Turkey and Anzac Day

On the Wednesday after Easter we set off to Turkey for a 13 day trip. The first 8 days were booked through a tour company, as we needed to have a tour booking to get to Anzac cove on Anzac day.

Blue Mosque in Istanbul

We started off with a couple of days in Istanbul getting haggled by all the carpet salesman in the Grand bazaar. Of course we bought a couple of over priced, useless souvenirs, but it was fun none the less. Then it was a long days travel towards the South West of Turkey. Its an exciting city, and very cool how you drive from Europe to Asia by crossing a bridge over the Bosporus (probably wrong spelling).

Bridge between Europe and Asia

We went to the ancient ruins of Ephesus, on the Aegean coast of Turkey,

Ruins of Ephesus

Then to Pergemum and Troy (I was excited since I had seen a movie about the place)

Then over the Dardenelles on a large ferry crossing back from Asia to Europe on to the Gallipoli Peninsula. We spent a day touring around Anzac cove, Lone Pine (Australian Memorial), Chunnnk Bair (New Zealand Memorial) and looking at places we had all heard about like the Nek, the Sphinx and so on. Then it was a cold night on the grass in our sleeping bags waiting for the dawn service. It was a dawn service pretty much the same as those in Australia except the Governer General was there. If anyone was thinking of going to Gallipoli, I would recommend that if it isn't important to you to go there on Anzac day in particular (noting that there isn't anything extra in the services), that maybe you should think about going at another time. That way it would be a lot quieter and you could wander round a lot more. However it was good to experience it all.

Back to Istanbul for a day wandering about, buying more expensive souvenirs and booking some more tripping around Turkey. We caught an overnight bus to Urgup - in Cappadocia in the centre of Turkey. There were loads of cave houses that look exactly like Bedrock - the town in the Flintstones! Then we caught another overnight bus to Antalya, for a couple of days in the Mediterranean sun. It was fun but there must be mainly German tourists there because everybody kept asking if we were German - in German. About the only German I know is 'nein' which didn't get me too far.

After that it was a couple of flights back to London and ready for our next trip!