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Published: September 7th 2008
Blue Mosque
Washing Hands In Holy Water! Before leaving the European continent we did a side trip to Turkey for a week. London, Istanbul, and then back to London.
Geographically, Turkey is 1 % Europe and 99% Asia.
Within Istanbul we stayed in old Istanbul, in the Sultanahmet region. All the major sites are within easy walking distance of the hotel. Our first day we visited the amazing Blue Mosque. Architecturally it is an amazing building, the linking of domes to form the big roof dome is incredible. We also visited the Basilica Cistern, which was built by the Romans in 532. It is basically an underground cistern which was used to supply water to the Byzantine Palace. The roof is held up by hundeds of columns, with water flowing through which was piped in from 20 km away.
We also enjoyed visiting the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market, both very colourful with some good natured bartering thrown in.
Within our sidetrip to Istanbul, we did another sidetrip to Canakkale. This is a small town across the Dardenelles from the Gallipoli Peninsula. It was quite unique for us travel wise because we left the majority of our luggage in Istanbul, and
only took down a back pack each. Geez it was great to travel light !
We stayed at the ANZAC House Youth Hostel, and all the Aussie accents brought a smile to our faces. While there we caught up with a fellow Balnarring-ite; John Runting . Our prime purpose for going to Canakkale was to do a tour of Gallipoli and learn about what happened there during WWI. The guide did a great job. He told of the circumstances of the war, the relevance of control of the Dardenelles, and then of the Gallipoli campaign. We drove around to many sites, including the landing site at Anzac Cove, the memorial sites and cemetries and even the trenches. It was a sobering experience and you couldn't help thinking what a pointless waste of life it was. It seems incomprehensible that so many died from both sides, in such a small region. ANZAC day will now have a different meaning after visiting the area.
We returned to Istanbul on what happened to be the first day of the month, and the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Street stalls had been set up along the road next to the
Basilica Cistern
Upside down Medusa Blue Mosque, and come night time the festvial began. During the call of prayer ( 'wailing music'), it was as if the mosques were involved in a duet , but hundreds of meters apart. The atmosphere was colourful, loud and festive with a great choice of places to buy food. This combined with balmy weather gave a feeling of contentment.
Our Turkey experience was one we all enjoyed, with our visit to Gallipoli being a definite highlight.
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