ANZAC Tour of Turkey

Hi all!

After recovering from our trip to Sheffield, we had a quick pack for our week trip to Turkey. Brooke came back from Ireland to join us for this week. Next lesson learned. The tube (Underground) is different from the Heathrow express. An expensive lesson!

We flew into Istanbul to some slightly warm weather. What a mad place! We caught a train and tram into town to face the hustle and bustle of the city. We have another member to our group Craig (Nat & Brookes’ cousin) He met us in the city and Brooke and Craig headed off to their hostel. We had a hotel the first night. We were wondering why the accommodation was pretty good prices. There are so many hotels in Istanbul! I lost count of how many we had seen.

The next day we met up with the crew in the city for a look around. FYI – Istanbul has history dating back to the 4th Century AD. We saw some bits around the city with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. We decided to head down to the Grand Bazaar for a look around. What an experience. About 4500 shops with small roads in between. It was Saturday morning and there were locals everywhere! Plenty of stuff, but a lot of the same, rugs, plates, jackets & t-shirts, bags, lamps etc. We found the spice market. That was cool! Rows of spices, Turkish delights in many different flavours and all sorts of yummy stuff.





Had a yummy coffee at this local café that even included a spoon made of chocolate! Very nice touch.

After a local kebap (yep that’s how the spell them here) we had a look around at some more shops and stuff.

We got back to the hostel (Hostel alley is where it’s all at) for a couple of coldies on the roof. Panoramic views of the harbour. We met up with some Aussies and went out for a Turkish dinner. The boys decided to kick on so Brooke & Nat went back to the hotel. The tour was due to depart at 9am on the next morning. The boys were supposed to meet us back at the hotel in the morning but Craig forgot to set the alarm! They turned up at the hotel at 9.15 and Cam hadn’t had time for a shower and or a change of clothes. The bus went straight in to a tour of the city. We then went to some amazing Mosques, built in the 6th Century AD. It is so hard to fathom how they built these monstrosities with the technology that they had back then. But they did and they are still standing today.

We then headed off on our bus after having some lunch over looking the ocean to Caşan. It is about 4 hours away from Istanbul, and about 30km from the border of Greece. This would be our base for the Anzac adventure. We checked into the hotel and were shown our room. Pretty dodgy room but at least the bed was OK. The bathroom was pretty funny. It had the shower, the toilet and the sink all in a cubicle about 1.5 metres square. Have a shower whilst sitting on the toilet! Good use of space I say…

We went off to a restaurant in the middle of nowhere for more bread! Every meal in Turkey comes with a loaf of fresh bread. Just like an oversize French bread stick. The meal wasn’t too bad I guess.
The next day we packed up our gear for the trip to Gallipoli. We would be spending the night under the stars down at Anzac cove. The forecast was cool clear night. We went to the museum nearby. There were all sorts of stuff that had been dug up, bullets that had hit each other in mid-air and all sorts of cool stuff!

We then headed to the memorial sites to have a look at where it all happened. They have various memorial sites around the place that remember where the battles occurred. They have preserved some of the trenches which were pretty cool. We got to see the Australian site (Lone Pine), the Turkish memorial and the NZ memorial (Chunuk Bair) This site was very impressive. The Kiwis managed to hold this part of the hill which had an awesome view of all the surrounding area and was about the highest peak in the region. They managed to hold this for 6 days. The Turks out of ammunition did a final charge and managed to get this hill back. If they didn’t get this back the war could have been a completely different outcome.

After some lunch (with more bread) we headed down to Anzac cove to see where the arrival happened. What a crazy place to land! It is just an incredibly steep incline to the top of the hill on this pretty little pebbled beach cove. It is hard to believe that so much blood was shed on this small area.

We then headed back to the town of Gallipoli for a couple of coldies to see the day out. Beer is great here. (They have a local drop called ‘Efes Pilsen’ about $3-4 AUD for a pint and it tastes great!) What a beautiful town. It has been unspoilt by tourism. All the locals were so friendly and open. You can tell it is unspoilt when most of the people speak there own language only. We were sitting where the locals bring in their catch of the day. This group of locals cranked up some music and we just watched the world go by. Spoke to some more Aussies down there (They are everywhere at the moment!)

This night we actually had a great meal before heading back to Anzac cove for the overnight stay for the dawn service. WOW!!! We got there about 10:30pm and it was just mad. 20,000+ people camped down the bottom and in the stands, freezing there butts off! We reckon it must have reached 1 degree or less that night with a nasty breeze to boot. A real sense of mateship there.

Well the dawn service finally arrived. Everyone was very weary from the looonnnggg night. A very moving moment indeed, especially the Last Post. That bugle along with the 2 minutes silence was very surreal.

We then headed up the hill to the Lone Pine Australian service. The Lone Pine memorial is one of the major cemeteries for the Australian diggers. This was a nice way to warm up with a 45 minute climb up a fairly steep hill. A major mission considering the lack of sleep and nutrition (our breakfast box consisted of bread rolls, orange and a bottle of water). This service was good, and again another moving experience.

It was then a wait for the other services to finish and for our bus ride back to Caşan. We then finished our dinners and crashed pretty hard after about 36 hours on the go!!!

The next day we were back on the bus for our ride back to Istanbul to complete our Anzac mission. Pretty uneventful.

We then spent the next couple of days in Istanbul with a bit more retail therapy and some more sightseeing. Some cool photos were taken here. There is this place called the Sultanamhet Cistern that used to be a water supply. What a spot!


We then headed back to London for some well earned rest.

Our next post will be from Italy. We are heading off there next week.

Signing off for now.

Cam & Nat