Trenches and Trojans

We arrived Canakkale at 9pm and decided not to bother the couchsufer girl yet, so we stayed one night at Anzac guest house. We were tired, so after organising our Gallipoli tour for tomorrow we hit the sack.

Sunday 12th July

We headed out for our all-day Gallipoli tour with a tour guide who had a lisp (on top of a strong Turkish accent!), the private boat took us over the Dardanelles to the villiage of Ecebeat where we had an early lunch. Next we headed to the museum which was actually quite interesting (when we saw the building Nick said 'what can we do in there for 45 minutes?' it is quite small) but it was packed with translated letters and photos and old uniforms and things that the villagers around have found and handed in at the museum. There were these bullets that have hit each other and meld together to make this 'Franken-bullet' it was great!


Nick at ANZAC cove (its smaller than i imagined)

Next we saw Helles Spit and ANZAC cove and we were showed the resting place of John Simpson (Simpson and his Donkey) and told the well known stories of how he moved wounded men off the battlefield under heavy fire. What I didn't know was that he lived in Newcastle!! After England and before Gallipoli of course. After this we headed up to see 'Lone Pine' (where the Aussie memorial is- we took some pine seeds and will try to plant them at home), lots of trenches, and the 'Neck'. We also saw the Turkish memorial site (this was the busiest apparently nearly every family in Turkey has someone who died at Gallipoli, this is because they had lots of people, but no bullets, sometimes only 5 bullets per day, then the soldier had to fight with his bayonet). Next was Chunuk Bair (where the Kiwi memorial is). The Kiwis were the only regiment to break through and make it to this all important spot at the top of the hill and this is why their memorial is there. Chunuk Bair was supposed to be where the Allies would get on the first day, after 1.5 hours the ANZACS were half way there and in the whole rest of the campaign didn't get much further (no thanks to those bad decision making Brits who were in charge!!). Overall the star of the tour had to be Ataturk, he was only outshone by the endless stories of the mateship between the Turks and the ANZACS. If it weren't for good ol Ataturk, Winston Churchill probably would have been having dinner in Istanbul that evening as he'd foolishly predicted. Our tour guide was pretty good. He enjoyed making fun of British people and there was only one on the tour so he wasn't speaking up :)

ANZAC cove
Simpsons grave
Very cool speech made by Ataturk... read it if you can :)




The Lone Pine
A communications tunnel
Nick checking out the trenches.

Afternoon sun in Cannakale harbour
Sun set.
Hanging out with Ayse, her friends and the czech couchsurfers. ( the guy next to me is a turkish version of Jonno Edwards - it was really wierd)

After the boat trip back to Canakkale we met up with the irrespressible Ayse, our couchsurfing host. We found out that for the summer she is selling tours! We were like 'Oh we could've bought one off you'!! But she didn't mind because she's an intern and doesn't get paid anyway. Ayse was very bubbly and friendly and instantly she made us feel at home. All her flatmates have left for the summer so she has two spare bedrooms, so she is planning to host lots of people over the summer. I walked with her to the bus station to pick up some more couchsurfers, a Czech couple from Prague, then her friends came over and she cooked us a delicious Turkish specialty stuffed peppers (we'd also had these at Toyguns). Her friends were really nice and we spent the evening chatting and we scared them all with Shark stories from Australia. You should have seen some of their faces, I think they're scared off for life!
The Delicious Dolmades Ayse made.
Ayse, a turkish girl that we bunked with in Cannakale, the best !!!

Monday 13th July

We had a quiet morning and then lunch by the water in Canakkale. It has a really pretty waterfront marina area with cafes and restaurants. They also have a massive statue of the Trojan horse, reputedly the one from the movie Troy, i.e. Brad Pitt has touched it. We looked at that and the interesting model of the city of Troy and decided we didn't need to go to the actual ruins of Troy now :) We went to a cafe had little cups of Cay (pronounced Chai, like Indian Tea!!!) and then we spent a few hours walking around checking out Canakkale. Next we made for Carrefour (the supermarket) :) Nick was planning to cook for everyone tonight so we got the supplies and headed back to make a start. Nick made Meatballs in Tomato sauce on penne and I made my version of the Bulgarian Shopska salad. It was fun and soon Ayse arrived with another couchsurfer, Ryan from Canada. Ayse and all us couchsurfers had dinner and it was delicious! And then we all headed out to a 'traditional Turkish bar' with a live Turkish band (who took requests) and cushions on the floor and water pipes and dancing... actually not many people were dancing but Ayse and the Czech couple danced while Ryan and I politely refused.

Oooh I forgot about this guy... his rabbits told your future :) well the black one did, the white one was a prop...
Tuesday 14th

We had a the morning enjoying Canakkale then we got on another long bus ride to Selcuk home of..... da daaaaa Ancient Ephesus!!!