may 8 - easter continued

on april 21 we spent our morning at the beautiful calcium terraces in pammukale (where my camera sadly died; RIP) and paddled in the hot springs which was an amazing experience. the cliffs gave a really beautiful view of the turkish countryside and the surrounding towns; to sit on the terraces with our feet in hot running water and look out was...wow, amazing.

after pammukale we went to the ancient city of aphrodisias which was beautiful and we took loads of photos including one in a huge ampitheatre. typically, georgie and i got jumping photos and then went on to the beautiful seaside town of kusadasi. my reaction to kusadasi was almost ridiculous; on seeing the beach and the sea my heart skipped a beat, i was so excited. we dropped our bags off at the hotel and then spent an evening on the beach, eating magnums and relaxing before going out for a night with our tour bus, plus two other topdeck buses which were staying at the same hotel.

the next day we went to the ancient city of ephesus (yes, another ancient city - there are two more to come!) which was stunning, one of the highlights of the trip for me. the city has been really well preserved so we could really get a feel of what the city would have been like, including a walk through the "public toilets" where slaves used to have to sit in the winter to warm up the seats before their masters came in to use the loo! we were given free time to explore the ampitheatre in ephesus, and we saw a performance being put on for a norweigan tour group; and took some potentially-disrespectful-to-ancient-monuments photos with "skippy", the inflatable kangaroo we had somehow inherited while out the previous night. we all wound up soaking up the sun in the giant ampitheatre and were then whisked off to lunch where we could pay 15 lira for a buffet or bring our own food. we had decided that morning to bring our own food; so we settled down to a picnic of bread, banana and nutella; and crisp sandwiches washed down with water and juice boxes. after lunch to everyones surprise; the bus took us to a leather warehouse where the owner and his staff then put on a fashion show for us; showcasing the apparently "underappreciated" turkish leather industry. i found it a really uncomfortable experience as we had clearly been brought along as a western tour group expected to spend a lot....but i don't think anyone travelling with topdeck could afford to be spending $300 on a leather jacket that day!
that night we went out again although the night ended pretty early as we were all tired.

on april 23 we started off our day at pergamon; another ancient city which we had to ride a cable car to access. the city was really poorly preserved as the ottoman empire had made a deal with germany in the early 20th/late 19th century and they had thus claimed a large portion of the artefacts found in pergamon. it was very pretty and windy, apparently people used to come to pergamon to be "healed" by the wind. after pergamon we went to the island of junda, slightly off the coast of turkey and so pretty! yve, caitlin, rose, janet and i explored the markets on the seafront and then we were called back to our bus where we carried on to the delightful hotel where we spent the night. after taking a (cold) shower, we went to dinner which was, surprisingly, really nice, and then planned for an early night which didn't really work out too well as our rooms were draughty and even though turkey is warm during the day...it gets down to around 3 degrees at night!

we all rose bright and early on april 24, excited to be heading to gallipoli. on the bus we listened as our beloved tourguide tolga talked (and talked and talked) about the turkish perspective of WW1, which i think we all agreed was important but unfortunately tolga managed to make us all hate the very mention of turkey in WW1 by the end of our tour! before going to gallipoli we first stopped in troy where we took the obligatory photo with a replica of the trojan horse before we carried on to a giant supermarket to stock up on food for the next 24 hours. and stock up we did! georgie and i did well between us, meeting the guy who actually OWNED skippy the kangaroo and was looking desparately for him, and buying enough food to feed a small army. our bus pulled up to the gates of the gallipoli site around 3 in the afternoon and we began to crowd around but the gates themselves didn't open until almost 6pm. getting in to the actual site took a while, there were a couple of security checks that we had to pass through and then we had to collect a "welcome" bag and wristband before finding a place to set up camp. we got really lucky that georgie and kate had pushed way in front of us so they got a good spot which was probably too small for 7 people but we made do. when the sun started to go down it got cold quite quickly and everyone started layering up.
janet and i lay next to each other listening to music for a while  before we decided to try and sleep...
the night was passed eating at regular intervals to pass the time and attempting to sleep but as there were performances and presentations every 20-30 minutes which were blasted through the speakers; sleep was hard to come by. at 3am a video presentation of the ANZAC dawn service in  many cities around australia was broadcasted, (including townsville but not melbourne) and then at close to 5am; janet, georgie and i descended to closer to the barrier to try and get a good spot for the service itself.
the dawn service was....i can't even express the effect it had on me. everyone was in tears, it was a really powerful, beautiful thing to witness. the only slight irritation were the turkish site staff who had no respect at all for the occasion, talking and laughing loudly throughout the 2 minutes silence. i was blown away by the tragedy and scale of war; especially being on the beach where the ANZACS landed 96 years ago. boys as young as 14 and 15 were displayed on the screen as being killed on april 25, 1915.

after the service ended we began our walk up to lone pine for the australian service. georgie had bailed already, and the others fallen behind so kate and i took our time walking up the (steep) hill to lone pine; calling in at some of the cemetaries along the way and arriving at lone pine just after 9am. as far as i know, it was chosen as the site for the australian service as it was the location of one of the most gruesome battles seen in the entire gallipoli campaign; with 7000 people killed in a space the size of maybe...one and a bit tennis courts.

when the australian service ended georgie, kate and i continued another 3.5km uphill steeply to the new zealand service, but by the time we arrived we decided instead to set up camp on the grass and wait for the rest of our bus to arrive. when we had all gathered we had to wait for our bus number to be called and then it was back on the bus to istanbul! on the ride back we watched eurotrip, took bets on what time we would pull in to our hotel and i think EVERYONE slept for a couple of hours. literally a minute after we had walked in to the hotel we decided to go to bed and took turns showering before getting a good oh...13 hours?

the next day we visited the grand bazaar again and did some more site seeing; kate eventually took off for her flight back to england and we took it pretty easy for the evening; attempting to go out for a final nights drinks with the other members of our tour, but ended up returning to our hotel pretty early.

rose, georgie and i had one more day in istanbul which we spent really bonding and drinking A LOT of apple tea and eating baklava. our taxi ride out to the airport took a turn for the terrifying when our driver decided to race the other taxis on the road and we could see the speedometer inching over 130km...
still we made it home safely and spent a couple of days together in peace before the other girls got back.

amazing holiday. life changing experience. just wow. just...wow.