We had a fairly long drive day from Bulgaria to Turkey and on to Istanbul where we were staying for a few days. But when we arrived in Istanbul I fell in love immediately. We parked up the truck and then had to grab all our stuff and hike up a VERY steep hill to get to our hostel....yes I said hostel....we were getting 4 whole nights in a BED!!!! Once we all got sorted into our rooms we headed up to the rooftop terrace of the hostel and the view was breathtaking. We were right in between the Blue Mosque and the Red Mosque, the two buildings that pretty much define the Istanbul skyline...and from the other side of the terrace we had a view out over the whole harbour. We had a few drinks and some food and the staff brought us out a few shishas. Of course I thought it would be rude not to give the local culture a try so I tried my first shisha...yes something that for a year in Berlin people could not convince me to try I tried after 2 weeks with this lot!! Was actually quite good fun! After awhile we all headed off to our lovely comfortable beds!! We have a few snorers in the group and we had one in our room so we all had a bit of a giggle while trying to get to sleep....Ipods at the ready that night!!
Next morning we got up early to head to the Iranian Embassy to apply for our visas. It was the first time us girls had to put on our headscarves and it felt so weird. Luckily the whole process didn’t take as long as we thought it was going to and we were out of there and scarf free again by about 11. We then all had to head up to the truck to take out our tents and dry them out. They were all soaking after another wet night in Bulgaria and because we were in the hostel for a few nights we couldn’t leave them sitting in the locker for the few days. When we had parked up the truck the night before the park was empty but when we went back down the next day it was full of coaches. And so the battle for space began! It was quite difficult to pitch 20 tents while fighting for space among a few dozen coaches. Some of us headed up to the roof of the truck to shake out the tents which worked a charm! While this was going on Greg and Dee were changing the front tires of the truck....which drew a crowd of coach drivers to have a look at this Irish girl changing two tires on a massive truck! Once all the jobs were done and tents were dry it was time to head off for some exploring. First place we went to were the Ancient Cisterns, which were pretty cool the way they were all lit up. After awhile in there we headed back outside and went across to the Blue Mosque. It is still a working Mosque so felt a bit weird to go in and visit while people were praying but it was cool to see it all the same. We then headed back to the hostel to relax and have a bit of a nap before going out that night as it was hen and stag party night.
The hen and stag party was great fun. We met in the hostel bar and got the bride and groom all dressed up. Kev got a lovely veil and both of them got lovely L plates to stick on them. It was quite funny as everyone else in the bar was looking on with the most confused looks on their faces trying to figure out why the hell we were dressing a big bloke up as a bride. We did try to explain the situation but the looks went from complete confusion to a look of complete loopers! Once all the dress up was done and we got a few pictures we headed out for dinner to a lovely Turkish restaurant. The food was amazing and we all shut up for awhile when it arrived! Again the waiters wanted an explanation as to why most of the men in the group had pretty white bows on their wrists...once again the explanation wasn’t totally understood! When we were finished eating we then went back to the hostel bar to finish off the party. It was 2oclock by the time us last stragglers went to bed...and that was pretty much cause the bar shut and they kicked us out...luckily we didn’t have to go too far to get ourselves home for the night!
Next morning we had a bit of a lie in and had a slow start to the day. Once we managed to move ourselves out of the bed...which took a lot longer than you would imagine between the 5 of us, we headed off to the Grand Bazaar. Bloody hell it was massive! Every corner we turned brought us into a whole other maze of shops selling pretty much anything you could possibly want!! At this stage then hangovers that were lingering started to take hold so we gave up at our attempt to shop and headed off for some food. Then we had a long walk around Istanbul taking it all in. We walked up to the University first then just wandered random streets...one of which was a road that was full of shops that sold belt buckles...and that was it!! There was just belt buckle upon belt buckle displayed in the windows...and shop after shop of the same thing! We eventually made it down to the river front and decided to walk along it to get back to the hostel. I didn’t realise how far we had walked til I had a look at the map later that day and it was a fair way! One of the funniest things of the Istanbul stop happened on this walk. On the drive into Istanbul we drove past a statue which had a rather gay looking pose! When we came across the statue again on our walk Joe, Andy and Kev decided to play homage to the statue and struck up a pose in front of the statue. We told them they needed to stick their hips out further and in perfect unison they all swung it out! It was a moment of pure hilarity and kept us girls laughing for a good while. That night back at the hostel we had a little surprise party for Big Kev for his birthday! He got a lovely cake and cocktail and there was shishas everywhere for the occasion. We headed out for food then and got a fairly early night after that.
Next morning we got up a bit earlier than the previous day and headed out to see some more of the sights. Some people headed to the Red Mosque which is a museum but I decided to head up to the Palace. It was really nice and reminded me a lot of the palaces I had seen in Korea. It was a bit uncomfortable though as it was also set up as a museum and it was like a bloody cattle market! They had barriers up going through most of the display rooms and it was a one way system the whole way. Once one person stopped to read some information about whatever shiny thing was being displayed it held up everyone behind them! Most of you know I am not the most patient of people at times...and this was one of those times! I skimmed through the different rooms, dodging past large groups of people to get out! After doing this through a few rooms I got to some display areas where the crowds hadn’t reached and took my time in there. One of the funny things I noticed about the museum was that on the information cards they seemed to favour using the phrase “thought to have belonged to....” Seemed funny to me that they didn’t actually know where all these apparently really important artefacts came from. For example in the room that displayed the Sultan’s clothes all the cards used the phrase....what happens if none of the kaftans on display actually belonged to a sultan...kind of false advertising sticking them in the Sultan’s clothes room!! Anyway rant over! Once I was finished at the Palace I went to meet up with the others....which proved more difficult that I though as I had to try find them in the Grand Bazaar...got there eventually though and then it was lunch time...with a hunt on to find meat on a stick!! After that we headed back to the hostel and spent some time on the internet and relaxing and getting ourselves packed up and ready to leave early the next morning.
The next day was the start of our Anzac Day adventure. I will be totally honest and say I had never even heard of Anzac Day before! But by the power of Google I had found out what it was all about. Basically in World War One Australians and Kiwi troops fought a battle over a number of months in a place called Gallipoli in Turkey. Thousands of soldiers died and were injured within the few months and now ever year on the 25th of April there are memorial services held in Australia, New Zealand and Turkey...with the main one being in Gallipoli itself. Thousands of Aussies and Kiwis travel over for the memorial...it almost seemed like a rite of passage for young people from the countries involved. And so we hit the road early on the 24th of April to head from Istanbul to Gallipoli. For the memorial there is a dawn ceremony which is held at 5.30am on the 25th...so we were getting dropped to Gallipoli at about 7 the night before...which meant a night out under the stars! Rachel had warned us it was going to be freezing so when we got to Eceabat (where we would be camping the following night) we all had a root through our rucksacks to see how many layers we could find ourselves! Then after a hot dinner we hopped on the truck to get dropped to Gallipoli along with thousands of others!
We got ourselves seats up in the stands and stuck up a tarp to protect us from the wind as the ceremony takes place right on the beach in Anzac Bay. We did really well at first only putting on gloves when we got there but as the hours ticked on we were adding layers....and by 11 all of us were in all our layers and in our sleeping bags! And so started a night of trying to find some sort of comfortable position to try catch a few hours sleep...not quite so easy!! The seats weren’t exactly designed to be slept on so it was a case of leaning against someone else or else squeezing down onto the ground and having everyones feet on top of you! There was different things on throughout the night to keep the crowd entertained but it was hard to hear and see the screens so for the most part we all just tried to sleep...plus sleeping generally meant we could ignore the absolutely Baltic cold we were experiencing!! My nose has never felt so cold as it did that night! And going to the loo just wasn’t an option once I realised I had to get out of the sleeping bag to go! I did not plan on moving until it warmed up a few degrees at least! And then at 4.30 some nice Australian army dude got the mic and told us all to wake up as the ceremony would begin in an hour. The ceremony was lovely and consisted mostly of some prayers and music and a speech or two explaining the importance of the day, followed by the laying of wreaths (there was an Irish delegate in the middle of it too...got a bit of entertainment out of the Aussie dude trying to pronounce the name Padraig!!). Once the dawn ceremony was over it was then time to head up to the Australian Ceremony...which meant a 3k hike up a steep mountain! After very little sleep this was not an easy task...especially once the sun started coming out too! It did give me an appreciation though for what the soldiers at the time had to endure...while also trying not to be seen and under gunfire...no easy feat I will tell ya! When we got to Lone Pine, the Austrialian Memorial site, we grabbed a couple of seats and the coldness started to set in again as we were high up the mountain. The ceremony was pretty much the same at the dawn ceremony so I didn’t feel too bad that I dozed a lot of the way through it! It did take me by surprise though when tha master of ceremonies told us that there were 7,000 bodies buried at the site we were at. The memorial site is roughly the size of a football field so it was hard to comprehend 7,000 soldiers dying in such a small space...just goes to show exactly how bad things were and how bloody the battle was. Then after that it was time to walk up yet another steep hill to get to the Kiwi memorial site! This hill was even steeper and at this stage the sun was out in all its glory...so it was time to start delayering before collapsing from overheating! The Kiwi memorial was quite small so we had to sit outside and watch the proceedings on a screen. Then it was time to wait for the truck to come and pick us up. We had been warned that this might take awhile as there were so many buses coming to collect the crowds....however we were the very last people to be picked up! While we were waiting for the truck we had sat down at the edge of the road. The road was closed off so it was safe enough to do this...however the fact we all ended up falling asleep there was probably not so much of a good idea! But we were all knackered and after doing an 8k hike after only a few hours sleep on and off over the night we were ready to sleep wherever we could find it! After nearly 4 hours of waiting though we finally heard number 48 (our bus number) being called and we all gave a little cheer and went running for our big orange truck! It was back to Boomerang Bar then where we were camping in Eceabat to pitch tents. This bar was right on the beach...and a beach that was full of rocks and twigs and shit so firstoff I had to try clear a little space and then get the tent up in a strong wind! Managed it in the end but seriously thought the wind was going to lift the tent at some stage! It was also this night that I did my first sleep walking of the trip! I knew it was going to happen at some stage...I just wished it could have been a night when I wasn’t only about 20 feet from a sea!! Or a night when it was windy as hell!
It was an early start again the next day again to head onto our next destination...Sepluk. On the way there we stopped off at Troy to see the old ruins and then got to our next campsite. Which was a lovely little campsite again right on the beach, but we had a grassy area across the road so no more wind to deal with thankfully....however we did have another challenge to deal with...mosquitoes! We got off the truck and noticed them immediately so everyone covered up as much as possible and the insect spray came out. I was on cook group that night and had a great time...we did our first BBQ and it was gorgeous! First time of the whole trip that I cleared my plate and left nothing on it at the end!
Next morning we were brought to Ephesus to see the ancient ruins there....kinda put Troy to shame!! The ruins are massive...and there is so much of them left...very hard to believe how long they had been there! We walked around for a couple of hours and then it started to rain! So we all decided we had seen enough and headed back to the truck. We got dropped into Sepluk then and could do whatever we wanted for the rest of the afternoon. I headed up to St John’s Basilica to see the ruins and St John’s Castle that looks down over the town. It was pretty impressive but I can honestly I was totally ruined out at that stage! We headed back out to the campsite then to relax on the beach for awhile. Most of us were talking to people back home too and all everyone kept saying was how bloody great the weather was back home! We all felt slightly jealous and prayed for sun the next day so we wouldn’t feel so bad!!
Next morning we had a 6am departure L so it was an early night for everyone. Once we hit the road we headed for Pammakule....a great big white mountain! I pretty much slept the whole way as I hadn’t slept to great the previous few nights...and when I woke up I was quite confused as to where I was as all I could see was this really weird looking white mountain! Of course to fully appreciate Pammakule we had to hike up the mountain! (Yes another one!!) And guess what was at the top....RUINS!!! I had seriously lost interest at that stage so didn’t pay much attention to what I was looking at....just enjoyed the view! And our prayers for sunshine were answered...though I’m not quite sure I appreciated it due to the fact I was climbing a mountain!! We had to walk up barefoot so as not to damage the surface...and also because of the amount of water running down the mountain! It was nice though....we kept going through patches of hot pools and cold pools. Would have loved to have more time there to actually be able to have gone to the baths cause they looked lovely! Then it was back on the truck to head to our campsite for the night. We were supposed to bush camp but ended up staying in a campsite. Just as we arrived it started to spill rain which was the last thing any of us wanted after a long few days...and then Rachel told us we could upgrade if we wanted to. Now I had said I wasn’t going to upgrade as I felt like it was cheating a little but we could fit 6 in a room with beds and a few more on the floor and it only cost about €1.50 each so when she asked if anyone was interested there was a split second on the truck where everyone looked at each other and then all our hands shot in the air! So Rachel went off to get the keys while we figured out who was in what room...once that was done we grabbed a set of keys and found out we were staying in treehouses!!! Yes real life, proper person sized tree houses!! They were amazing! There was a massive tree truck right in the middle of our room but still enough room for 3 double beds and we got 2 more of the lads on the floor with still plenty of room to move around! It was a great night’s sleep!!
The next day we had a few hours at the campsite before we headed off for Oludeniz...so some of us decided it was a great opportunity to climb the mountain to get a better view of the gorge. Yes I know...yet another bloody mountain...and if I thought the Gallipoli mountain climb was steep it was nothing compared to this mountain!! It was more of a rock climb scramble type thing than a hill walk! We were basically following sheep and goat tracks the whole way up...and then eventually hit a sheer cliff wall which put a stop to our gallop!! So we gave up (much as it pained us) and came back down as we had to be back on time for the truck! Coming down was just as difficult as going up as there was a lot of loose rocks so it was easy to misstep and slip. Luckily we all made it down without too much injury...and then we looked up to see how far we went....and we went pretty bloody far! We were quite impressed with ourselves!! Then it was time to get on the truck and hit the road for Oludeniz.
We also made all the costumes for the wedding over the last few days while we were driving. Let me tell you it’s quite difficult to cut and glue stuff when you’re sitting at the back of a great big truck! There were a few funny moments where a pot hole in the road sent everything flying a few inches into the air! And the back of the truck looked like an arts and crafts room with the amount of luminous crepe paper and black bags and sequences that were floating around!! But the rest of the wedding story is for another blog...so you’ll just have to wait for that!!
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