Traveling Turkey: Galipoli and Anzac Day
Thursday 24th April
An early breakfast followed our wake-up call so we could beat the crazy Istanbul traffic out of the city. It was a peaceful drive out to Gallipoli, albeit five hours long, although we did break it up with several stops along the way. We did a grocery stop because the expensive greasy kebabs at Anzac Cove weren’t appealing to everybody, and Lija and I got some nibbles to get us through the next 24 hours, this included a jar of pickles (which turned out not to be the nice sweet ones – how should we know, the packaging was in Turkish?!) and a pack of sliced salami that got chucked when it was so hot it started sweating. Eww. The litre of water each and fruit and biscuits did just the trick though.
We got to Gallipoli by midday, but they weren’t letting buses in straight away, so we toured around the park while Fahrit talked to us about the plight of the Anzacs. The amazing thing was, of course we learned much of the Anzac history in primary school, but it was almost propaganda when I think of what we weren’t taught. Farhit told us a lot about the Turkish side also, and the grand speech that Ataturk made when it was all over, that now we could all be friends because none of us wanted to be there in the first place.
We went up and had a look at Lone Pine, which had been set up for the following day’s service. Grand stands had been placed in the grassy area and we solitarily wandered around the gravestones reading the messages from parents long gone, but still resonating in hearts and souls today. Stones with too many numbers carved in below twenty, although some soldiers were in their thirties or forties. Loving father, dearly beloved husband. Walking on the soft grass among these tributes gave pause for thought, and most people were quietly reflecting. There was one group who I was watching, because one of the girls must have found a gravestone belonging to a family member. She was getting a friend to film her talking to the camera, a message for her family back home, showing her laying some flowers, with tears rolling down her face. It was really sad but I couldn’t take my eyes off them, because it shows the respectful side of young people who come to Galipoli.
We walked up to the trenches, separated by the road. The Turks had fought on one side, and the Australians on the other. You can still see where the trenches were, but most of them have eroded. On the Australian side, not ten/fifteen metres on are the cliffs the Anzacs had to climb, the drop steep and mucky. We took the bus up to Chunuk Bar, the area where the Kiwis fought for months and eventually captured and held onto it before the Turks got it back. From there we drove out of Galipoli and down to a small local museum, which had everything from bullets and uniforms, to cutlery, letters and other bits and bobs found around the battlefields and donated from ex-servicemen. There were also photos hanging showing both sides and the lives they had to lead in the trenches and die in the open.
We had a late lunch/early dinner BBQ for all On the Go travellers, which is the first decent BBQ we’ve had in a while, very important for Aussies! It took us all of five minutes to scoff down the burger and jump back on the bus. We were going to stay for a while, but we were all keen to get to the grounds and find some space to settle in. It took a while to get through the park, then take our bags and walk to the security barriers where all our bags were checked – alcohol was prohibited, as with as usual illegal and dangerous items, and we all got the pat down. The Turkish security ladies were nice enough, but one of them a little too eager to please us lot, patted the belly of Laura I think, who is average height and skinny, not the least amount of fat on her let alone a baby bump (although the after eating swell from the BBQ could have been blamed) and happily blurted out “Baby?” Well we all had a big laugh about it, there was nothing else to say but gosh it was funny!
We had to walk a k to the Dawn Service site, past all the media vans arriving and setting up, alongside the sandy shoreline and rolling waves, to a huge mass of people who have all made the pilgrimage to Galipoli. Despite arriving at 4pm, and 20 or so buses after the first lot, there was absolutely no space left on the grass because all the previous groups had spread themselves out and were lying down on their sleeping bags. A few of the stands were filling up fast, and despite hunting everywhere for any spot on the grass we had to settle with one of the stands. We went with a bunch of girls from our bus, sort of spread out but in the same area. I grabbed the seat next to the fence so I could rest my head if needed.
Once we dumped our stuff the other girls were staying where they were, so we went for a walk to check out the ‘facilities’. There were heaps of port-a-loos so luckily there weren’t many problems there, and the food places were typical Turkish kebabs and things. We didn’t bother as we had our own food.
We passed the hours chatting away with the other girls. As the night went on, the bus loads of people kept piling in. All throughout the night the MC was telling everyone on the grass to budge in because the buses would keep coming right up until dawn. At midnight ten buses came in at the same time. We were just in awe of the situation. It turned out to be better sitting in the seats, because we got our own space. We had several seats spare and were trying to give them away to people, but they wouldn’t believe us, or walked elsewhere. We finally got a family of five to sit in them, they were so grateful to get seats; I think they’d been on the concrete for a while. We told them we just wanted to fill the seats up to get more body warmth and heat going.
I was sitting down with Fahrit and some of his friends for a while. The boys bought me a couple of teas which was nice and warming. We watched the sun setting on the ocean, and that was when it began to get chilly. Now, we’d been told it would get down to 5 degrees, so I left my beanie and scarf in my bag, although I did put in my long socks and gloves. We had planned to sit on a picnic blanket with a sleeping bag over us. But I came back from hanging out with the boys to find Lija all wrapped up in the sleeping bag. I wouldn’t have minded if it was in turns or shared after a while, but that didn’t happen. I got told to wrap my picnic blanket around me in -4 degree freezing cold. I don’t think I’ve ever been so hurt and angry in my life. It was just plain selfish and ungiving. And I know you’re going to read this and I don’t give a damn. That was the cruellest situation I’ve ever been subjected to.
Our entertainment for the night began at 8pm with the army band, and continued all through the night until 4am with documentaries, interviews and footage from the services back home. I missed watching the Australian service because I was so cold that I fell asleep for sometime between 1 and 4am. Mena and I had wrapped a poncho on the fence to shield some of the wind, and I put a poncho on under my coat to keep some wind out. I fell asleep with my head smushed on my pink pillow which was half falling through the other side of the fence. I woke up when it was still dark. I could barely feel my toes and I was hugging myself so tightly I thought I’d have to run to the toilet. Luckily not so, but I kept myself amused people-watching for a while. Those rugged up in their sleeping bags, the busloads coming in, the wanderers getting food and drinks and running to the loo.
Before long the MC stood up and began the introductions for the dawn service. We had an official party who came in to represent the different countries – Australia, Turkey and New Zealand. As the ceremony went on, and the bugle played, the sun was rising over the hill behind us. Eventually I could make out the horizon between ocean and sky again. We stood up to sing the national anthem, which I haven’t done for quite a while and it was a nice feeling, even if I had to mime a couple of lines of the second verse.
It sounds all very simple, but it is definitely a solitary experience. To really understand the moment; the feeling, the emotion, listening and watching what is happening at the time, I cannot begin to explain it because it’s my experience and yours would be different again.
When the Dawn Service concluded, the sun was still just peeking over the mountain, the very same mountain we all had to climb. 10,000 strong packed up our bags, lined up for the loos and arm against arm followed the front en masse back along the shoreline to turn left and begin the ascent up to Lone Pine. It began as a slight slope, and a few of the older people were keen to give it a go, but we did see one granny stopped by the side waiting for help. Special small buses took the unable up around the roads, but we had the dirt track, which would have been a nice hike except for the fact that we got stuck when we were nearly at the top. We don’t know for what reason, maybe they thought we had bought land mine kebabs from the kebab shops, because there’s no civilisation for quite a while around Galipoli, but they decided to do another bag/body check before we entered Lone Pine, which meant most of us were stuck on the hill, waiting for the line to diminish. We struck up a conversation with an Irish father and his two sons about security conditions and plane ticket prices, as you do, and went on chatting until we got close enough that we were shifted towards the female line and they the male. For some strange reason, a real change, the male’s line was more than double the length of the females – it was utter bedlam.
It took about half an hour to get into Lone Pine, and all of the front stands were taken up. We decided we couldn’t see anything in the back stands, even the video screen visibility was lacking, so we parked ourselves to the side of the stairs of one of the closer stands, sitting against the fence. We were still in the shady part, although the sun was rising fast and strong. The Lone Pine service was specially for commemorating the Australian troops who fell there in 1915, so for the second time that day we stood in unison and sung the Australian anthem.
There’s a lot to think about when you see this huge tree on the top of a bare hill with forest all around, the tree surrounded with the gravestones and thousands of descendants of Australian history and culture sitting quietly in awe. You’d think surely in those conditions of instant loss of life, every bloke who withstood the terrible cold in winter and fierce sun in summer and the few that came home in the end show a good deal of the now fashionable word ‘mateship’. Getting thrown down and pulling yourself up to try again, harder. Needless to say, somehow the area had been transformed since our visit the day before, but I don’t mean physically, it was another of those unforgettable experiences.
A combination of pure laziness and too much crap to carry (there was certainly no inner digger spirit once the service ended) we decided not to walk to Chunuk Bar where the Kiwi service was being held, so we chilled out a bit, or thawed out with the teas that I went to get quickly, bypassing the huge line-up for kebabs by pushing past calling out “I’m not jumping the line, I only want drinks” which seemed to work quite well. After a while of basking in the sun which was now high up in the sky, slowly beginning to bake and bronze us, we went to line up and sign the register book inside the memorial. And that is my record that I attended Anzac Day 2008 at Galipoli.
By midday we drifted over to where the buses would come past to pick us up, not thinking about the enormity of this mission. Funnily enough, our group had all come together in the same area, which Fahrit was surprised and pleased his job was made much easier. It was so hot by this stage we all had jumpers and things on our head (those who didn’t have hats – hand up!) so I had my coat hood sitting on my head, which only left my nose poking out into the sun. Yes, I went home looking like Rudolph. Half of the 10,000 who didn’t make the pilgrimage to Chunuk Bar were taking up space along this part of the road, and there were several people co-ordinating the buses coming in. Fahrit said our bus driver was in a decent position, in about the first 20 buses. When we had entered the national park, each bus got a number, and as they were coming down the road, the co-ordinator would call out the bus numbers and people would gather. We overheard that all the Fanatics (for those of you who saw footage they were all wearing yellow hoodies) had been made to walk up to Chunuk Bar, even though their buses were still stopping and looking out for them, so we all yelled out to move it along.
Our bus came by about 2pm I think. It was in the top twenty, they just took an awful long time coming. We had to stop at the top because Trev, Ben and the other boys, and a few of the couples, had all walked to CB. When they piled on, and we could finally scoot our arses out of there, I noticed (because the national park is a giant circle) on the road on the other side where we had been waiting at Lone Pine, there were masses of buses. They weren’t wrong when they said there were over 200. People must have been there for ages. When I pointed this out to everyone, we were all cheering that our wait really hadn’t been that bad. We all settled down and I know at least that I slept most of the way back to Istanbul (Stumble!).
I was feeling so worn out from the cold and lack of sleep it took all my effort to get off the bus half way just to go to the loo (making sure it wasn’t a drop loo). We got back in at a reasonable hour and I grabbed our passports to easily check in again at the hotel. We ended up getting the room next to our last one, which was exactly the same but opposite, and that just confused us! This was Friday night, but I was totally out of it. We were in the room next to Mena and Leah, two of the girls we spent the night huddled around talking with in the stands at the dawn service site, so we asked them if they wanted to come out to dinner with us. We were going to get the boys to come, but we never got their room number and they weren’t hanging around so we left them to it (turns out they had a BIG night and weren’t very good the next day).
The four of us girls took the tram down to Hagia Sofia because we were pooped, and found a nice place to eat. The sneaky guy told us they did have pides in the restaurant, but once we got in they weren’t on the menu and the guy said after a certain time they take too long to make so they don’t make them for dinner. We did end up having dinner at about 9pm, but I wasn’t happy about that because it was the once thing that I was actually looking forward to food-wise (not that we hadn’t tried enough nummy things in Turkey, but really – so rude!). We did still end up with really nice meals, the Turkish do some great things with aubergine and tomato bases. Afterwards we just slowly walked back to the hotel, picking up some baklava on the way, naturally. But by the time we got back and Lija turned the telly on and we were going to eat our baklava, I lay on my bed and Lija turned around and I was out of it! Fast asleep! Stuffed! What a huge week.
On Saturday morning we just took our time and enjoyed ourselves, a nice long uninterrupted breakfast with lots of chocolate sauce! We sat with the boys chatting for a while, so long that they actually finished serving breakfast and started clearing up, and so we put our bags in the hold and checked out and went for a walk around the block with Mena and Leah because the girls wanted Turkish Delight. While we were packing our stuff Lija had two bits of baklava and then I had two of my pieces and decided I wasn’t going to lug it all over the place so I ate the other two aswell, so when Lija came back in to say we were going for a walk and saw my empty container, she ate her other two pieces! What gluts! I was all delighted out so I didn’t buy anything else.
Our flight wasn’t until 5ish but we had seen all of Istanbul, so the four of us shared a taxi to the airport, less than two pounds each! And we hung out there. We walked up one side of duty free, me playing the innocent and snapping up another free Lindt sample, and the others following suit, and then we walked up the other side of the duty free, which was exactly the same, so we pooled our remaining yentils and sat with drinks in Starbucks for a while. Of course, our plane was about 45 minutes delayed, although it wasn’t on the board so we just had to hang around the lounge for a while, and ran into some of the other girls from our bus so we all sat chatting.
Lija and I were in the row right behind business class, so we sat watching what they got to eat and then what we were given (more Lindt balls, thank you very much Swiss airways) and I took some awesome photos of the Swiss Alps, always magnificent by plane. We didn’t have heaps of time in Zurich, just enough to go to the loo and get to the next terminal (stopping by the Lindt display for a handful of samples when the lady wasn’t looking! Tee hee). We did wait a bit but we boarded soon enough and got fed and watered and as soon as we hit the British coast it took no time to fly to London, which in the dark is amazing and I pointed out to Lija where we are, Traf Square, the Eye, Hyde Park and then did it again because we had to circle before we could head into Heathrow.
It’s the first time we’ve had an early evening flight (not coming home at one in the morning), so it was quite relaxing and we sped through customs, got our bags, swapped numbers with the girls and jumped on the tube.
That’s it, there isn’t any more (wipe the sweat from your brows, she has run out of words about Turkey). Summed up – amazing, new, exciting, adventure. Would do it again in a flash.
Tags: Travel
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