Big Adventures, Little World

Another early morning start, this time so we could get on a tour bus to Gallipoli, where we would be going on a tour and seeing where the ANZAC’s landed in World War I. It was a long drive out there from Istanbul, taking about 5 hours in total which for the most part of it we used to catch up on the sleep we had missed out on the past few days. After a stop on the way for a snack we got to Eceabat, a nearby town to Gallipoli, where we had lunch with the tour group. After that though, we were back on the bus and making our way out to the The Kabatepe Gallipoli Museum.

The Kabatepe Gallipoli Museum was small but had some interesting displays including photos and letters from the war, and of people involved in the war. There were empty shells from all kinds of weapons, including bullets that had hit each other in mid air and became embedded in each other, giving you an idea of how many bullets must have been flying for it to happen as much as it did. Other displays included were soldiers’ uniforms from different countries, weapons used in the war and artefacts found.

Next stop after the museum was a shirt drive down the road to Anzac Cove where the ANZAC’s landed in 1915, 95 years ago. It was a hot day without any clouds in the sky, and looking out over the water and even across the lands was beautiful, especially for a place where such tragedy had happened so long ago. We were taken around Anzac Cove, and to the statues and memorials that had been erected for all the fallen soldiers, followed by being show what remains of the trenches and where a lot of the fighting had happened, where at some points, the armies where only separated by a narrow road, but down in their trenches.

After previously visiting other places destroyed in wars, like Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan where the nuclear bombs were dropped in World War II, and Mauthausen Concentration Camp where prisoners where held and killed in Austria, Gallipoli had a completely different feel to it. While it was still sad because of the horrible things that had happened there and the amount of people that had lost their lives, it was the fact that the soldiers had gone to war to fight for their countries, and that it wasn’t just innocent people losing their lives like had happened at these other places. It was a feeling of pride, knowing that so many had given their lives back then so that Australia became what it was today.

Once we had finished our tour, it was back on the bus and then onto the ferry to cross the Dardanelles to Canakkale where we were staying for the night. The ferry took only about 15 minutes to cross the Dardanelles, and then it was about another half hour in the van before we reached our hotel which was right on the beach with some spectacular views. We sat around by the pool for a while before heading into the restaurant where we had a buffet dinner included as part of our tour, which we didn’t even realise until afterwards. The food was delicious and there was plenty of it as well, and by the end of it we could barley move and it was time to head to bed and get some sleep as it had been a long day.