Canakkale

at 8am i headed south west from Istanbul to Canakkale (pronouced Cha-ka-na-le). to get to Canakkale its a 6 hour bus ride and a short ferry ride. the bus trip was pretty good really, in fact it was better than average - they gave you cups of tea and cake! but christ, the driving was out of control at times. i thought Italians were bad drivers, but the Turks take the cake. speeding, weaving between traffic, driving in the middle of two lanes - its outragous! maybe thats why they give you free tea and cake? to keep your eyes off what is happening on the road! its pretty cheap to get around here too. i think its that theres so much competition. also there service is excellent, they picked me up right out the front of my hostel.

theres not really a lot in Canakkale, a little ruin thingy, a market etc. and there is the horse prop that they used in the movie 'Troy'. but thats about it, its not even that pretty. but the reason i'm here is because its a good base to visit the big horse (the real thing) and Gallipoli.

I did a day trip to the Troy site, and i have to say, its pretty underwhelming. when you're at school you hear about Troy and the story about how the Greek army hid inside a giant wooden horse to ambush the city. but when you get there, its over grown with weeds. i did a tour of the site and the guide told me that Troy was built over 9 times over the years. and as you walk around you see the remains of the walls from the different cities. they were designed in a pretty clever way. on one of the walls they laid the stone in a way that it wouldn't be effected by earthquakes, also all the doors to the city were tucked away so that battering rams couldn't be used to gain force to the city (hence the Trojan Horse). but in a way, if it didn't have the walls, all it would have is a little amphitheater and some mud brick founations of a house, the rest is ruins that are just scattered along the ground. they have a replica of the Trojan horse, but i'm not sure that it would've fooled me. if anything, it resembles something that you might find at Wobbie's World. (if you're not familiar with Wobbie's World, it was a piss weak amusement park in Melbourne, Australia). apparently there not even sure if it was a horse that they used, it could've been a giant penguin... but probably not.
all in all, i wouldn't recommend anyone to go there. but i guess its one of those places where people will ask you when you get back from traveling 'Did you go to Troy?' at least now i can say with a big smile, 'Yes, and i think i would've had more fun being trapped in a cupboard'.

this is going to sound very 'unAustralian', whatever that might mean, but to be totally honest i wasn't going to visit Gallipoli. i have my own opinions about war and how it should be remembered, and most of those opinions i feel shouldn't be express in a blog. but one of my main concerns is the people that visit the site. most of them have no idea of what its all about, or why we visit it. Lauren and Thomas, the lovely (and well informed, i might add) Australian couple that i met in Istanbul, did the dawn service on ANZAC day and told me of a few Australian girls that were on there tour, that were talking and watching there portable DVD player that they brought with them to watch '90210' during the service - how disrespectful! but get this, it was only this year they banned drinking at the dawn service. now really, why on earth would you want to drink alcohol at the dawn service? or even after it, which many people do. as far as i'm concerned, its like going to a funeral just so you can eat the sandwiches at the wake. i said that to some Australian guy while i was here and he said (insert dopey Australian voice here) 'yeah but thats what they would've wanted, thats why they made the ultimate sacrifice, so we have the freedom to drink, it's Australian'. now, correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't remember hearing about a digger falling to the ground after getting shot and in his final breath saying 'i really hope in 90 years time, people will be sinking a beer on the site where i was killed'. i real struggle to come to terms with what is 'Australian'. whoever wrote the rule book, i'd love to have a chat him/her about the section where you must wear blue singlets, and thongs (thats flip flops for American readers), stubbie shorts, and so on.
having said all of that, i felt in someways i should visit the site because, as i have said before in this blog, this trip in a lot of ways is about learning. so with that in mind, i decided to go.
it didn't start to well, i drew the short straw and had to sit next to the annoying old guy, didn't shut up. worst of all, half of it was just rubbish, i came to the conclusion that he mustn't have been able to stand silence. anyway, we went to where the main burial sites, like Lone Pine, ANZAC cove, and heard all the stories about how they attacked and where they went wrong. looking at where the diggers were dropped off, you could tell that they didn't have much of a chance. its pretty crazy to think that the amount of people that visit on ANZAC day, the same amount of people are buried below them. they took us to the grave of Simpson. i would say that most kids in Australian schools learn about the story of Simpson and how he helped carry many wounded men back to safety with the help of his donkey until he was shot. seeing where he would collect men from, its surprises me that he wasn't shot earlier.
perhaps coming from the stand point of someone thats never had to go to war or even be effect by war, I find it so hard to comprehent how war works, and how there are rules in war etc. to me it doesn't really make sence, and after hearing a couple of stories, it confused me even more. for instance, the distance from ANZAC trenches to enemy trenches was, at some points, just 8metres apart. so when there was a cease fire the Australian army and the Turks would share supplies, cigarettes and help each other carry the dead to graves. then when cease fire was over, you would begin shooting at the person you were helping 5 minutes beforehand.
something that impressed me while i was there is, its kind of amazing that the Turkish people let Australians come on ANZAC day at all. when you think about, it wasn't just Australians and New Zealanders that were killed here. there were thousands of Turkish people killed by Australians. i wonder if the tables were turned, would we do the same?
i noticed that its not just Australians and New Zealanders that come to Gallipoli, a lot of Turkish students do too. apparently the government pays for them to come and visit the site for educational purposes, which i think is a brilliant idea.
Walking around there made me feel incredibly awkward, which i knew it would. even though in some ways i'm a little intrigued by it (mainly the whole 'whats on the otherside?' thing), i don't except death very well. infact sometimes i find my emotions are all out of wack. like when i hear bad news, sometimes my reaction is to laugh, or when i'm in an argument with someone i'll have a huge smile on my face, which is not the emotion i'm feeling at all - its kind of strange. anyway, I'm still in two minds about what i feel about Gallipoli, perhaps i never will be able to make my mind up about it. all i know is i hope i never have to experience a war.

while i was at Gallipoli i heard about a Turkish guy called Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. before the war he wasn't anything important, but due to his bravery and leadership the whole country got behind him and eventually he came into power and became Turkey's first President. but that wasn't why i thought he was great. before he came into power, the majority of Turkey couldn't read or write. Mustafa implimented a system where the people of Turkey could learn to read and write. they were hoping that within 3 years people would learn the basic skills, but within 3 months 70% of Turkey could read and write - isn't that amazing! its no wonder people here in Turkey talk about him with such praise and at the exact time of his death, on the 10 November, at 9:05am, almost all cars and people in the street pause for one minute in remembrance.

I noticed a couple of things here in Canakkale. people don't seem to get all dressed up as they did in Istanbul. you would always see men in suits whereas here its more jeans and a t-shirt. i don't know whether or not its because people in Istanbul put on a show a little more or perhaps the people here in Canakkale are a little more working class. maybe its a little bit of both.

coming here was a different experience for me. in some ways i didn't want to do it, but perhaps something in me felt that i had to. i'm heading to Cappadocia next. its a very long bus trip, but from the photos i've seen, it should be worth it. more when i get there.