The travels of Tim and Megan: Gallipoli, Turkey

Saturday: Istanbul, Turkey

On Saturday 20 August, after a very refreshing and relaxing two days in London at our friend Simon's place, we got up at some ungodly hour to catch a taxi out to Heathrow and fly to Istanbul. Our flight left at 7.10am and arrived in Istanbul at 12.50pm Turkish time.

We got a taxi from the airport into our hotel in Sultanahmet, the old town of Istanbul. The taxi driver was a complete loser - he told us it would cost 50 lira, when the airport information desk had suggested that we should pay no more than 30 lira. We insisted that he use the meter since he thought 30 lira was a ridiculous price. He used the meter and drove like a nutter all the way, speeding way over the limit, swerving all over the road and slamming on his brakes regularly - apparently this is normal in Turkey! Surprise, surprise, the meter read 33 lira when we arrived at the hotel. We gave him 35 lira and he snatched it from our hands and glared at us. Grrrr.

The hotel (Deniz Houses Hotel) was solid. Pretty basic, but in a good location. It was clean and had air conditioning and a shower - relative luxury after 5 weeks of camping and sleeping in a car. We rested at the hotel for a while and then set off to grab some lunch. We found a great little cafe just down the road, where we got a mixed meat and yogurt kebab (Tim) and hummus, flatbread and a crushed tomato salad (Megan). We then wandered around Sultanahmet, not achieving much as we had visited Istanbul before, for three days in 2008, so we had seen the sights we wanted to see and this trip was only really to see Gallipoli.

We got some photos by the famous Blue Mosque and Haghia Sophia, which were looking beautiful with flower gardens in the foreground and a bright blue sky background. We then walked along the main street to the Grand Bazaar market. It was just as we had remembered it and with no desire to purchase anything, we had a quick walk through and then headed back to the hotel.

We decided we should book our bus to Bulgaria in advance. This proved rather more difficult than it should have been. After finding the correct website with the help of our hotel receptionist, we went right through the booking process and were then thwarted at our attempt to pay for the tickets, as the website would not accept any of our credit cards. Of course, you cannot book or pay over the phone (that would be too easy) and all of the 55,000 travel agents in Sultanahmet told us that they were not affiliated with the particular bus companies that travel to Bulgaria, so they could not sell us tickets.

Almost three hours later, we managed to buy tickets at the only helpful travel agent in Turkey - so we would bus from Istanbul to Varna, Bulgaria on Monday morning - a 9-hour ride, we were told... With that sorted, we had a delicious dinner at a restaurant called Faros, on the main street and then walked back to our hotel. The city was absolutely buzzing - apparently it was Ramadan, which meant that after sunset, all the townsfolk came out and had dinner (mostly picnics on the grass etc) and there were concerts, buskers, market stalls, and all sorts to keep people amused. It was amazing.

Sunday: Gallipoli Day Tour
For what was neither the first nor the last time on this short trip to Turkey, we woke at a ridiculous hour, fumbled about in the dark, banging into walls and the like, showered, dressed and headed down to the hotel lobby, ready for our 6.15am tour pick-up. The tour left Istanbul at 7.00am (after many hotel pick-ups) and we drove west out of Istanbul and then south down the peninsula towards Gallipoli. The drive took around 5 hours, including two comfort stops.

Our first stop in Gallipoli was for lunch at a decent enough restaurant, where we ate soup, salad, kebabs, rice and chips etc. and sat next to an older Dutch couple, who were nice enough, but very Dutch. After lunch, we drove a short distance to the coast and had an explanation of the Gallipoli landing, what had taken place and what the Allied Forces were trying to achieve.

The most accepted story goes that the Anzacs were supposed to land at a patch of coastline that was flat, but through some navigational error, actually landed a couple of kilometres further along the coast, where they were met by massive steep rocky cliffs, which made them sitting ducks for the Turkish troops, perched high on the clifftops. There are counter-theories that suggest that the troops intentionally landed by the steep cliffs, as there were far greater numbers of Turkish soldiers waiting for them at the intended landing spot.

After our background talk from our tour guide, we visited a number of locations on the rugged peninsula, the first of which was the Lone Pine Cemetery. This was the site of an important battle and it is now one of the largest cemeteries at Gallipoli, where mainly Australian (and some New Zealand) troops are buried. It was extremely moving reading the messages on the gravestones of the men/boys (often as young as 18 and 19) who died there. Some messages were written by their mothers. It was tragic to see so many rows of gravestones - such a waste of lives.

There is a pine tree growing at the entrance to the Lone Pine cemetery, which was planted around 20 years ago from a cutting or seed of a pine tree situated in Australia, which was itself planted from a cutting or seed of a pine tree that was growing in Gallipoli during WWI, and had been taken back to Australia at the end of war to grow a remembrance tree in Australia for the fallen soldiers. That was pretty cool.

The next stop was the trenches, where the soldiers had fought for months, right next to Johnston's Jolly cemetery. The trenches were still clearly visible, although not as deep as they would have once been. We then visited a Turkish soldiers' cemetery, the only Turkish cemetery in that part of the peninsula. Sadly there were quite a lot of tacky souvenirs for sale at most of these sites, but it is amazing that the Turkish government has allowed all of these Anzac cemeteries and memorials to be maintained here, on their land, the land that foreign troops invaded.

A Turkish general who led the Turkish forces in WWI at Gallipoli, Ataturk, had claimed after the war had ended that all of the Anzac troops who died and were buried on the peninsula were now "at home", to be treated as no different to the Turkish troops who died in the battle. That is quite amazing.

We then visited the New Zealand memorial, which is on top of Chunuk Bair, the highest point of the peninsula. Apparently New Zealand and British troops took control of this peak, a very important strategic location on the peninsula, for a couple of days before losing it again, which is why the memorial is located here. It has stunning views down to the coastline where the Anzacs landed, and also across to the other coastline in the opposite direction, which is where they were trying to get to. Next to the New Zealand memorial is a massive statue of General Ataturk.

Our final stop was at Anzac Cove itself, the landing spot. There is now a memorial wall and some information plaques about the landing and this is where the Dawn Service is held every year on Anzac Day. We stood on the very beach where the troops had landed 96 years earlier and looked up at the massive steep cliffs that they had to attempt to climb. The beach is so beautiful and the place is so quiet and peaceful - it is difficult to understand what it must have been like for the troops running up the beach, under fire from the Turks. Around 120,000 men died at Gallipoli in total, around 80,000 of them Turks. There were approximately 8,500 Australian and 2,800 New Zealand casualties.

The tour guide we had was OK - we got the feeling that some of the information he gave us was a little dubious and things were poorly organised in parts, but you don't have a lot of choice for Gallipoli tours. We felt extremely privileged to have been able to visit Gallipoli and to see it from all of the different vantage points was a great way to help us understand how the battle had unfolded etc.

The drive back to Istanbul took about 5 hours, meaning that we got back to the hotel at 10.30pm, completely shattered. We had to do a little bit of arranging of our things and packing, because we had another early start coming up!

Monday: Bus to Bulgaria

We left the hotel at 7.45am and caught a taxi to the main bus station in Istanbul. Thankfully we found our bus, as there are literally hundreds of buses and dozens of different bus companies that operate from the huge bus station. We stocked up on some supplies for the long ride ahead. The bus was fairly comfortable and departed on time at 9.00am.

It was a fairly uneventful bus ride really, although two separate women threw up near us during the journey...thankfully they had little sick bags that were thrown out the door on to the roadside, keeping the bus impeccably clean and fresh smelling. We had a few refreshment stops along the way too and a border crossing, where Tim was almost left behind in the toilet on the Turkish side of the border. Not cool.

Once across the border into Bulgaria, the views improved significantly. We were treated to spectacular views of mountains, rivers and forests and eventually coastal views, as we drove north along the Black Sea coast towards Varna. We arrived in Varna at 5.45pm - country number 48 for Megan and 44 for Tim!