It was a very early early start. Very early. We had never planned on seeing Gallipoli, but two days ago we found it was easier and cheaper to take a tour down the coast instead of trying to get down to Kusadasi on the bus. It was an impressively great move.
A sleep on the bus later, or a lot of Civilization Revolution on iPhone for me, we got to our swanky lunch stop at midday. On the peninsula in the middle of nowhere, it was the classiest meal we’d eaten yet, and included in our ticket – score! Aside from us and a great Australian couple in their late 20s, everyone was really very old. Which means we mostly kept to ourselves and let the Australian guy cover for us, avoiding conversations about race, politics, and any other uninformed rants the elderly enjoy having.
We spent the afternoon jumping on and off the bus at important places all over the peninsula. Sometimes we’d drive no more than a few hundred meters before getting off at the next thing. It’s all rather silly. I found our tour guide with his ridiculous accent and language hilarious, Clare not so much. Every sentence was repeatedly peppered with the same fantastically misused english words in his wacky accent.
The best thing about being on tour was being fed the stories by our guide. War is a horrible, horrible thing, and anyone that glamorizes or celebrates it is a fool. It’s senseless human slaughter, and in Gallipoli nothing more than a waste of a half million lives – an entire generation of thinkers, teachers, creators, sons and fathers from around the world. It’s a very sobering place.
After we spent the day feeling increasing depressed at the state of humanity, the group split and we headed to Canakkale with the Australian couple and just a few of the older couples. The ferry ride over to the mainland was pretty fun, and very windy.
The hostel was great. Clare, Es and I scored a lovely room together, while Bex and Lizzie were in a windowless vault with no air-conditioning. Dinner was tough work to find, there aren’t many vegetarian options in town.
We stopped off for more baklava, some tiny cookies and apple tea on the way back, though the apple tea was rubbish bagged stuff which wasn’t the best way to end. Spent a while trying to book the rest of our leg through Kusadasi and Samos, then hit bed.
From August 23, 2010.