Canakkale and Anzac Cove

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Caught the bus along the Marmara Sea from Istanbul to Canakkale, which took 7 hours to travel 300km! Turkish buses are incredible - far better than any other bus I've been on. For starters, there was leg room!! Then they bring you free cake, juice, tea or coffee. After all of this the attendant comes round with a spray of cologne to freshen up everyone's hands. Was pretty strange! The bus crossed onto the Galipoli peninsula and then went on the ferry across to Canakkale. I reached Canakkale earlier than I thought I would and ended up standing in the middle of the ferry port like the dumb tourist I was with backpack and Lonely Planet out. I ended up staying at the cheesey Anzac House on the main street which is packed with Aussies and Kiwis who come to see the WWI battlefields on the Galipoli peninsula. According to them they were screwed over by the British who landed them 1 mile north of the true landing site - they actually landed in Anzac Cove which had a beach 7 meters wide ending in steep cliffs, instead of the flat Brighton Beach they were meant to land at. Thousands of Australians and New Zealanders died trying to reach their objective. 8 months later at the start of winter having gained only 500 yards, they were evacuated. The commander of the Turkish troops later became the first president of the Turkish Republic and was called Attaturk meaning Father of the Turks. He seperated religion from the state and changed the written script from Arabic to the Western alphabet and gave women the right to vote. I went on a tour of the whole Anzac site with 6 Aussies and a Kiwi and got lots of slagging off for being from South Africa! One of the guys didn't know anything about Anzac and they were talking about revoking his Australian citizenship. Went out to a dodgy Turkish night club where everyone was dancing facing mirrors - was pretty odd and very expensive. They played lots of Kylie to appease the Aussies! I decided not to go to the ruins of Troy as apparently it is very confusing without a guide, so I took photos of the replica Trojan Horse in Canakkale itself. Almost the same as the real thing! Even though it was made of fibreglass.

Tonight I'm catching the overnight bus to Selcuk to see the Roman ruins at Ephesus. Then I will probably go inland to Pamakkale and Capadoucia.

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Photos

Brighton Beach
This was meant to be the Anzacs landing site.

Comments

[Rowan]

back from Austria
Yo Sinclair, glad to see that you've made it to Turkey. Just back from Austria, good snow and quite a bit of sun -- sorry not to see you off, was in crazy work mode before holiday... Anywhoo looks like you're having fun, hooked up with the other travellers -- hope you didn't get persuaded to by a carpet, although might be useful in your tent. Watch out for brid flu! Adios Rowan