The next morning our rental car was dropped off and we embarked on our first mission of the day - getting out of Istanbul, a city renowned for it's crazy traffic. Istanbul drivers have very little regard for lanes or give-way rules, and pedestrians seem to have worse road sense than Londoners, but with the capable Tim behind the wheel we survivied! The roads were actually pretty good, better than the last country we had driven in, Romania where we had to avoid the potholes every two minutes. Our only drama was when we approached a toll road, and having no idea which lane to go through with all the signs in Turkish we ended up accidentally going through an automatic lane, setting off an alarm as we passed through. No one seemed too concerned though and there was nowhere to stop on the very busy motorway so we decided to carry on. Our next problem was that we had no cash to even pay the toll when we did eventually exit the road, so we tried to stop and get some, but do you think we could find an ATM anywhere without leaving the toll road? Eventually we realised we had hit the end of the toll road and needed to pay up. Anyway to cut a long story short we ended up trying to pay at an office next to the toll booths, but they didn't take cards and were very unhelpful suggesting what we could do. They just kept repeating that we had to pay in either Turkish Lira or Euro, of which we had neither. Eventually they must have taken pity on us and a guy handed us a leaflet in Turkish and indicated that we should phone a number to arrange payment, and they let us through, thank goodness!
Our stressful ordeal behind us we carried on to our destination, Eceabat, a small easygoing waterfront town on the Dardanelles with the best access to the main Gallipoli battelfields. We discovered our hotel was just a stone's throw from the centre of the town, right opposite the ferry terminal taking cars and passengers to the other side of the Dardanelles. After checking in we headed out to exlore the town, wandering along the waterfront where all the fishing boats were moored and the accompanying population of stray cats looked to be very well fed. Being close the the battlefields Eceabat is home to an interesting outdoor museum with models of the battles and some striking monuments so we spent some time checking that out. Later on in the evening we grabbed a stash of pistachios and Efes beer and headed back to the hotel where we sat in the common area of the hotel, surrounded by loads of other Kiwis and Aussies doing the same pilgrimage.
The next morning after breakfast we jumped in the car to do a bit of exploring on our own before the tour of the Anzac battlefileds we had booked for that afternoon. With no real plan of where to go we drove some of the coastal roads,ending up at an old military defense base which told the story of the 18th of March battles at the entrance to the Dardanelles, which was quite interesting, despite some of the groups of Turkish tourists casting us curious looks. After a cup of coffee which we just about had to strain through our teeth we headed back to Eceabat.
After grabbing a quick fish sandwich from a cafe with a sign saying 'Fish Sarnies' in their window we joined our small group of five for a very personal tour of the Anzac battlefields. We went with Crowded House tours (named after the band) which were excellent. Our tour guide Bulent (Bill) was very experienced and did an excellent job of explainining the different battles and sights, giving us an insight into both the Anzac and Turkish sides of the story. We visited Anzac Cove, Lone Pine, some of the other main cemetries, the trenches, the Nek and finally Chunuk Bair, the NZ memorial It was a beautiful afternoon, sunny and cloudless, the waters were calm and peaceful, making it difficult to imagine the atrocities that had happened in those very places. It was a pretty moving experience, and so sad to see all the graves of both the Anzac and Turkish troops that had so bravely fought and lost their lives.
"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives...you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country, therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You the mothers who sent your sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well." Ataturk, 1934
We both felt so proud to be New Zealanders that day, and I know that every Anzac Day from now on will have a completely different meaning.
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