Turkey

Goodbye Turkey

Our last night, meeting for drinks on the roof, then our last little shop at the Markets and dinner with the group. We are off to Dubai 9am tomorrow to Leo and Eva, cant wait to see them, as well as their parents of course.

Weve had some long driving days, yesterday we left Canakkale,on 8 30am ferry,bus and all, crossed the Darsanelle Strait, to Eceabat. From there we visited all the important sites of the Gallipoli campaign,the NZ monument,the preserved trenches,Lone Pine and Anzac Cove. We had a Turkish guide for 3 hrs. All very moving, but what a terrible waste of young lives, on both sides of the conflict.

We had 61/2 hr trip to return to Istanbul, phew !! the traffic was slow slow, got almost to the hotel and the traffic cops diverted the bus, which took at least another 30mins longer. All very fascinating as we were not driving. The place seeths with people.

Lots to do today, some went to the Palace of the Sultan, and the Tile museum. We took the easy option, went to the aquarium and a huge mall, on the tram and the metro. Quite a challenge to recognise the right stop?? we were crammed in like sardines. As one of our guides put it “flesh on flesh” Couldnt smell any deodorant.

Sad to say goodbye to our bus driver Ali. He was always smiling and ready to answer our questions, when he eventually worked out what we were asking!! His english improved, our turkish is still non existant.

We will miss all the lovely olive complextions of the people, the best salemen,donar kebabs, the Red Turkey flag,and would love to return in the spring to see the thousands and thousands of acres of arable land we passed in full production.Olive trees everywhere with trunks as big as pine trees growing in amongst the rocks.