Bang on the dot of half six greeted at the door by a driver in a very smart customised van and whisked off into the early morning traffic. Things were looking good and definitely as described and re checked by ourselves with the agent.Five minutes later pull up outside the offices of Fez travel the Kiwi experience Hop on Hop off equivalent, unceremoniously transferred to their care, meet up with Kerri a large Aussie sheila first run by herself as guide and constantly telling us how things always go wrong for her. We chill board the bus with 16 more than promised and the bus an OK but tired Isuzu gutless wonder so trip has jumped out to 5 hours plus, not to mention the delays setting in as the backpackers with their exquisitely young hangovers take all the time in their world to show up. It is going to be along day, but hey! we can handle it and we have all day.Tour trips are never as described as the years have taught us and we soon discover others are equally galled at the extent of the con perpetrated on them.Kerri eventually gets control and we head out of Istanbul.It is a massive sprawling city of nearly 15 million and this takes forever it seems.
We are driving as fast as the bus allows and as we are about 50k down the road but still in the outer suburbs on the motorway and the AC has been tricking on and off to the annoyance of all the others and I notice a very strong smell of burning rubber. i have to admit i have a little chuckle thinking the AC belt is about to pop, when there is an enormous bang and a thump under our feet!........followed by a recurring thumping. Sounds like a blowout and tread separation big time. The days plan is rapidly slipping out of control but we eventually find a Michelin Man tyre bay off the motorway in the backstreets of outer Istanbul and some frenetic air wrenching and Turkish profanities later we have the inner double replaced and the outer one for good measure.
Interesting to see the country side on the drive down the Marmara sea coast, very dry and desolate reminiscent of central Otago at it's driest worst.
Pulled in for breakfast two hours into the trip at a large gas station with attached services. Guys rush out to wash down the coach and we drifted off to find breakfast. we had the usual cheap and easy Gozleme a very thin tortilla type pancake about a foot long and five inches wide folded over thin slices of fetta inside. they throw it down on a hot flat plate with a little oil and heat till just golden on the outside, cut into five slices and serve...usually with a Nescafe in a glass cup.
Toilets are very clean and attended and cost half to one lira.
Back on the coach for another two hours plus where we pull into Acebah at the arranged restaurant for lunch. Soup a rich beautiful tomato and a selection of vegetable dishes, rice some chicken stew or koftes, the so called meat balls but actually rolled or extruded gloop like little pieces of soft meat rod. Lunch all part of the tour and actually really good with plenty of choice and we all sat a large table and swapped experiences. Met a couple of couples from Kumeu both new Cam and Bill sold Jenny's house and new all the cam news.
we had a new guide at this point a young turkish woman who was excellent. First stop at the museum at Gallipoli and we adjoined to some shade in the doorway where with the help of a wall map behind her she gave a precis of the whole Ottoman empire to new Turkey formation. It was hell of a hot, i had one leg still in the sun and had to move it, not a breath of wind and an English woman next to me just had to bail to the AC of the bus as she just couldn't handle it.
The major thing for us was the realisation of the importance of Gallipoli for the Turks it really was the start of their nationhood as modern Turkey, the Anzac's were just the side show that defined an opportunity for them to get them selves organised and on a clearly defined path of self determination as a nation.
Anzac cove was at the same time beautiful, still, terribly hot and eerily quiet, peaceful in a deserted sort of way with a small cemetery facing down to the gently lapping sea.
The towering crumbling walls of the cliffs and the "sphinx" behind the beach a poignant constant reality to what was the dire difficulty of landing in this incorrect position.
We visited both the Aussie and New Zealand cemeteries and lone Pine, Chunuk Bair and some of the Turkish cemeteries and monuments as well. The monuments recognising the twisted compelling camaraderie that developed between the closely stationed invader and defender in what was described as the last gentleman's war.
The casualty rates were far from gentlemanly and the density of the slaughter in what was a very defined killing zone must have been horrific.
The tour took a good four and a half hours and we felt we had really had a good look and understanding of the area and very glad we came.
Good news was we switched buses back to a better mini coach and as the rest of the Fez Bus Tour went on around the circuit we returned to Istanbul with some young kiwi guys and girlfriends. They were hardened hostelers and quickly abandoned their seats and crashed out in the isles and head and torso on floor legs on seats. I couldn't help myself from thinking of the carnage if we were involved in a MVA with all the unrestrained bodies......but I just let it go.
Dinner was a return to the same stop as for breakfast and the same woman was still working over the hot plate at frenetic pace as she had been all day and it was now ten o'clock at night.
Had a "toast and cheese" a soft long bun with cheese once again inside and then placed under a sandwich grill and crushed within an inch of it's life. looked like a case of serious medical misadventure from a mammography clinic.
The traffic was relentless but quite fluid and a bit surreal weaving and gliding in and out of inside and outside lanes all at speeds of 110 120k with little separation punctuated by suicidal organ donors running across 4 lanes of dark highway clothed in dark colours! They even gave the driver a fright and he would stand on the horn to no avail as they vaulted the side barrier after their run. Our bus on two occasions would pull into the centre drain of the motorway and make a U turn. The kind of thing you would really like to be able to do but wouldn't dare...no problem.
Once again the guide and driver as well did not know where our hotel was but with the confidence of a few days here we were able to be dropped off at places they knew and made the short dark walk down the hill to our hotel by midnight.
A big day but a good one.
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