Troy and Assos- 12th April 2011

Georgie and I spent 4 super days down the Aegean coast, thanks to the wonderful organisation and hospitality of TJ from TJ's Tours at Eceabat.

We were collected by coach at 7am on April 11th from Eminonu wharf and driven to Eceabat which is on the western side of the Dardenelles. It is the closest town to Gallipoli. Here we began our 4 days with a Gallipoli Tour with guide Kenan who was extraordinarily knowledgeable and interesting. Blog post has been done about that.

After visiting Gallipoli, we caught a ferry across the Dardenelles to Canakkale. We stayed the night in a very nice hotel and enjoyed a typically Turkish breakfast the next morning. Bread, tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, hardboiled eggs and of course tea or coffee. We were collected by minibus the next morning and driven to Troy. Here we had a group of 15 with, again, an exceptionally knowledgeable and interesting guide. He added great humour to the story of Troy.

Cross section of the 9 levels of Troy

Walls of Troy (not sure what level)

 Troy ruins reveal history that runs from 4000 BC until 300 AD. The German "so-called" archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, many call him a thief, excavated much of Troy ruthlessly, in the 1870's, in search of Homer's Troy. He damaged the site immensely but did find a hoard of gold and silver which he took back to Germany- actually distracted the Turkish guards and sneaked it out of the country. His wife was adorned with the jewellry and can be seen in photos wearing it-

For any would-be stone masons,
 this is how the walls stayed up.
They had an extra corner
put in some blocks. See mid-left block.
Ingenious, apparently!!

The sacrificial area for both animal
and human.

Temple of Athena- amazing view
over the plains below which was
originally sea.

Example of the ruthless trenches
dug by Schliemann.

Pictorial cross-section of the 9
levels of Troy.

Theatre

Examples of marble columns.
Its just so hard to comprehend how
they could make these and
all the other stone and marble work
 without highly sophisticated tools.
Damn lot of hammering and
 chipping, I say!!!!

A reconstructed wooden horse, used by
 the Greeks to decieve and
ultimately vanquish the Trojans. 

After viewing Troy we were then driven to Assos by TJ and taken up to the Temple of Athena. An amazing view from the top. St Paul is reputed to have passed through Assos on his third biblical journey, and the town is referred to in the Acts of the Apostles.

Temple of Athena on the top of the
 mountain at Assos.

TJ the tour guide getting ready for some
base jumping from below the
Temple of Athena.

Aristotle founded a school of
philosophy here in 340 BC

Sitting by the Temple of Athena- Assos

After this we were treated to the BEST of regional cooking, having lunch at TJ's parents' home in Balabanli. This was EXCEPTIONAL. We had gozleme and home made yogurt which was "to die for"!!We were then driven around the district and in the evening, checked in to a beautiful hotel right on the water at the little seaside port.

Sheep in the fields around Assos

TJ (centre) and his parents in their
 back yard.

View from sitting room in TJ's parents'
house

View from hotel in Assos
. In the distance is the Greek island
of  Lesvos- apparently where the
word "lesbian" comes from as there
were communities of wommen
 living there in ancient times.

Looking back to our hotel (on right)
from the small rocky harbour



Georgie enjoying breakfast with one
of the "zillioins" of cats that roam
 Turkey!!

The seaside port of Assos is reportedly

the oldest harbour along this part of the coast.

 Little fishing boats go out each day and

 bring back their catch for the local hotels

and villagers.

Next instalment soon!!! I am very slow at updating!!! The formatting is a bit wonkey in my posts, I have a battle each time to try and get the photos where I want them, they don't want to co-operate sometimes!!!

Did you know tulips began in Turkey? Tulips at Emirgan Park- Out of this world

Saturday 23rd April 2011
Liz Coughlan and I decided to set out early for Emirgan Park. I had been told by some locals that the tulips are spectacular and that it would be crowded if it was a nice day. It was a nice day AND the tulips were spectacular.
We met at Kadikoy. Liz is a very keen amateur photographer and has an amazing camera with all attachments, I on the other hand have my trusty little Canon- thats why some of my shots aren't too good. (blame the tools!!)
We caught the ferry to Kabatas, the a bus all the way along the Bosphorus past the second bridge to Emirgan. We stopped for a cup of coffee before walking up to the park.

We were quite amazed at the beauty of so many tulips. They were in rows, in patterns, pictures and scenes.

Pots of food and women all seated
at the table

Many people mainly scarved women and children were arriving with bags of food, cookers and Turkish rugs. It was going to be crowded and it was only 10.30am! They were all setting up for brunch.

Putting on the tea. Very important!!!

The park is quite hilly which allows great views of the garden beds. Pictures will show more than my words could explain. There were so many different colours and many different types. Here are a few...

A lake of grape hyacinths,
bordered by tulips

These pink tulips were stunning

One of the several tea houses
 in the Park

These were my favourite.

Due to the prolonged cold weather
many trees had not come into leaf

Gallipoli

Monday April 11th 2011

Georgie and I caught the coach at Eminonu at 6.30am to travel 5 hours to Eceabat which is on the Western side of the Dardenelles, on the Gallipoli Peninsula. It was rainy, but scenery was beautiful once we left the city. There are many little areas of apartments just popping up everywhere along the way. So many houses and people!!

We arrived at Eceabat and were met by TJ who runs the tour company we were travellin with. he is Turkish, born and raised in the area so is very knowledgeable about Gallipoli and the whole area. He is married to an Australian from Corowa. They have a Turkish rest. there. She is in Aus running it at the moment.

Our Gallipoli guide- Kenan Celik OAM

We had lunch at his guest house and then set off on our tour of Gallipoli. We were honoured to have as our guide, Mr Kenan Celik OAM who is Turkish resident and expert on Gallipoli. He has lectured in Asutrslia and around the world on the subject and has taken people such as Bob Hawke, Quentin Bryce(last year when she was in Gallipoli) and many other famous people. He is a lovely man, very gentle and gave us a completely unbiased view of the whole campaign. he began with the whole history of why it all happened before we visited the sights.

Beach (Hell Spit) Cemetry

John Simpson Kirkpatrick

 Words cannot explain how one feels when visiting Gallipoli- One can only begin to imagine what it must have been like. It was freezing an drizzly the day we were there so, those poor soldiers on those bitter days.

View across Anzac Cove to the
beach where they landed

Schrapnel Valley Cemetry

                                                     The whole site is beautifully cared for and they were preparing forANZAC Day so there was lots of mowing, gardening, erecting grandstands, etc.

Anzac Cove

All I thought about was the futility of the whole exercise and the extraordinarily rugged terrain the soldiers and horses were expected to cross and survive in- unbelieveable!!

Standing where they landed- freezing

Setting up for ANZAC Day

Reading this makes you weep. Ataturk certainly was the saviour of Turkey- and they honour him so much today- and I really think rightly so.

Moving- the Mehmet carrying the Johnny
back to the allied trenches

Lone Pine

Trenches

The Nek- where the last battle was
fought- the trenches were only about
50 metres apart- if that.

Monument to Ataturk

The visit to Gallipoli was truly wonderful- there were many different Aussies from all walks of life. Some were looking for the graves of relatives- one girl on our tour found the grave she was looking for in Scrapnel Valley- the name says it all doesn't it? I am pleased I went before ANZAC Day as I think it is so crowded, but this time gave one time to think and look without the huge crowds. It was an emotional day but absolutely worthwhile. Just a shame we can't learn from it and have world peace.

Istanbul and the Bosphorus cruise- 10 April 2011

Georgie arrived in Istanbul on Saturday. Her flight was diverted from Sabiha Gocken airport, where I was waiting,due to massive thunderstorms, to Ataturk airport- 2 hours on the other side of town. With very limited phone contact, finally I got there, and luckily she was waiting. We got home at midnight- welcome to Turkey!! quite a stressful few hours- thunderstorms and rain, no contact- a lot of mental telepathy happening!.

Driving throught the narrow streets
you can literally reach out and touch the shops

 On Sunday we went on a sightseeing bus tour around the main part of the city, the old walled section, as well as along the Golden Horn. It was freezing in the partially open topped bus and at one stage began to hail- luckily the sides rolled down on the top deck! otherwise it would have been very breezy!

Part of the vast stretch of wall

 There is still much of the wall built by Theodosius II in 413!!! surrounding the old part of the city.

Church of Saint Stephen of the Bulgars
made completely of cast iron,, in Vienna in
1871 and shipped to Istanbul to be erected.
It was needed for the Bulgarian community.
It is still used by them today.

Part of the ancient wall

One of the amazing 2500 mosques that
dot the city skyline 

The modern day entrance through the ancient
city walls

After completing our wizz round Istanbul we then boarded ferry to take a cruise up the Bosphorus. There are day trips to the Black Sea and you can have lunch in a quaint little village, but we opted for the 2 hour criuse only as the day was cold and not condusive to sitting  eating fish in a little restaurant.

The cruise gave us a wonderful view of some of the beautiful buildings built along the Bosphorus by the Ottomans. We were also able to see the size of some of the vast container ships that sail to and from from the Black Sea countries.

Dolmabache Palace- built 1856
 by Ottoman Sultan

Sailing under the First Bosphorus Bridge-
connects East and West

Not sure what, but liked the look of it!

Looks a wee bit French to me!

Closer of Dolmabache Palace

Wouldn't be bad for a Summer house,
they like to leave the heat of the city then.

Daytime view from hotel terrace

Night time view from hotel

Blue mosque at night- very dodgey photo!!

Aya Sophia at night - also very dodgey photo

After our cruise on the Bosphorus, we stayed the night in a small hotel in Sultanahmet ( on the European side) because we were meeting our coach to take us to Gallipoli at 6.30 am on Monday. We had dinner in a lovely restaurant called Mozaic in Sultanahmet before walking back to our hotel. From the roof top terrace there was a wonderful view of part of the city and Bosphorus.

Got up early, caught the tram down the hill and set off on our 5 day trip down the Aegean. Next instalment not too far away.