Blogs from Gallipoli, Marmara, Turkey, Middle East - page 2

A significant moment was experienced as we stepped off the bus and onto the soil of Ari Burnu…ANZAC Cove. Nick McCallum and his cameraman, Paul, from the Channel 7 news team greeted us. They led us onto the beach and away from the main group. We stood on the exact place of the landing, picking up the stones that those adventurous, charging, mostly inexperienced young men would have scrambled over…including Mum’s father, my grandfather. I was more emotional than Mum! She was incredibly calm and told the journalists so as she was interviewed. (Not sure when it will be aired!) To look out across the sea and imagine the boats filled with these young soldiers who had no idea what lay ahead; to visualize them entering the water and crunching the stones of this foreign land; ... read more

Today we crossed the Dardanelles after lunch in Eceabat. We are now in Asia, Anatolia, Asia Minor. Before the crossing, we stopped at the battleground on Gallipoli where the "the sick man of Europe," led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk defeated the Allied troops. Then down the coast to Troy--not a very impressive ruin but a 9-layered one. Troy 6 is the Homer/Brad Pitt layer which was looted by the German-American Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870's. We shared lots of laughs about the "job description" of his second wife: "She should be poor, beautiful, a Homer enthusiast, dark haired, well educated and possessed of a good and loving heart." He apparently found a 16 year old Greek who fit the bill! Ataturk is everywhere--each hamlet has an Ataturk Parki and each home, a photograph. This pastel from ... read more

The alarm burst into action at 5.15 am. It was going to be a long day. The Gallipoli peninsula is 320 kms from Istanbul, which meant it was never going to be anything but! The hotel had an option via an expensive tour operator, but I pointed them in the direction of RSL Tours and the deal was struck at 80 Euros per head for an 6.00 am pick up. I was really pleased as we wandered through reception to see the guide already waiting and raring to go. RSL have no connections with the organisation that we'd come to know and love through cheap beer and a feed whilst travelling Down Under, but it makes for a bond with their majority customers. The pick ups didn't run according to plan - they never do when ... read more

Geo: 40.4103, 26.6708 GÜN 02 GÜNLERDEN CUMARTESİ: güzel uyumuşum ... 8:30' a kadar oyalanıp çıktık. Sahilde güzel kahvaltı salonları var. Birisine oturduk, mükellef bir kahvaltı yaptık.. Bugün Zafer bayramının ertesi ...kent bayraklara bezenmiş.. Çiçek gibi güzel bir yer olmuş Gelibolu.. Kahvaltıdan sonra ,interneti olan tek kahve ( artık bu bizim bildiğimiz kahve... öyle cafe ,mafe değil ) Nezih'te oturduk.. Gelsin kahveler, gitsin çaylar. Lapseki den gelen feribotları izliyoruz. Bu keyfin bedeli olarak, kahvenin çıstak müziğine katlanmak zorundayız.. Zira, burası güzel esiyor.. Ayşe'yi Nezih'te bırakıp ,nostaljilerimi yaşamak üzere çarşıya daldım.. Artık aklıma neler takılıyor …neler .. Önemli bir şeymiş gibi kafayı taktığım ... read more

Grand Halic Hotel, Istanbul, Turkey--Sunday, May 5, 2013 Woke up and dressed to have breakfast by 9:00. As I dressed I realized that the heat and standing on my feet at the airports gave me the same rash around my ankles that I had in Moscow. It wasn’t as big a surface area nor as bright red, but I needed to keep my legs elevated. This condition is called golfer’s leg and is a circulation issue with the “rash” being tiny broken blood vessels. We went downstairs for a breakfast buffet in a large dining room. Olives (4 kinds--2 black & 2 green) for breakfast is strange along with lentil soup, cucumbers, and tomatoes. The buffet had some of the usual European breakfast items like sliced cheeses and lunch meats, but instead of ham or bacon ... read more