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April 2001 saw me head over to Turkey, mainly because I wanted to go to Gallipolli for ANZAC day. Of Turkey, I knew nothing much about, so it was a great suprise to find that this was a truly amazing and diverse country, with such warm friendly people and a landscape unlike nothing I'd seen before. Thus, Turkey quickly became probably my most favourite place out of all the countries I have been to. Here we are having our first beer (an EFES) in Istanbul. |
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| We spent 4 days in Istanbul visiting the Blue Mosque, Haggia Sophia, Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar and Spice Markets. It was wonderful to lay on the lounges on the roof of our hostel above the Blue Mosque and listen to the call to prayer 5 times a day. We also took a trip over to Asia and the black sea coast for dinner, as well as enjoying breakfast along the Bosphorous river. |   |
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We
arrived at the Dawn service at Anzac Cove at 11.30 at night following
a small session at the Vegemite bar in Eceabat. I even got on the Channel
9 news back in Oz! It was a really moving service and we had good seats
because we got there early. I was so proud of my heritage after looking
around at the 15,000 or so Aussies & Kiwis that had turned up to pay
tribute to our heroes who fought and died. I'm so glad my ancestor stole
those velvet pantaloons and got shipped to Botany Bay otherwise I might
never have been an Aussie! The Australian Commemorative Service at Lone
Pine was held at noon and the best part was when these 4 old diggers made
their way to the front to be seated and everyone in the crowd clapped
and cheered them on. I think everyone who was there that year will remember
that scene forever.
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| These are the ruins of Pergumum at Bergama. The site was once a famous library, holding over 200,000 records. Ptolemy in Egypt was worried that all the famous scholars would flock to Pergumum to study instead of at Alexandria, so he cut off their supply of papryus so that they couldn't produce any more scrolls. Not to be outdone the people of Pergumum set out to find ways of making paper. They came up with animal skins, and because the skin was too thick to roll up like a scroll, they bound it instead, thus creating the first known book, it was called 'charta perg', which is Latin for parchment. In the end Ptolemy persuaded Cleopatra into asking Mark Antony to give her the books of Pergumum as a present, which he did, so all the scrolls, books and records were shipped off to the great library of Alexandria in Egypt which, sadly, burned down years later. What a pity! |  |
| This is Maree & I at the library of the Celsus (4 virtues) at Epheses (the old Roman capital of Asia Minor). The four virtues being Arete (goodness) Ennoia (thought) Episteme (knowledge) Sophia (wisdom). I couldn't get over how well preserved the ruins were, even though this is only the 6th city of Ephesus (the others are buried underneath and they are still excavating). |  |
| This was taken at my FAVOURITE place in Turkey, a little town called Koycegiz, if you get a chance to go to Koycegiz, make sure you stay at the Tango Pension. It is AWESOME! They take you out on a night booze cruise to the sulphur pools and mud baths, it is fantastic! The town itself is really cool, with dirt roads and the most friendly people. The Tango even has a male belly dancer and he is hilarious (just ask Liz). Here we are standing out the front of the Tango bar, it is such a wicked little place you have to see it for yourself. And Sammy the owner is a legend, he made us toasted cheese and tomato sanga's at 4.00am after a big night out. |  |
| We
arrived in Fethiye on the south coast of Turkey and decided to do a 3 day
yacht cruise around the 12 islands of Mediterranean Turkey. This was our first night on Captain Raki's 72 foot yacht the Murat 4 from Fethiye. Left to right - Me, Lieutenant Dan, Brad, Maree, Melissa, Kristie & Marcus (all Aussies and all the best fun!) |
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| Ahhh
the beautiful Mediterranean Turkish sunset!! This was taken on the boat
on our second day. We had anchored somewhere between two islands and it
was just beautiful. That night though everyone got pretty hammered!! It
was such a good trip!! The Captain of the boat was nicknamed Captain Raki after the amount of Raki he consumes (Raki being the Aussie equivalent of Galliano Sambucca), every morning he would make us have a shot of Raki and let me tell you it was GHASTLY! But if you didn't drink it you were forced to have 2 shots, regardless of any hangover you might be experiencing at the time!!  |
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| This
was everyone who went on the yacht cruise. 22 Aussies and Kiwis, excluding
a Canadian girl named Kristin who worked on the boat (what a job!), a cook
named Tos Tos (for real) Captain Raki himself and of course his cute little
first mate Hussan who would do absolutely anything and everything for you!
It was such an awesome trip and I would do it again in an instant. For anyone travelling to Turkey, I recommend you do a cruise, even if just for a day. You get to see butterfly valley and all the other beautiful islands in Mediterranean Turkey. |
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| Yes peoples, that is the real colour of the water. This was taken at a place we stopped off at after visiting the little town of Kas on the Turquoise coast. You can see why some of the Blue Lagoon was filmed here. The water is fairly salty though, so bring some conditioner to put through your hair when you get out to prevent dreadlocking!! Isn't it bloody amazing? |  |
| Here's a shot of Maree and I standing at Pigeon Valley in Cappadocia. What can I say, more suprises! The landscape is amazing! We were on a day trip around Cappadocia and this was the first place we stopped off at, that night we went to a Turkish evening with Turkish music and bellydancers, it was one of the best nights on my whole trip! |  |
| Here's a picture of me standing in front of what's known as 'fairy chimneys'. These funny looking creations came about when 3 volcanos errupted and spread it's ash and molton and whatever else over the land, then because of errosion over the years they somehow came out looking like this!! The outside is quite hard (limestone I think) but the inside is really quite soft, so people dug them out and made them their homes!! We stayed in one (a hostel) in Goreme. |  |
| After
getting surrounded and mobbed by a bunch of gypsy children at a service
stop who stole Maree's lollies right out of her hand, I was a bit wary of
Turkish children, but these two little tackers came over to our bus when
it arrived near the front of their house where we stopped to take a picture
of where Star Wars was filmed and they were just adorable, the little boy
walked like an old man with a big belly and a limp, he was just so cute! God I love this country!!!!!! |
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