Sector 1 - On to Gallipoli..

---

Fez Bus: Sector 1 - Istanbul to Canakkale

We had booked the Fez Bus (a hop-on, hop-off tour of Turkey) so that we could see as much of Turkey as possible with minimum hassle and maximum flexibility and we had a month to fill with only a vague idea of what our itinerary would be. It was very exciting! We got on the bus expecting a mix of nationalities and ages - and were right on 1 of those counts. There was a wide range of ages from early 20s to 60s but one nationality was in the majority - Australians! Everyone on the bus was Aussie apart from 2 New Zealanders and one Londoner who was married to an Aussie.

Our first stop (and the main reason for all the Aussie’s) was Gallipolli where we did a tour of the peninsula where the Anzac troops fought the Turks for 9 months during World War 1. The Anzacs and the Turks fought in close quarters on the hills of the Peninsula - at some points there was only 8 metres between their trenches and despite the fact they were on opposing sides in the war a relationship was developed that continues today. When the Anzacs first arrived in Turkey all they knew about the Turks were that they were barbarians who would scalp them if they were caught - they didn’t even know what they looked like, what language they spoke or anything - the Allies propaganda meant that they thought they were fighting savage beasts. It was only after the initial days of fighting when the amount of bodies in no mans land meant the fighting had to cease so each side could remove their own that they first got to look at eachother. After this the camaraderie that we have heard about on other front lines soon developed with notes being sent between opposing trenches on tortoises and troops even apologising for the deaths of certain soldiers such as a Turkish singer whom the Anzac troops had enjoyed listening to. Despite being in Australia for Anzac Day in 2001 I had no real idea what it was commemorating so am really glad that we were able to visit Gallipolli and I would highly recommend it to anyone regardless of where they are from.

After the tour about half of the people on the bus headed back to Istanbul while the rest of us finally got to cross to the Asian side of Turkey where we would be spending the rest of our time. During our first few days in Istanbul Ramadan had started and due to the heat and the long days we had noticed that the normally relaxed and easy-going Turks had become a bit more irritable - we saw a number of fights and disagreements on the tram before we left. We again saw first hand evidence of this on the Ferry across to Canakkale. Turkey has a very relaxed attitude to Health and Safety so the car ferry was a bit of a free for all with the owners just trying to cram as many vehicles on a possible (this included picking up scooters to position them in gaps between cars) and when we tried to get off we realised that a van had parked so close to our bus that the door wouldn’t open. We tried to explain this to our bus driver (who spoke no English) and then waited for the van to move while trying not to get run over by the hoards trying to get off the ferry as fast as they could. Equally impatient, our driver got bored of waiting and decided to open the door which then scraped all down the side of the van triggering a furious exchange between the 2 drivers with our Gallipolli guide acting as our driver’s wingman. It was very funny - despite not understanding anything that was said - and took our mind off the lack of air-con (it had broken down that morning) for a few minutes at least.

We checked into our hostel for the night and then went out to eat with our new “Fez Friends” - it was a really good night - yummy food, lots of alcohol and the type of intimate (i.e. drunken) conversation you only get with people you have never met before and know you will never see again - a perfect re-introduction to backpacking after 3 months of basically being on our own. We climbed up the 7 floors (passed all the empty rooms that they could have given us) to bed at about 2am that night and woke the next morning slightly worse for wear.

---

Comments

[steve chong]

great account
Ive printed off your entire story to study..thanks!