The Turkey tour starts…

I woke up to another beautiful day. After enjoying a leisurely breakfast, I retired to my room considering my options for today- go on a cruise of the Bosphorus or return to bed for a nap. I was contemplating this when the phone rang and it was reception saying I had to vacate my lovely loft room and move to another shared room. I had just washed socks and undies and had my gear strewn around the room. I thought I had another two nights here! Fortunately, the assigned room was just down the hall so I packed up quickly and moved to my new room.

After all of this exertion, I decided I needed a massage so headed down to the basement to see if Leila was available. First, the sauna beckoned, which I shared with a Turkish guy and a Japanese girl with whom I chatted and helped to pass the time before my massage. Then the blissful massage! My legs were quite sore to begin with, but Leila massaged the tightness away. I then thought a little exercise was in order so I went for a swim in the heated pool. Ah, lovely!

Then back to my new room to shower and wash my hair. It was a triple room. I had been wishing for company, and here I was sharing a room with not just one, but two, others! There were three single beds but no room between them, so I chose the one next to the window, which had a bedside table and a chair. Claire, a lovely South African girl who has been living and working in London for the past 4 years, was the next arrival, so she chose the bed on the opposite side which also had a bedside table. Claire and I headed out to an early dinner to the restaurant Yavuz had recommended. I had tomato soup and iskender and Ayran, and Claire ordered a less adventurous pizza and coke, followed by cappuccino for Claire and Turkish tea for me. The total was 51 Turkish lira (about 17 euro). We headed back to the hotel to meet the rest of our group, and then to bed. Our third occupant arrived from Edinburgh. Poor Amanda was stuck with the middle bed. She’s an Aussie on a 2-year work visa for the UK.  We all managed to get to sleep and stay asleep most of the night.

Next morning, we woke, showered, breakfasted, and met everyone in the lobby. We’d all introduced ourselves last night; a lot of teachers and retired teachers, and a lot of Aussies, Kiwis and South Africans living and working in the UK. Why, oh why, don’t I have a British grandparent? It’s all you need!

There are 19 of us in all, (which is why there’s one triple room) and we headed off to Aya Sofia, which is not far from our hotel. It used to be a Christian church but was turned into a mosque at some time a few centuries ago. We were supposed to go to Topkapi Palace but it’s closed on Tuesdays. Faruk, our guide, can talk underwater, and I’d had enough after an hour. Just standing round listening is not my idea of fun. We had audios to listen to him but it was easier to stay close and listen to his actual voice instead of his microphone voice.  As we came out we had to return the audios and earphones. I couldn’t see where to return them so asked the security guy who motioned to a small room so I opened the door and put mine in there. As we assembled outside, Faruk said there had only been 18 returned to the table. I said, “What table?” Apparently there was a table on which they were to be placed. First strike for me!

We were there so long we missed the entry time for the Blue Mosque and had to wait until after 12 noon prayers had finished. We stood in the middle of what used to be the Hippodrome with the icy wind blowing straight through us. I don’t know why we couldn’t go to a warm spot out of the wind and listen to its history. I hate all this standing around! After a quick visit to the Blue Mosque (we had to take off our shoes and put them in a plastic bag, walk through the rear end of the mosque, and then put our shoes back on), we headed to the Pudding Shop for a late lunch. I had potato and meatballs and my favourite Ayran to drink.

Faruk was sending some people to the Basilica Cisterns and some to the Grand Bazaar, neither of which I wanted to walk to, so I found my own way back to the hotel with the intention of catching up with my blog, but promptly feel asleep. I woke when Claire came in and invited me up to the rooftop to share Dave and Nicki’s whisky. I didn’t need time to think about that! It was lovely on the roof watching the sun go down whilst sipping a glass or two of Jameson’s!  I had arranged to meet Margot and her daughter Carmel for dinner at 6, and Dave and Nicki and Amanda decided to join us. They were not impressed with the restaurant Faruk had taken them to the first night- it was expensive, and not very nice and a tiny beer cost 15 lira! So round the corner we went to the same restaurant Claire and I had eaten at the first night. Claire had decided to wash her hair and skip dinner. The dinner was delicious again. I had the tomato soup again, and adana kebab, and we shared a huge Turkish pide, as well. Of course, I had the Ayran again, and convinced Margot and Dave to try it too.

Off to bed as we have a very early start in the morning. Of course I couldn’t go to sleep as I knew I had to be awake at 5am, breakfast at 6am, and on the bus at 7. Well, that was the plan. There was some sort of problem with the bus, and at 7.30, Faruk arrived and walked us down to the station to load our suitcases onto the bus. Faruk grabbed Margot’s suitcase, so she very kindly grabbed mine as I was struggling with my heavy backpack and my Thai bag with boots in it as well, (in case it got cold and wet). Finally, we were on the bus and off to Gallipoli.

We had one toilet stop on the way and I bought an iced coffee and a water to keep me going. Our first interesting stop was the entrance to the Gallipoli battlegrounds where we were greeted by half a dozen quite healthy looking dogs, including one very cute little puppy. Then off to Anzac Cove. What a military disaster that was, and all because they landed at the worst possible place, with huge cliffs overhanging the beach. I was amazed by the enormous number of soldiers from both sides, who died here during the 8- month campaign. 87,000 Turks and 8,709 Australians lost their lives here, also British, New Zealanders, French and Newfoundlanders. There were dozens of cemeteries. After Anzac Cove, where we all the Aussies and Kiwis posed for a photo, we visited a few of the dozens of cemeteries of both the Allied and Turkish troops. I found Lone Pine to be particularly sad.

It was after 3 o’clock when we headed down to the coast to catch the ferry across to Canukkale. But first, lunch! There was a lovely fish restaurant right on the sea where we ordered fish and chips, or in my case, calamari and chips. It was served with a delicious rice and tartare sauce. I ordered a beer (Efes, of course) but a 500ml bottle was too much for me so I poured a glass and gave the rest to Dave who shared it with John.

Our group walked down to the ferry terminal and walked aboard, climbed the stairs and took photos of the beautiful sunset, then made our way inside, as it was quite nippy out on the deck. We hopped back on the bus to drive off the ferry, and went to see the wooden horse used in the film ’Troy” and then to check in to our hotel for the night, the Anzac Hotel.

Once again, Amanda and Claire and I were assigned the triple room. I reiterated to Faruk that we had all paid for twin share, not triple share! He came up to see our room and agreed it was too small for 3 to share. (It was bigger than our room in Istanbul- at least you could walk between the beds!) So Claire was given a room to herself for the night, leaving Amanda and I quite comfortable in our room. Amanda headed out to explore while I showered. I felt really grotty from traipsing round the countryside and patting any number of stray dogs. I did intend to put on fresh clothes and head out too, but my pyjamas were close at hand, so put them on and hopped into bed, forsaking food for comfort. I was quite prepared to wait until breakfast but Amanda discovered room service so I ordered a scrumptious Canukkale halva and Ayran. I hope they have it for breakfast too!