Coming back from freezing cold UK and then heading to Turkey was like jumping into a steam bath. Not only was it about double the temperature over there that I had just accustomed myself too, but for respect and dress-code reasons I was walking around in the boiling heat wearing pants and covering my arms- a stark contrast from the shorts and singlets that are usually my staples during summer. When entering one of the many mosques or temples that are all over Istanbul, women have to cover their legs and arms, and sometimes their heads. While I am used to the women at the Kotel telling me to cover my shoulders, I was not expecting to see the scarves and skirts being offered to women- and in some cases men too- at the visitors entrances to all the beautiful mosques. Having never been inside one before, often when I passed a mosque I took the opportunity (while I was dressed appropriately) to head in- especially the Blue Mosque and the New Mosque.
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| Blue Mosque |
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| New Mosque |
Being such an old city Istanbul has a lot to see, and I loved how many archaeological sites or museums or simply exhibitions were available. A visit to Hagia Sofia, previously a church, then a mosque and now a museum, showed so much change in Turkish culture and the Basilica Cistern, although no longer a functioning water source, has architecture so grande and intricate. Even their marketplaces are amazing, the Egyptian Spice Market and the Great Bazaar are these huge buildings with beautiful arches and domes for roofs. What I didn't know until a few days before I arrived was that Istanbul is the only capital city in the world that is situated on two continents- so I took a break from Europe for a few hours and hopped over the Bosphorus River into Asia, so cool!
One of my favourite things of Istanbul was seeing the men, and the odd woman, fishing off the bridges and bringing their catches to the restaurants underneath. At least you were guaranteed a fresh fish meal if you ate there!
It has been a long-time aim for me to go see Gallipoli, and it was partly my main reason for heading to Turkey in the first place. In fact, our tour group was made up almost entirely of Australians and Kiwis making their pilgrimages, as were many of the groups we kept bumping into throughout the day. From all the lessons we spent on Australian history in school I was expecting to see this huge expanse of dreaded land, and instead was presented with beautiful green fields and cliffs buried by trees and bushes- a stark contrast from the black and white pictures of my textbooks. It was pretty amazing to see the land that our soldiers fought on, and even though they did not make it that far into the Peninsula (in fact the Gallipoli campaign was deemed a failure after 8 months for the Allies), the entire site has been memorialised to all the ANZAC and Turkish troops who fought there. For any non-Aussies reading this, ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, and the Gallipoli campaign is one of the most well-known battles fought by the ANZACs during WWI.
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| Lone Pine Cemetery |
After seeing Gallipoli, the next day we headed off to Troy. I must admit I was a bit disappointed by Troy. Maybe I have been spoilt by the ruins of other places I have seen (Masada, the Kotel, Roman Forum) in which there are buildings, mosaics and full archways still standing, but I was expecting to see a bit more than what we did. Even so, I was impressed by the remnants of walls from all 9 cities of Ancient Troy (and that I learnt there were 9 cities in the first place), as well as got to climb up into the mock Trojan Horse. All in all a fun day!
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| If you can see the numbers, they range from I to IX |
My quick trip to Turkey was lots of fun, and if I had more time I would have loved to have headed down to the sea and islands areas- and maybe next time I can go for a Turkish bath. But it was a quick 4-day visit then onto Greece to meet my friends- some of whom I had not seen for over 6 months!
P.S As always, more photos are on Facebook, let me know if you can't find them
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