Gallipoli & Troy

(bye-bye Istanbul...)

On Sunday we had a 5 hour bus ride from Istanbul to Gallipoli. The bus was really nice (air conditioning, tea and ‘buscake’). One of the young Canadians on the tour had turned 18 the day before and she wasn’t feeling so great due to a late night of partying. She ended up throwing up into her friend’s lululemon bag full of snacks a couple times. I felt badly for her. Turns out, she’s super sweet but I will never look at a lululemon bag the same...

GALLIPOLI

(Lone-Pine Memorial)

We made it to Eceabat and after a meh lunch we got on a small private bus in order to tour the sites of Gallipoli. I really didn’t know much about these sites. The outline says that ‘this site is one of the more brutal campaigns of WW1 and is of major significance to New Zealanders , Australians and the British.’ It sounded quite horrific. If you want to know more, check it out here. A lot of the sites were located on just off the beach and it was so beautiful, it was hard to imagine a war taking place there. The water was calling all of our names.

(Our tour guide explaining about trench warfare)

(Turkish Cemetary)

(Beautiful views. We all wanted to swim)

After touring a lot of sites (I must admit, I’m not a war memorial enthusiast) in the burning sun, we grabbed our bags and hopped on a ferry to Cannakkale. We ate pide (aka pita)(aka Turkish pizza). It was good but not great. We walked to the grocery store and then stopped by the harbour to check out the model of the Trojan horse, which was used in the Brad Pitt movie, Troy (apparently filmed nearby).

(Pide with meat and cheese)

(Brad Pitt was possibly near this model horse. As I've never seen the movie, 'Troy' I just snapped a quick photo)

TROY

(I liked the city's logo)

(If you look really closely, you can see me waving from the window!)

The next day we took a short bus ride to the actual city of Troy. We took cheesy photos of the horse and then had a guided tour of the ruins. We learned about the various layers of towns which were built on top of each other and the importance of Troy’s location. Of course, we also learned a bit about the myths surrounding Troy and the Trojan war.

(Self-taken photo in front of Troy's walls)

(So yummy. I love the eggplant salad near the bottom. And all of the parsley. And the yogurts and dips for your bread....drool)

Another 5 hour bus ride got us to Selcuk. The town is small and beautiful. I really like just walking around it. We had a great bbq at the hotel and will use this town to explore the ruins of Ephesus. On our orientation walk, we saw the old aquaducts and the town's storks that make their nests in them.