The Rest of Turkey

After leaving Izmir we began to make our way towards Cannakale, near Gallipoli and our last stop before crossing the dardanelles onto the peninsula. While we were heading there we stopped at Troy, little more than rubble now, both from the fact it's so ancient and from Heinrich Schliemann's terrible excavation. Walking around the site, we were told about the story and what was and wasn't true, and about the many different levels of the city, before taking some silly pictures inside the replica trojan horse, of course. After this we moved back to the bus and got onto it, before this point Jake had been quite sick and vomiting, but he was getting much better now, which was good to see.

Getting to Cannakale, we checked into the hotel a bit later than expected and had dinner at the hotel before we went out for short walk to get some money and to see the Trojan horse used in the movie 'Troy'. After that we made our way back and just settled in for a fairly uncomfortable night's sleep. The next morning we got up and got our luggage down to the lobby, placing it into the bus after breakfast and getting on the ferry over to the peninsula before heading towards the memorial area and Anzac Cove. Seeing the memorials, the cove and cemetaries was a very moving experience, considering I have so much family history with the first world war, and even with Gallipoli. We spent just about all day here and then just drove to Istanbul, where again we would be having two nights.

Our first night in Istanbul was fairly uneventful, just getting settled and going out to have dinner in a nice restaurant, before taking some night-time pictures of the blue mosque, which we would be seeing the next day. After that we went back to the hotel and slept, getting up the next morning and setting off for the Tokapi Palace. We had free roam in the palace and I first went to the Harem apartments with Erin and Lia, it was absolutely spectacular, the walls were all covered with some sort of tile or decoration, and there were many vibrant colours of gold, blue, green and red everywhere. After moving through them slowly and taking in all of it, we continued to look around the palace until we had to move on. Returning to the blue mosque, we took some pictures of it and Hagia Sophia, unable to go inside due to our time, we moved on to the Roman Cistern and looked around inside, again it was quite beautiful, and a nice cool change to the hot weather outside.

After visiting the cistern and having a nice lunch, we came to the big part of the day, the Grand Bazaar. We were split into groups of six or seven and given free reign around the bazaar, with a set meeting point and time two hours after our entry. Being placed in a group with Erin, Kaylee, Lia, Jake, Belinda and Bec, I wasn't sure if i'd really buy anything, but figured I would try considering I wouldn't need any of my TL beyond this point. After looking around and haggling with some of the stall owners (which was really quite fun) I managed to spend all my cash on three items, a journal, a new leather wallet, and of course, a turkish fez. The others brought a number of things, art, clothes, accessories, if you wanted to find something to buy, you could get it at the Grand Bazaar.

Leaving the Bazaar, we went back to the hotel to relax for a bit and shower before we went out for dinner again. This time, we were given 100 TL to a group of three and told we could eat anywhere we wanted within a certain area, but again had to meet at a set spot at 9PM. Although we were in groups of three, all of Year 11 decided to eat together, as did Year 10, and it was a really fun and relaxing dinner, quite tasty too. We held off from dessert though, as the whole group got dessert from a nearby place all paid for by Ms. Costi after our meals to share between pairs of us. Once we'd enjoyed that, it was just a relaxing walk back to the hotel where we were told to get some sleep for our flight to Athens in the morning.

Day One - A bunch of cats

After a long and relatively tiring trip on the plane, followed by a rather relaxing stop at the Copthorne Airport Hotel in Dubai and another pair of flights much shorter than the first, we've finally arrived in Izmir, our first proper place to stay on the trip. Arriving at the airport with Mum, Dad and Simon, it didn't take long to find the wall of school students from both year 11 and 10, with the teachers trying desperately to keep track of everyone as they met up and spoke to eachother and their parents. After everyone had shown up and i'd spoken to my friends, I said my goodbye to Mum and Dad as they went to check in, and soon did the same myself, before moving through security. The process was nothing new aside from the fact I was now going through it without my parents, but i'd gone through it so many times it was all just second nature, not that it's really that difficult anyway.

Getting to the gate, we moved off after a short while to get dinner, where I ran into mum before we had to head to the gate to start boarding. Getting onto the plane I saw mum and dad both getting settled, the last time i'll be seeing them this trip unfortunately, as I didn't run into them in Dubai. After the long haul trip, we got off the plane at Dubai and moved through the absolutely colossal airport to a bus which took us all to our hotel. Time there was split between breakfast, swimming in the pool and making sure I hadn't lost anything by checking my bag (Good news is, I hadn't). After our time there was done we moved back to the airport on the same bus and boarded a flight to Istanbul. This was a much shorter trip, only lasting four hours before we arrived and had to move to the domestic terminal to get onto our last flight to Izmir.

The flight was incredibly quick and it was nice to get a short nap in considering how little we'd all slept. Arriving in Izmir, everyone was exhausted as we got our bags and moved outside to our bus. Driving through the city, we got to our hotel and 'enjoyed' the dinner we were given before we had the chance to go up to her rooms properly and pass out in our beds, only to be woken up by a wake up call at around 8. Getting ready and going downstairs much happier than the night before, we had breakfast and then moved onto the bus to head to Ephesus.

When we arrived, we looked around the ruins of the ancient city, and learned about the uses and reasons for different buildings, overall it was a gorgeous place and an incredibly interesting part of the day, despite how much walking around was involved with it all, along with getting acquainted with the huge population of cats living in the site. After leaving Ephesus we moved on to a carpet factory which the previous group had visited, getting there we looked at the process for making Turkish carpets and we tried some Turkish apple tea, which is quite possibly the most delicious drink I have ever had. Ever. Along with the tea, we took off our shoes and stood on a number of different carpets unrolled for us, feeling the varying kinds of carpet that could be made. After this incredibly relaxing part of our day, we returned to the hotel for a quick swim and then dinner.

Tomorrow we are going to Troy, looking forward to it!