Status: groggy
Lesson for the day: travelling in winter means you get a 6 person
carriage all to yourself for 20hrs
Author: Davina
While waiting for this very long train journey, without resturant car
or other passengers, to end I thought I would get on with bogging
about some of the places we have seen. We gave away our books and have
no access to wifi so you will need to excuse the spelling.
The most significant stop for me was Gallipoli. I have been brought up
with the stories and pictures of this war and to see them and to stand
there was very sombering.
We blew the budget and went on a tour. Which was the best way because
the sites are so far apart and you would need a detailed guide book,
map and hire car to do on your own. Our guide was Turkish and he
really knew his stuff, from both sides of the war. He had a really
good trick of asking the last person back on the bus a question about
what they just learnt. Needless to say we were on time.
We saw the beach on anzac cove where thousands landed on a beach 500m
long by 35m wide while being shot at. Simpsons grave - all Australians/
new zealanders will know who he is. We saw the rock the anzacs named
the sphinx. All the graves which were a laugh because they buried
thousands more in the cemetery but had no idea who they were. One
cemetery had 10 gravestones with 300 and something actually buried
there. And some of those had 'believed to be buried here' on them.
Also saw the site of the battle made famous on the gallipoli movie
where the main guy dies. All very sad when you find out they knew that
dying was a certainty but they were doing it because they thought it
was giving the English the diversion they needed to land and attack
behind the Turks. So while they were dying the English stopped because
they were waiting for the water to be delivered.
Inbetween learning about the Anzacs we learned about the Turks. There
was a reason it was called the gentlemans war. The troops on both
sides were so close that they sang songs for each other, swapped food,
water, letters and found a respect for each other that still stands
today.
When we went to the Turkish cemetery an old Muslim man visiting went
over to a kiwi and welcomed him to his country and started asking if
he had anyone who fought there. That is one thing about the Turkish.
Many times while walking down the street people would just stop us to
say welcome. While our mistrustful minds wants to know what they are
selling. It was a wonderful experience. And so beautiful. Every view
was stunning. The Turks have left gallipoli alone and while the
trenches are still there the trees have taken back what is theirs.
The next day we discovered that winter had come and we discovered this
the hard way. We went to Troy. Troy is famous as then scene for homers
Iliad and that god awful movie Troy. And one of the reasons it was
such a rich city was because it controlled the shipping in and out of
the black sea. Due to the area being so windy the man powered crew had
to wait at Troy for the wind to calm down. That meant money.
Well on this day we found out excatly what a problem the wind could
be. There are actually 9 cities of Troy. They kept being destroyed by
earth quake or fire or invasion but people kept rebuilding. Guess that
shows just how profitable the city was. The one of Iliads time was the
6th layer. And the site was very good at showing you the different
layers and how it interconnects. But we re on top of a hillock. And it
is windy. In the end we whipped round it and onto the bus.
Next stop was Istanbul and I will let si tell that story as I don't
want to relive it by writing about it.
The first stop was the blue mosque. From the outside an impressive
grey building. From the inside a beautiful, large echoy building
covered in blue tiles. Not blue though. Blue flowers and patterns
covering everying. And stain glass windows. Hard to describe and I
doubt the pictures do it justice.
Thinking we has seen the altimate building we went into the aya
sophia. Built by emperor Justinian 1500 yrs ago and coverted into a
mosque 800 yrs ago there is a real sence of Christianity and Islam
coming together. Originally the invading army covered over the
beautiful mosaics and now it is a museum they are slowly bringing out
the beautiful pictures of both religions.
Next stop was the underground water cistern. Built to hold the cities
water suply 1500 yrs ago. The interestig thing about it is the used up
old building materials so you have different styled columns all mixed
intogether and even a couple of large medusa heads being used to
support the smaller ones.
Sent from my iPhone
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