Turkey Diary

Page Contents - Gallipoli Peninsula - Anzac Cove - Lone Pine - Eceabat memorials - Istanbul - The Bosphorus

17-4-2012 Tuesday
Drove 200ks east, over the border into Turkey and then south down the Gallipoli Peninsula, passing through the town of Gallipoli (Gelibolu) and to a town called Kabatepe (Gaba Tepe) and to a hotel with camping pitches, called Hotel Kum for 2 nights. We had an uneventful (thankfully) crossing into Turkey, with 3 separate official stops in a short distance, presenting vehicle registration and insurance papers, passports, and paying for a visa. We expected that the customs people might want to inspect the vehicle but that didn't happen. There was a sign about the cigarette, alcohol and other items limits that could be taken across. We'd just been shopping and stocked up with beer and wine and we would've had over the limits stated. We were waiting for someone to ask about that and maybe our plans of how long we'd be in the country and other questions, but no-one did. I suppose we were supposed to declare it but we didn't know when the right time was to do that as there wasn't much said by any of the officials except asking for the aforesaid documents. So we were surprised when at the last stop, the man indicated we were finished and we could just go, so we did. The road was pretty ordinary from the time we crossed the border and it's the main motorway. We've also seen many tour buses on this road and it would appear they're coming to see the war memorials, as we are. On the way here we stopped at the Kabatepe Information Centre which chronicles the WWI Gallipoli war history, and honours all the soldiers from all the countries, not just Turkey.

To the rest of the world Gallipoli is little more than a footnote in WWI events, but to generations of Turkish, British, Australians and New Zealanders, the battle for control of the Dardanelles (the stretch of water between the Gallipoli Peninsula and mainland Turkey and access to Istanbul) represents one of the most poignant moments in their history. On 25 April 1915 the first Anzac (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) and British troops landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula, hoping for a quick victory against Turkish defences. However, strategic blunders turned the operation into a protracted stalemate, and after 9 months of horrendous casualties the Allied forces withdrew. The Turkish officer responsible for the defence of Gallipoli was none other than Mustafa Kemal, later Atatürk, who went on to become the 1st President of the Republic of Turkey. His success is commemorated in Turkey on 18 March, the date of the first failed attempt by the Allied forces. The big draw for most foreign travellers, however, is Anzac Day on 25 April, when a dawn service commemorates the anniversary of the Allied landings, attracting thousands of travellers from Australia and beyond. The Anzac Day commerotive services will be held just one week from now. Although the ceremony would be quite moving and nice to attend, we have intentionally arrived before Anzac Day to avoid the crowds and road closures etc. The scenic peninsula is now a national park, scattered with moving memorials to the dead of the various nations that fought here.

18-4-2012 Wednesday
We drove to the nearby World War I memorial sites - Anzac Cove where the main Australian and New Zealand remembrance gathering takes place on 25th April every year; Lone Pine where an important battle took place and is now a military cemetery; Johnson's Jolly; and the big Turkish Memorial, and The Nek featured in the movie 'Gallipoli' - the climax of the movie depicts the futile attack at the Battle of the Nek on 7 August 1915. We saw the remains of old trenches that had been dug into the terrain, and some had been reconstructed with wooden logs for authenticity.

We were able to drive to these places in the mhome today and only had to share the parking spaces with tourist buses and a few cars, but next week there won't be many vehicles allowed on these roads as many people will be making the trek to the services. It was good to easily wander around and view the memorials at our leisure, just dodging the intermittent showers. Men were busily erecting seating and other structures at the Anzac Cove and Lone Pine sites, and tending to gardens around burial sites. Even without the official ceremonies, it was a moving and solemn experience for us.

19-4-2012 Thursday
This morning before we left, a young woman (Kim) introduced herself. She's part of an Australian events team from the ABC TV in OZ, organising everything to do with the Anzac Day memorial services. They are working in a small round building quite close to us but we didn't realise quite what they were doing or who they were. She said they'd seen us drive in 2 days ago, saw our Aussie flags on the side mirrors and had wondered if they'd see us at dinner at the hotel restaurant, which apparently was very good. Unfortunately we didn't realise that and we didn't go either night, and missed a great opportunity to talk to a bunch of Aussies organising an exciting event!

When we left we drove a short distance in the opposite direction to a town called Eceabat as we badly needed fuel. We then drove into the town to find a bank (to get some Turkish Lira as they are not part of the EU which uses euros) and as we were driving through we found there was a good war memorial right next to the vehicle ferry which goes across the Dardanelles to the town of Canakkale. I noticed this town is featured on lots of the souvenirs and that's because to the Turks, it refers to Canakkale Province which we call the Gallipoli peninsula. About 40ks south of Canakkale is the city of Troy (Troja), home of Homer's great saga of the Trojan War, featuring Prince Paris, Helen (of Troy) and the famous giant wooden horse with soldiers hidden inside (we didn't go there by the way, just thought I'd mention we were close). There were a lot of eateries here at Eceabat and we noticed lots of tourist buses coming off the ferry and stopping to unload thier passengers for meals and souvenirs. So we bought some souvenirs and decided to have lunch and try the Turkish food that we've heard is very good, and it was.

We then drove 217ks north and then east to a town called Tekirdag (Turkey) and finally found a camping ground called Ünal Camping for 1 night. Camping parks seem to be a bit scarce in Turkey and information on the internet about them is the same, so it's going to be a bit hit and miss. This small park with lots of small bungalows, seems to be only just opened and we are the only ones here. We were a bit surprised to find the toilets (1 only for men and 1 for women) are squats. We have seen them in other parks but there's usually pedestal ones as well. There seemed to be only 1 shower which had stuff stored in there and when I asked the man who didn't really speak any English, he indicated that it was only cold water. Oh well, at least we've got electricity and we're off the public roadway.

20-4-2012 Friday
Drove 100ks east to about 14ks outside Istanbul (Turkey) to a town called Florya. The only camping park info we could find was in our GPS at this town so we tried that. When we got here it was a big paying car park with a barrier and an attendant. The owner (around our age) luckily was there and spoke English and allowed us to stay here for a few days, at a cost of course, but that was great. It is near the sea and 2 restaurants, 1 belongs to this man so will eat there tonight. We will feel comfortable leaving the mhome during the day while we go into Istanbul, with an attendant here. The train is closeby as well. There is even a well maintained public toilet facililty (squats only), no shower, and we have no electricity but we feel very lucky to be here. The man didn't think there were any camping parks around here. The road to here was very busy and the area was built up like one continuous town for over 50ks! Apparently the population in Instanbul is 20 million (Turkey is about 75 million) and the whole of OZ is only 25 million! (Istanbul was once named Constantinople, being renamed in 1453)

After a little rest, a drink and getting over the busy drive here, we got the bikes out and rode along the waterfront for a while. It was a lovely sunny day and an easy ride (we hadn't ridden for about a month). A man called Ahmet came over and spoke to us for a while - we realised later he worked here, having a lot to do with the cars and where they parked. Later we went over to the Güverte Restaurant for dinner and the owner came over and chatted to us for a while and introduced us to his wife and her friend. He was a nice man. When we came back to the mhome about 6pm, we watched as the car park started filling up with cars, all seemingly going into his restaurant.

21-4-2012 Saturday
We walked for about 10 mins to the train station and caught the train to the old city - Sultanahmet, named after the 14th Ottoman ruler, Sultan Ahmet. At the train station there was an interesting railway museum and Dave got a bit excited when he saw a few old phones in the showcases. We walked for quite a while to the Grand Bazaar and wandered around only a small number of the 4500 shops and 22 entrances. There were goods of every kind and they all want to be your friend to get you into their shop, and of course we don't look like locals. We visited 2 mosques, the Eminönu Yeni Camii and the Sultanahmet Camii or Blue Mosque, so named because of the luminous blue impression created by the tiled walls and painted dome of the interior. We had to take our shoes off but they provided plastics bags that we could put them in and take them with us inside - just as well as there were so many people it would be hard to find your shoes again. I also had to wear a scarf (because of the Muslim religion), kindly loaned, like the skirt at Meteora.

The train was pretty packed on the way home but at least it wasn't raining on the walk home - it actually stopped raining after we bought a couple umbrellas in the city! After we got back, we took the computer, camera batteries, and phones down to the public toilets where Dave plugged the long lead into a power point inside the toilets. We sat on our chairs on the lovely big grassy park outside and had our drinks while charging everything up. As well as scabbing electricity we were able to scab the internet from the restaurant.

22-4-2012 Sunday
Caught the train again into the Sultanahmet and watched 3 Asian looking boats, next to the dock, cooking fish and putting them on a breadroll with lettuce and handing them over to someone on the dock to give to a paying customer. The funny thing was the boats were bouncing around as if the water was really rough but it wasnt, so we figured they were deliberately being bounced around somehow for affect - it looked good with them making up these fishburgers with the boats rolling around. There were lots of people fishing off the bridge which was strange to see in the middle of a big city. We hopped on a ferry which travels 1 and a half hours up the Bosphorus, the natural stretch of water that splits Istanbul in half, giving a European side (Ottamon) and an Asian side (Anatolian) to Istanbul. The Bosphorus stretches from the Marmara Sea in the south to the Black Sea in the north. It's no wonder that there was the big push in 1915 for the Allies to gain control of the Dardanelles, which leads from the Mediterranean Sea into the Marmara Sea, through the Bosphorus and into the Black Sea which would give direct access to another Ally, Russia. There were 5 stops between the first and last stop, where we had 2 hours to kill before the return journey. There were plenty of eateries, serving mostly seafood but as we had eaten, we made a steep climb of road and steps up to the ruined hilltop citadel called Yoros Castle. There wasn't much to see of the castle ruins but we had fantastic views of the Black Sea end of the Bosphorus. There were many big ships at both ends of this big strait, and plenty going out to the Black Sea.

One market we came across was plants and bulbs (to grow flowers) and animals - puppies, chickens, ducklings, peahens, quails, and even leeches, some quite large ones! That's the first time I'd seen that. The ferry ride filled most of our day. When we arrived back we went to the food market and bought some nice cheeses before walking to the train for the trip home. There seem to be plenty of spice shops with bags full of many different spices and the shops smell just wonderful. wonderful.


23-4-2012 Monday
Trained it again into the city and firstly saw the Basilica Cistern, a vast underground, atmospheric cistern which was filled with columns and held water not only for regular summer use but also for times of siege. It was built by Byzantine Emperor Justinianus between 527-565AD and has the capacity of 100,000 tonnes of water storage. Two large Medusa heads were used as the bases of 2 of the columns. It gets its name due to the fact that there was a Basilica on that spot at one time. There are 336 columns and walking around the pathways built over the water in the half light, was a bit eerie. There were goldfish and some much larger fish swimming around in there - large enough to get a couple of good fillets for dinner!

We then walked around Topkapi Palace which took quite a while as it is a big place. It was the lush seat of the sultans from 1462 until they moved to another palace in the 19th century. Topkapi is not just a single palace but a massive group of courtyards, houses and libraries, and it includes an intriguing 400 room harem, so we're told. We didn't line up for this one as we'd already lined up for tickets initially, then lined up again to go through another exhibit which was painfully slow, and the harem was yet another cost on top of the original ticket. There was enough to see in the rest of the place so we did just that. There was a Circumcision Room, so named naturally as the new Princes were circumcised in there. There were some rare blue Ottoman tiles on the walls in this room too, along with some inlaid mother-of-pearl internal doors. There were exhibits of the sultan's ceremonial robes; weaponry - very ornate swords, maces, rifles, etc; the Imperial Treasury with its incredible wealth of gold and gems (another display we didn't line up for); priceless porcelain, silverware and crystal, and calligraphy.

It was amazing how many carpet salesman came up to us, starting up a conversation, leading up to their sales pitch to come and see their shop. It was easy to tell them as they were very well dressed.