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Published: August 6th 2007
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On the Road I am sitting on a bus travelling btween Canakkale and Istanbul and marvelling at the incredibly beautiful scenery, the fast efficient bus service here and the friendly hospitable Turkish people who have really touched our hearts. It has been a great week, a mixture of the really budget backpacker-style life in Istanbul (even a local agreed that we had negotiated a very good price for our accomodation) and a package tour that we organised in Istanbul to take us to Ephesus, Troy and Gallipoli!
Bus Travel Our bus is following the coast on the Gallipoli Peninsula, the sun is shining and at 15 degrees it is the warmest day we have had since leaving Australia. We were told that this time last year Canakkale had snow! The local bus service here in Turkey is amazing! Our overnight bus trip from Selcuk to Canakkale has to be likened to a plane trip. The 45-seater buses are mostly Mercedes-Benz and are manned by two cabin crew who check seats and tickets and shortly after departure we were all offered tea and coffee. There are no toilets on these buses as we were told this would make them smelly! We
The Wooden Horse
The same one used in the recent movie 'Troy'! had one toilet stop on the 6 hour trip and during that time the bus was washed from top to toe! (sorry tyre!) After that the lights were dimmed, we were offered cologne for our hands, seats reclined and we settled to catnap as best we could! At 3.45am we were awoken and told that we had reached Canakkale ahead of the scheduled 5.30am arrival time! We were pleased to see that someone was there to meet us despite the hour and we were taken to the hostel where we gratefully grabbed three hours sleep before starting our fullday trip at 8am!
Troy Tour guides make all the difference to a tour and we had a fantastic young Turkish girl as our guide to Troy. There actually isn't a lot to see at Troy but our guide's commentary made the ruins come alive. We saw the 9 different levels of excavation and stood near Scion gate overlooking the plain where Achilles and Hector had fought. Achilles had dragged the dead body of Hector around the city while Hector's father, Priam had run around the walls begging for his son's body. As we stood there we could almost visualise it
all happening in front of us! We later bought a book about Gallipoli that had been written by our guide´s father who had been a guide himself for years and has now written a number of books on the history of Turkey.
Ephesus The ruins at Ephesus are very impressive and we wondered around in brilliant sunshine. The boys were intent on making a couple of amusing video clips about the area with all of us narrating different parts so gave the tour the slip a couple of times! Ephesus was one of the ancient wonders of the world and it was great to see that a lot of the area was still in tact although some of the ruins were actual reconstructions as the originals are scattered in different museums throughout the world.
Gallipoli Of course all Australians make the pilgrimage to Gallipoli if they are in Turkey and we were glad we went. As it was the off-season there were few tourists around and we often had the sites almost to ourselves. It was sobering visiting all the places that you hear about on ANZAC Day in Australia and imagining what it must have been like
for the forces as they arrived in such a formidible area and sent to almost certain death.
Ataturk Wandering through the museums here and visiting the Turkish memorial on the Gallipoli Peninsula we learnt a lot about Mustafa Kemal who later became known as Ataturk. He was one of the Turkish commanders who after the war became the first Prime Minister of Turkey. During WW1 when he realised that a major offensive was taking place he ordered his best regiment, the 57th, to defend Chanuk Bair and Sari Bair ridges. He had seen Turkish troops in full flight from the enemy and on questioning them found that they had been fighting for three hours and were out of ammunition. He ordered them to lie down and fix their bayonets. He said to them,
I don't order you to attack, I order you to die. In the time that it takes us to die, other troops and commanders can come and take our place.
The whole 57th regiment was wiped out but the heights (that were the key to the whole peninsula) were secured. Kemal was actually struck by a bullet over his heart but was saved by his watch! He was a fearless leader as well as a brilliant stategist and Winston Churchill had the following to say about him.
Only one genius person grows up in every century. Unfortunately in this century God gives this genius to the Turks.
These words written by Ataturk in
1934 are inscibed on one of the memorials on the Gallipoli Peninsula. I think they are particularly moving.
Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives....
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country
Therefore rest in peace,
There is no difference between the johnnies
and the mehmets to us where they lie side by side
here in this country of ours...
You, the mothers
who sent their sons from far away countries,
wipe away your tears,
Your sons are now lying in our bosom
and are at peace.
After having lost their lives on this land
they have become our sons as well.
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ralph venema
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chess
Hi Colin and Barbara Another great travelogue and some wonderful photos. You have really captured the happenings on both. Must have a game of chess sometime!