is estimated at 250,000 with possibly ... read more

We have a huge drive ahead of us, about 6 hours in total. We started at 7:30am. At 9:30am we arrived at a 13th century Sultanhani caravanserai, which was pretty impressive. It is located 40km west of Aksaray on the Silk Road, was built in 1229 and after a fire was restored and extended in 1278. The richly carved entrance portal is made of coloured marble and leads into a courtyard, in the centre of which is a pavilion mosque. Along the right-hand side of the courtyard is a decorated colonnade and to the left storage rooms and chambers. Beyond the courtyard is a huge enclosed hall with nave and side aisles supported by four rows of eight pillars and a forest of arches. A dome at the centre of the nave lets in light and ... read more

Today we visited the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations, which has some relics that date back to 8,000BC, stone carvings and cave paintings and the like. It also has relics from the Hitite Empire, which existed around 3,000BC, and others which are slightly newer. Some very impressive stuff from the early Bronze age too. It wasn't hugely exciting, but interesting and a good intellectual exercise nonetheless. After this museum, we went to the mausoleum of Mustafa Ataturk, father of modern Turkey. Unfortunately, we had only an hour and a half to see this shrine to an amazing man, I am thoroughly impressed by his achievements. He defeated the Ottoman regime, which had ruled since the 1400s, instituted wide ranging reforms in every sector of life, from educational to intellectual and social changes. I could have spent hours ... read more