Turkey - Sunday 2nd October

The next day was the Istanbul day of the tour. We had a buffet breakfast at the hotel which was a random combination of about 8 different types of olives, tomatoes, cucumber, yoghurt and honey. It was perfectly nice though.

We started our exploring with a bus ride to the Sultan Ahemt Square. On the way Hussein told us a little bit about the background of Istanbul. It's a pretty amazing city, the only city to cover 2 continents, and during its long history, Istanbul has served as the capital of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Latin Empire and the Ottoman Empire. The population is 22 million people, half under the age of 25, which is staggering considering it was only 8 million 20 years ago!

We arrived at the Hippodrome and were instantly swarmed with guys trying to sell us guide books and postcards, this was to be a theme of the rest of the trip. The Hippodrome was a circus that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, Today it has only a few fragments of the original structure surviving, including some obelisks nicked from Egypt.

The Blue Mosque (named for it's blue tiles on the interior) was completed in 1616, and it's pretty massive. It was the first time either of us had been in a mosque and we were really struck with the amazing feeling of space inside the structure. The domes were stunning, particularly as they were built so long ago with antiquated building systems. Lou had to put a head scarf on and this sheet as she was wearing shorts and we both had to take our shoes off. Inside we were shown how Muslims pray, and were also told about some of the customs of Islam.

Next was Topkapi Palace where the Sultan and his crew lived, really beautiful mosaics with amazing sea views. Very very crowded which got a bit annoying, but we did manage to see the The Spoonmaker's Diamond which is a 86 carats pear-shaped diamond which is considered the pride of the Imperial Treasury exhibitions at the Topkapi Palace Museum and its most valuable single exhibit. Considered the fourth largest diamond of its kind in the world, it is kept under conditions of high security.

Pretty much straight across the road was the Hagia Sofia, which has been a basilica, a mosque and is now a museum. Famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the history of architecture", and it was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years. This was pretty spectacular, the colours, the architecture were outstanding, and considering that Istanbul is built on a fault line, amazing that it's still standing!

We were also told about the good luck trick where if you can stick your hand in this little circle and turn it all the way round and make a wish, it will come true. Lou is still waiting…

Praying for more time...

Next on our tour was the Basilica Cistern which is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city. This was pretty cool, the lighting and such made it look very eerie. Located in the northwest corner of the cistern, the bases of two columns reuse blocks carved with the visage of Medusa. Tradition has it that the blocks are oriented sideways and inverted in order to negate the power of the Gorgons' gaze, however it is widely thought that they were placed sideways and upside down only to be the proper size to support their columns.

According to popular myth, Medusa was the terrifying female creatures from Greek Mythology. Legend has it that Medusa, with her hair of snakes, could turn anyone who looked at her into stone, and therefore images of Gorgons were used to protect great buildings. Once we were done underground we were on our own for the rest of the day. We had lunch at one of the thousand kebab shops and were once again impressed with the food and the price!  

We decided to cross the continents and head over to Europe. We walked over the Bosphorous, past about 500 guys fishing without seeing any of them catch anything, and then had a freshly squeezed pomegranate juice, which was a little tart to be honest. The Galatta tower was next on the list, the nine-story tower is 66.90 meters tall and was the city's tallest structure when it was built. Basically its just a viewing platform, with a restaurant at the top, we got out onto the balcony bit and had a good nosey. Unfortunately the politeness of people waiting to walk round the tower was non existent so it turned into a bit of a stressful experience!

Nevertheless we got down, and continued exploring up the main drag on the European side. This was a lot longer walk than we thought but we plodded on. We passed heaps of shops and shoppers, there is no doubt that the Turks are a spending society! We made it to Taksim square which is considered the heart of modern Istanbul, and is the location of the Republic Monument, which was built in 1928 and commemorates the formation of the Turkish Republic. It was pretty cool, but the experience was dampened slightly by the Turkish men who were not shy about staring, and the little kids everywhere trying to sell us water. Got a tad annoying.  

We plodded back and got some sweet dusk shots in front of the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia, and made our way into the restaurant district where Lou made a decision and found a nice place to eat. We had some stew/eggplant/rice/Turkish bread combo which was pretty much the basis of all the meals we had in Turkey.

Home to bed, with an early wake up call planned.

Highlight: The amazing architecture of the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque, made you almost feel religious.
Lowlight: Underestimating the walk to Taksim….painful.
Interesting Fact: Turks get 35 annual leave days a year, and they have compulsory military service.

Turkey - Monday 3rd October

We began the drive south to Gallipoli early in the morning. Initially we were a bit skeptical about the long drives we had to do on this tour but we soon found out that they stop every hour – 90 mins for the driver to have a smoke. But it meant we got to try things like Turkish coffee and apple tea and all that so Lou was happy.

We stopped at the Gallipoli museum, which was a little bit disappointing to be honest. Just a bunch of photos really, but we did see examples of were 2 bullets had hit each other in the fierce fighting which was pretty cool. Then we hopped back on the bus and drove to Anzac Cove.

The bay itself is tiny, like actually tiny. The first thing you notice is the clarity of the water, it was so blue and crystal clear. It was a very peaceful spot, we meandered round and went to a few cermetaries which was really sad. Some of the soldiers were so young, and you just think they hopped on a boat from the other side of the world and had no idea what they were doing or where they were going, and then they died. We also saw where they hold the dawn service. It was such a lovely day it was hard to imagine the brutal fighting and bloodshed that happens all those years ago.

We then made our way up the hill to the Australian memorial, Lone Pine, named for the single pine by the monument. The tree was obliterated during the fighting, but at least two Australian soldiers took cones from it back to Australia, from which numerous commemorative trees have since been produced. A single pine tree was planted in the cemetery during its landscaping and enlargement in the 1920s.

Then slightly further up the hill we came across Chunnuk Bair, the NZ memorial. This was a very strategic point as it was on top of the hill and it changed hands numerous times during the war. The New Zealanders somehow managed to take this position despite the odds only to hand it over to the English who lost it the next day...

We had seen Gallipoli and were in quite somber moods to be honest. Next we boarded a car ferry which was going to take us across to Cammuakklae where we were staying the night. This was a cute little town with a beautiful harbor where we bought some drinks and snacks and watched the sun go down.

Excerpt from Mustafa Attaturk's thoughts on the ANZAC memorials

You, the mothers,
Who sent their sons from far away countries
Wipe away your tears,
Your sons are now lying in our bosom
And are in peace
After having lost their lives on this land they have
Become our sons as well

Highlight: Seeing Anzac cove, so stunningly beautiful but very eerie at the same time.
Lowlight: Seeing the "Boomerang Bar" on the way to Anzac cove, purely for the hordes of drunkards that come to the ANZAC service.
Interesting Fact: New Zealand writer Maurice Shadbolt produced a play Once on Chunuk Bair in 1982.

Turkey - Tuesday 4th October

Today was Troy day. The site where the ancient city of Troy used to stand is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. There is not that much to see, as archelogoists have only excavated 20% of the entire city! We must admit to not even knowing Troy existed let alone was in Turkey before our trip.
 
We did see some pretty incredible things, like the mound that the site is based around is only a mound as there have been 9 different cities built underneath it, and the fact that Troy used to be a coastal city and now the sediment has meant that the coastline is now 5kms away.

We also learned how the main discoverer of the site, Heinrich Schliemann destroyed a lot of the structures when he initially started excavating, not realizing what he was doing as he wasnt an archeologist just fan obsessed with finding the city. There was also a token Trojan Horse structure which Hamish really liked…

 

Back on the bus and on the road to Pergamon. This was on top of a massive hill and required us to get a wee cable car up to the top. At the top were the usual tourist shops set up, but these shop owners were really funny. Once they found out that we were mostly Kiwis and Aussies, they changed their tack and promised us that the quality of their products was "better than the Warehouse and K mart".

Pergamon became the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon during the Hellenistic period, under the Attalid dynasty, 281–133 BC. It is famous for the Hellenistic Theater with a seating capacity of 10,000, with the steepest seating of any known theater in the ancient world.

Pergamon's library on the Acropolis is one of the best in the ancient Greek civilization.When the Ptolemies stopped exporting papyrus, partly because of competitors and partly because of shortages, the Pergamenes invented a new substance to use in codices, called parchment. This was made of fine calfskin, a predecessor of vellum. The library at Pergamom was believed to contain 200,000 volumes, which Mark Antony later gave to Cleopatra as a wedding present, (not that he asked permission he just stole it).

Three kilometers south of the Acropolis, down in the valley, there was the Sanctuary of Asclepius (also known as the the god of healing). In this place people with health problems could bathe in the water of the sacred spring, and in the patients' dreams Asclepius would appear in a vision to tell them how to cure their illness. Archeology has found lots of gifts and dedications that people would make afterwards, such as small terracotta body parts, no doubt representing what had been healed.

We were roasting by the end of the day, so nice to be in the heat!

We had another long drive down the coast to where we were staying that night, in Kusadasi which is famous for being a cruise ship town. The sunset we were greeted with was simply stunning, and the hotel we were staying at was really nice as well.So we decided to pop to the supermarket and buy some local brew and sit on our balcony and watch the sun go down.

Highlight: Seeing these amazing pure white marble structures on a clear sunny day, quite spectacular. And the sunset in Kusadasi was pretty much up there as top 10 sunsets of all time.
Lowlight: The drives were starting to become a little tedious….
Interesting Fact: Schliemann discovered a bunch of gold jewellery which he named "Priam's Treasure". This publicity backfired when the Turkish government revoked Schliemann's permission to dig and sued him for a share of the gold. Collaborating with Calvert, Schliemann smuggled the treasure out of Turkey. He defended his "smuggling" in Turkey as an attempt to protect the items from corrupt local officials. Priam's Treasure today remains a subject of international dispute.