{"id":110,"date":"2011-05-16T07:53:26","date_gmt":"2011-05-15T19:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/?p=110"},"modified":"2011-05-16T07:54:18","modified_gmt":"2011-05-15T19:54:18","slug":"turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/2011\/05\/16\/turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday 13th<\/sup> May \u2013 A change of Countries<\/strong><\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t need to get up too early this morning as our plane was not until 2pm. However I\u2019m not used to sleeping in so was awake by 6.30 and this was a good chance to catch up with the blog for the last three days.\u00a0 We had another really nice breakfast and I managed to get my blog on line, even although I had Ngaire nagging me she wanted to go and I had said 10.30 we were out the door by 10.45.\u00a0 I did notice only half the blog went up and I had to reload it at the airport.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t want to pay the E6 for ringing a taxi so we started walking towards the square.\u00a0 We managed to get a young taxi driver to pick us up after about five minutes.\u00a0 He was interesting and explained about the hardships for the young people.\u00a0 No money and hard to get a job, he was getting on a very good day a max of E50.\u00a0 He and his fianc\u00e9 were hoping to immigrate to Melbourne in three or four months.\u00a0 We were at the airport with heaps of time and checked in.\u00a0 A bit boring hanging around an airport but they did have free wi-fi so bearable.\u00a0 We were nearly half an hour late getting away after being bussed to the plane, an Airbus A319-100.<\/p>\n

We were in Turkey by 3.45, getting a permit for Margaret was a breeze and cost E15.\u00a0 Customs in this part of the world has been a non event you just walk straight out after emigration and picking up your bags.\u00a0 The Trafalgar rep picked us up as we walked out and placed us in a spot while he found some more customers and put us all on a mini bus.\u00a0 An interesting ride into the city with heaps of traffic and at one point a car skidding to a stop beside us.\u00a0 For a long part of the trip they had a dedicated bus lane in the middle with those bending Mercedes buses stacked to the gunnels with people.\u00a0 Some of the buses were extra long with two swivel bits. \u00a0As seems to be the way we dropped all these others off at flash hotels before getting to our own, the Holiday Inn.\u00a0 Renee I know you didn\u2019t pick this for us but if you had you would have got a 12.\u00a0 Although it didn\u2019t look much from outside for us peasants it was like a palace, huge inter connecting rooms,\u00a0 a shower that was probably bigger than eight times the size of Mykonos, a flat screen TV (our first) with heaps of English speaking channels.\u00a0 We were in heaven and just relaxed until our 7 o\u2019clock Tour Briefing.<\/p>\n

At our briefing we met a wide assortment of people, no Kiwi\u2019s that we have picked up on yet.\u00a0 Our tour guide seems like she is going to be a fun person and seems to have a good knowledge so all looks good.\u00a0 Doug is not the oldest and the ages are up there but there did appear to be a lot of humour in the room so all bodes well.<\/p>\n

Doug wasn\u2019t feeling so well so he headed off to bed while the girls and I went off to find something to eat.\u00a0 We found a huge mall where we went through scanners before we were allowed in.\u00a0 There were about eight floors of higher class shops, the top one being all food places and of course with such a selection choosing something became difficult.\u00a0 We settled for these thin pizza based things with a small amount of meat and other stuff all with a Turkish name I can\u2019t remember.<\/p>\n

We browsed around the mall and then back to our palace.<\/p>\n

Saturday 14th<\/sup> May \u2013 First day and off to Gallipoli<\/strong><\/p>\n

After a 6.30 wake-up call and a hearty breakfast with a selection so large and yummy looking it was difficult to make choices we are on the bus and off.\u00a0 Istanbul is a hustling bustling city with traffic jams and horns blowing and it takes us a while to be clear of the city.\u00a0 We have a four and a half hour bus ride to lunch.\u00a0 We could have almost been driving through New Zealand country side as it was lush and green with fields of different colours.\u00a0 The yellow field were a bit different apparently they were canola plants for which you make the oil.<\/p>\n

Lunch was a roadside caf\u00e9 and ok.\u00a0 It was a bit like lining up in a work cafeteria (when we used to have them), you pointed at what you wanted and they slopped it on a plate for you.<\/p>\n

We were then off to ANZAC Cove.\u00a0 Now I didn\u2019t think I was that emotional but I did find a tear coming to my eye more than once as you begin to chock up.\u00a0 You did really did have to wonder what our boys were doing here dying on the other side of the world from their loved ones.\u00a0 It was a beautiful place, quiet and a beautiful sunny day, so peaceful but there was nothing here to fight over.<\/p>\n

This place is also seen by the Turks as their birth place,\u00a0 Obviously they won this battle and their commander who incidentally had been hit by a bullet but survived because it hit his pocket watch by his heart became a super national hero and went on to be responsible for Turkey becoming an independent Republic.\u00a0 Ataturk\u2019s photo apparently is in every house in the country and they worship him.\u00a0 He had no blood line and no one is allowed to take his name as a family name.\u00a0 I get the feeling we will be hearing a lot more of him even although he died in 1938.\u00a0 We went from the cove up to Lone Pine Cemetery, the monument erected by the Aussies.\u00a0 I was surprised to find the Kiwi names on the side of this monument where the Aussie names were on a wall in front of it.\u00a0 There were many gravestones around the monument.\u00a0 I am definitely going to have to do a bit of research around what actually happened here.<\/p>\n

Well we are starting to understand the tourist season.\u00a0 As we drove up to the top of the hill where the Turkish monument is there are buses for Africa.\u00a0 There must have been 100 or more and of course a parking nightmare.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I would like to be here on ANZAC day, well I would really but it will be a traffic nightmare.\u00a0 I was surprised to find a huge New Zealand monument right next to Ataturk\u2019s.\u00a0 There were also a few reconstructed trenches.<\/p>\n

I think this is a place that all Kiwi\u2019s should make the effort to visit at sometime in their life.\u00a0 I just wish I had more time it had all been very rushed.<\/p>\n

We were on the bus and off to catch the ferry across the Dardanelles to Canakkale.\u00a0 Again a pile of buses waiting for the ferry.\u00a0 We got on the second ferry, an old dungier but it was only a 30 minute trip, smooth and picturesque<\/p>\n

Off the ferry and a 15 minute ride to our 5 Star Hotel, the Kolin, it was nice but not up to the standard of the night before.\u00a0 I think they were swamped by tourist buses.\u00a0 It was out of town so nowhere to walk to except a K Mart type shop across the road.\u00a0 They have a funny law in Turkey, apparently you are not allowed to take food or drink into a hotel.\u00a0 After going down to the bar and finding the cost of a beer was 11 Lira we decided we were going to be criminals.\u00a0 We visited the shop across the road and stowed a large bottle of wine in Margaret\u2019s handbag.\u00a0 Suddenly realised that these handbags that Margaret buys are good for something.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s a drink in our room before dinner at seven.<\/p>\n

Dinner is a Buffet with a fine selection of good food especially the meringues which one managed to find its way onto my plate for each round.\u00a0 After dinner while the girls went exploring I went to investigate what a Turkish bath was and decided to indulge.\u00a0 It was really great and highly recommended.\u00a0 A sauna before a really vigorous scrub down with a course mitt, then covered in smelly soapy stuff\u00a0 with a bit of a massage and a slop down to clean all the soap off.<\/p>\n

I slept like a baby.<\/p>\n

Sunday 14th<\/sup> \u2013 Day 2 Canakkale \u2013 Troy \u2013 Izmir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another 6.30 wake up call but because of all the buses at the hotel we needed our bags outside the door by seven this morning before heading down to breakfast.\u00a0 It was bedlam with so many people but we did manage to get in a good breakfast before piling on the bus.\u00a0 We took off 1 passenger short and had to stop on the road while someone went back to find her.<\/p>\n

Troy was not to far away and we were about the third bus there.\u00a0 Well an even messier big pile of rocks.\u00a0 Apparently Troy had been built over the top of ten times so that seemed to be the theme.\u00a0 Troy is credited with having the first ramp in the world.\u00a0 Can someone check that out for me please?\u00a0 For those of us that had been brought up on the myths of Troy this place was a disappointment.\u00a0 They blamed this German bloke Schilman for going in there and breaking all excavation rules and just digging a big trench as he searched for the treasure of one of the kings of Troy.\u00a0 Sounded like another excuse to me and was typical of what we had been seeing in Greece where they didn\u2019t really appreciate what they had.\u00a0 They did have a replica of the horse but it was that big it would never have fitted down any of the streets.\u00a0 They were apparently questioning whether the ten year Troy war was another myth.\u00a0 The whole experience is about myths so not a problem.<\/p>\n

We were in the bus and a three and a half hour ride to lunch.\u00a0 Lunch was really nice with me having a Lamb Kebab which looked nothing like I expected and was really nice.\u00a0 The others had Turkish pizza which is not round like an Italian one but more in a boat shape cooked in a wood fired oven and again really nice.\u00a0 I know this because I ate some.\u00a0 Next stop was a visit to the Asclepion Medical Centre a pre Roman Hospital where it sound like if you were to sick they wouldn\u2019t let you in. \u00a0It sounded more like it was a mental hospital.\u00a0 It had a theatre, tunnels, covered walk way and stuff.\u00a0 At the end of the day just another pile of rocks but I found it quite interesting.\u00a0 You could see an Acropolis way up on the hill a couple of kilometres away.\u00a0 Our guide, Gokce, pronounced \u201cgot chee\u201d said they think they have discovered a tunnel between the two but yet to be confirmed.\u00a0 That would be impressive if there is.<\/p>\n

It was only about an hour to our hotel from here with a nice drive around the coast.\u00a0 The hotel, Swissotel was right in the middle of Izmar and pretty flash, 5 star apparently.\u00a0 I will only give it 11 points as the buffet selection let it down a bit and the room was a bit small, but a bath and a shower and a few other modern bells and whistles.\u00a0 Gokce said if we had come in privately it would have been over 500 lire.\u00a0 Izmar was Gokce\u2019s home town and apparently renown for its beautiful women.<\/p>\n

Before dinner we went out and walked down the promenade and found a bar with outdoor seating for some beer and wine.\u00a0 A 750 ml cost us 7 lire here and a smaller beer at the hotel was 15 lire.\u00a0 This was Sunday evening and there were 100\u2019s of people out walking the promenade.\u00a0 For 10 lire we could have had a puff on one of these Turkish pipes but the guy couldn\u2019t tell me what we would be smoking.<\/p>\n

No Turkish bath tonight.\u00a0 It was too late<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday 13th May \u2013 A change of Countries We didn\u2019t need to get up too early this morning as our plane was not until 2pm. However I\u2019m not used to sleeping in so was awake by 6.30 and this was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions\/112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}