Anzac Day

---

We were woken up at about 4 in the morning by Denton announcing it was time to wake up. Surprisingly I felt that I had got a couple of hours of decent sleep. He was interviewing people who had relatives that had fought at Gallipoli and had passed their story on. Some of the stories came along with diaries that had been kept, or shrapnel that had been removed from a wound and kept in a jar. To gain another perspective Denton also asked some younger people who had made the pilgrimmage what their impressions of Gallipoli were and what it meant for them to be here.
The next item which was shown on the big screens was a recorded video message, the first part was Helen Clark and the second was John Howard. Normally I would have found this to be quite tedious, but it proved to be very interesting. Both prime ministers had close relatives fight in World War I, but they have such contrasting views on war, and you could see how they were influenced via their stories in the video.
Helen Clark's uncle fought at Gallipoli while John Howard's father and grandfather fought on the Western front. I wonder if John Howard's ancestors had fought at Gallipoli whether he would have a different view point on war.
Everyone was pretty much awake where we were positioned now, and we managed to spot Az and Razi who joined us. Chocolate and Chriso were either still sleeping, or in the crowd somewhere else. The boys said Chocolate's leg was pretty bad.
Not long after the formal part of the Dawn Service started. There were a lot of dignitaries from both Australia and New Zealand recapping events, one of them was our Governor General Michael Jeffrey. There was a religious side to the service as well.
We couldn't have got a better morning/setting weather wise, and there was a huge emotional build up before The Last Post. When the crowd went completely quiet, and then the first sounds of The Last Post were belted out, it made the hair stand up on the back of my neck and gave me goosebumps. It was a special feeling.
In the service there was also talk of the great Turkish officer Ataturk, who became the first President of the Republic of Turkey. The main focus was his famous speech, which demonstrates why he was such a great man.
"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 in peace
After having lost their lives on this land
They have become our sons as well."

This great speech was made by Ataturk (not today) despite the fact we had travelled so far to invade a country we had never set eyes on. Obviously the Anzac troops made a big impression on the Turks.
At the end of the service the national anthems were sung, and the same guy sang both the Turkish and Australian National anthems. I was very impressed, and a bit embarrassed that I didn't know the second chorus.
From here we had to high-tail it back to Istanbul and unfortunately miss the services at Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair. I regret this, but I'm still so happy to have made it.
As we started walking we saw Chriso and Chocolate and waved to them in the crowd. We walked for a while, and got to a point where there were toilets as well as cars and buses. I went to the toilet while Beck negotiated our way on to a bus. We piled into this little bus full of Turkish men from the age of 20-50, and headed to Echebat. Driving out the main gates I had one last look back towards Anzac Cove. The area looks much like the beach areas back home. One of the plants that grows wild on the Gallipoli Peninsula is the Gallipoli Rose. It has strong links with war time heritage as soldiers at Gallipoli were believed to have taken seeds home and scattered them around fields and gardens as a symbol of peace and rememberance. The Gallipoli Rose and a sprig of rosemary was the Gallipoli motif for this year, and we got a badge with these on it in our goodies bag.

Getting off the bus we booked tickets for the next bus heading to Istanbul which was to leave very soon. The sun was obviously shining on us, and it looked like we were going to make our flight. Beck quickly had time to go to the toilet in a little shop where we bought some cheap food for the bus. On the bus we tried to get some sleep, and we weren't the only ones making the mad dash for Istanbul. Chris and Jacqui were in the same position as us, although they had a slightly later flight. When we arrived at the bus terminal we pooled all our money together to get in a van to take us to the airport. The driver said it wasn't enough, but we didn't have any more Turkish Lira, so he took us anyway.
At the airport we shared our food and travel stories with our fellow Aussies. When it was time for us to go through security we wished them all the best and we might catch up with them when we go to Cardiff soon.
On the other side of security we used our credit card to get spaghetti bolognaise each, which I really enjoyed.
The metal detecting machine went off for nearly every chick which meant we were a little bit late boarding the plane. We met another Aussie couple in the line to catch the plane. They had noticed us wearing our Gallipoli shirts and asked whether we had stayed for the Dawn Service. They looked slightly disappointed when we told them we had, as they had been told (like us) that they wouldn't make their connecting flight, so they left Gallipoli the night before. I felt really bad for them, and it's not fair they missed out on the Dawn Service. We only really took the risk because we were prepared to wear the consequences at work and financially if something went wrong.
Once we were on the plane the real reason for our late departure became apparent. Apparently one of the wheels was missing 2 nuts, they said one was acceptable, but not two! So we sat on the plane waiting to take off. In the air we tried to sleep, and we were kept up to date with information concerning connecting flights in Geneva. At Geneva we got off the plane, went through security and then got back on the plane.
Our flight for Heathrow was on time, and we tried to get some sleep. The flight ended up landing late as we had to join the queue of planes circling Heathrow waiting to land.
The whole point of not checking in any luggage was wasted when we had to join the massive line to get through customs/immigration. Finally we got through, and Kez rang from Fatty's to say they would pick us up which was lucky.
The train ride from Heathrow to Canada Water took forever, and I had lost a large portion of my voice. Not a good thing when you're a teacher.
We got to bed at one in the morning. I had a quick shower and shave just prior to bed to be ready for school in the morning!

---