Turkey Day 3: Gallipoli, Eceabat and Buses

I'm on a bus again! Buses in Turkey are nice. They have free refreshments and personal TV screens, though all the movies and television shows are in Turkish... They also come down the bus with some kind of perfumed liquid, which may be hand sanitiser or may be cooling liquid or may just be an attempt to make everyone smell nice (not that we don't smell nice. I hope). The bus trip from Istanbul was over five hours and we went past lots of Turkish flags, drove over some nice new roads and some old potholed roads and saw slabs of marble stacked up in heaps at the side of the road.

We got into Eceabat at about one o'clock and had lunch at the hotel: yoghurt soup, chicken stew and salad. The yoghurt soup was interesting. Once that was done we took a smaller bus out to Gallipoli, where Australian, New Zealand, Indian, French African, Irish and British troops held land for eight months in 1915.

We started at North Beach, where they now hold the Anzac Day memorial service. The beach slopes up to steep ridges and an outcrop of rock they called the Sphinx. Some landings were made here, but most were made at Anzac Cove, the next beach over. The area is full of memorials and cemeteries - over a hundred thousand soldiers died in the area over the eight months. It's so incredibly peaceful now - absolutely beautiful beaches and views out over the Aegean, birds singing and waves lapping the shore. The cemeteries are very well kept, with flowers between the stones and trees shading the graves.

Our guide was impressive. He used to be a university lecturer, but had been guiding Gallipoli tours for twenty-five years and knew all the battles date by date, blow by blow. Usually you hear about the landings and how they came before dawn and had to fight up the steep hills/cliff faces against heavy enemy fire. In fact, there were only eighty-six Turkish soldiers at the top of the hill, and the charge to the first ridge was over quite quickly with little loss of life on the Allied side. The battalions landed in a place that was thought to be unsuitable for landings, so it wasn't as heavily guarded as another beach where the British landed and sustained heavy casualties.

The point of the Gallipoli landings was to eventually control the Dardanelles and so the shipping route from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean, opening a supply route to the Eastern Front. The entrance to the Dardanelles was heavily fortified, so the plan was to attack at Gallipoli and cross the twenty kilometres of peninsular to the Dardanelles inlet, bypassing the fortifications.

The remainder of the campaign, when the Turkish army was more prepared, was a long and bloody battle involving almost a million soldiers. The area is very hilly, and while the Anzacs and Allies held more land than I'd thought, it would have been very crowded with so many soldiers living in dugouts in the hills. At times the trenches of the front lines were less than two metres apart, and there are stories of people singing to each other across the lines, and one where a Turkish soldier carried a wounded Australian soldier back to the Allied line. You can still see the winding trenches (winding to minimise the effects of blasts blowing through), and the barbed wire poking out of the earth. They also had a system of tunnels that looked extremely claustrophobic.

The landscape reminded me a lot of the hills around Wellington: scrub presses close to the clay hillside and the stones show through where the hill falls away. It's quite a bit drier, but I could have been walking the tracks around Makara in late summer. Pretty affecting to compare the two, while the guide talked about the forays and defence of the two armies, and how many people had died fighting over this little piece of land. In the end, the Allies decided to retreat, and moved their hundred thousand troops out into the Aegean in one night. Allied commentators say that's the only part of the campaign that went well: not one casualty.

Back in Eceabat (by the way, c in Turkish is pronounced as if it's a j) we had dinner in a restaurant with a patio and grape vines for a roof. There were lots of mezze to try, and I had a good chicken kebab for a main. At one point a trio of cats had a disagreement beside our tables. We sampled some local Syrah at the hotel which was very good, and I stayed up much later than I should have considering I'd had five hours sleep the night before and had to get up at 6.45 the next morning.

I possibly may not have Internet for a bit. We shall see.

Istanbul Day 2: Mosques, Spice Markets and the Aya Sofya

I've had about five hours sleep and I don't do very well on five hours sleep so I'm not sure how coherent this post will be. I apologise in advance.

So. After a nice Turkish breakfast we set out on a walking tour of old Istanbul. Our first visit was to the Blue Mosque, which was just as crowded as the day before, and quite noisy. We recovered in a cafe in the square near the sixteenth-century university, where I tried Turkish coffee for the first time. It is thick, though possibly not quite thick enough to stand your spoon up in (I'd heard you could do this) and comes in a small cup. The coffee is ground up very fine and stirred in so you drink quite a lot of grounds, but it's not as unpleasant as when you drink normal coffee grounds - in fact it's quite nice. At the end you're left with about a centimetre of coffee grounds in the bottom, which you can use to tell fortunes.

The next stop was the Sulaimayne Mosque, which I enjoyed a lot more than the Blue Mosque - far fewer people and richer, more vibrant decorations. The architect considered this mosque his master work and spent a lot of time getting the acoustics right, so when you speak the sound softly echoes around the building. Even with people talking it's very peaceful and you just have to sit and gaze and take it all in. The windows high up around the dome throw light on the gold, red and blue paintwork and white walls, and electric lights glow gold on high ledges and low chandeliers. The garden of the mosque looks out over the city and harbour, and I was amazed at how high we'd climbed.

Back out on the streets we wound through lots of little alleyways and streets with steps. We saw one building covered completely in colourful randomly-applied mosaic tiles, which gave an interesting inside-out bathroom feel, and many ancient-looking walls with ivy holding higgledy-piggledy stones together. Our third mosque of the day was quite small (compared to the previous ones) and reached through a winding medieval staircase. It's called the Rustem Pasa Mosque and is, I think, more deserving of the name Blue Mosque than the Blue Mosque is. The blue tiles in this one are a deep royal blue and come right down to the ground, whereas the ones in the other mosques began above eye-level, I guess to lead your thoughts towards the heavens.

A few more turns through the cobblestones streets and we were at sea level again. Our guide suggested fish-in-bread for lunch, so we picked a brightly painted and gilded boat at the dock and got our fish-in-bread for five lira (a little less than three pounds). The boat was wildly rocking on the wakes of ships going past, to the point it almost looked like it might tip over, and service had to stop until the water calmed again. You'd have to have very good balance to work in that fast-food place. The fish was pretty good, though I seemed to have received the entire group's share of bones and spent a lot of time picking them out from between my teeth.

We had an afternoon full of free time, so we split up. My roommate Kiwi Glamgirl and I took a wander through the spice market and spent a lot of time in one shop where the man poured spices into our hands to sample and let us smell all the beautiful teas. We came out with quite a bit of tea, some spices, Turkish delight and a pepper grinder apiece, and could have bought a lot more (the man told us we were shopping like students when we kept saying 'no! That's enough! Enough!').

We dropped our purchases at the hotel and followed the tram line up to the Aya Sofya, which is the former church-mosque-now-museum straight across from the Blue Mosque. It was built in the fifth century, if my memory's giving me the right info, and is absolutely huge. It's still in the top five biggest religious buildings in the world. The interior was originally covered in mosaics but then plastered over when it became a mosque, but they've uncovered some of them so you can see. The entire building seems to be made of marble and the domed ceiling soars above you - it's so high they had to build it three times before it would stay up. There are lots of Roman arched everywhere, and it was incredible to think that the reason you only see round Roman arches is that they hadn't yet invented pointed arches when they built the Aya Sofya.

We climbed up stone ramps, round and round and round, to get to the gallery where most of the mosaics were and to look down on the vast floor below. As in the other mosques, low-hanging wrought iron frames held sparkling lights and the walls were decorated with flowers and Arabic calligraphy. I tried to get some pictures of the vibrant stained glass windows, but they never seem to show up properly on my camera.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the surrounding parks and shops (we were given some apple tea by one of the shopkeepers) and sitting on the grass outside Topkapi Palace. We met up with the rest of the group for dinner at a fill-a-plate style cafe, where I had a very rich moussaka, and then walked across the bridge and took pictures of the sunset and peach-lit mosques.

Our guide was very enthusiastic about taking the second-oldest metro on the world up to Taksim. The metro, unlike the oldest metro in London, actually looks like it was built in the nineteenth century, with brick walls and only one carriage. It reminded me very much of the Wellington cable car, because it runs on the same principle: two cars on cables that start at either end of the track and cross in the middle.

This side of the river is more where everyday Istanbulites spend their time, away from the tourists. The are seventeen million people in Istanbul, and while the streets weren't that crowded (I.e. you could walk in a straight line without banging into anyone for most of the time) there were still so many more people than you might expect at nine o'clock on a Sunday night. Most of the people at the cafes and restaurants and bars were men, so I guess the women mostly stay at home.

We climbed many flights of a spiral staircase to get to a roof terrace open to the night sky and had a good time chatting and getting to know our group better. I ordered a mojito in a bottle, expecting it to be mixed with rum or vodka, but it turned out to be a mojito-flavoured beer. I do not like beer. I managed to get through about half of it, concentrating on the mojito taste and not the beer.

By the time we got back to the hostel it was nearing midnight and we had to catch a bus at six-thirty a.m., hence my five hours sleep. I'm now writing this on the bus to Gallipoli (probably should be using this time to sleep... Meh...) and looking out the window at the very New Zealand-esque landscape. Sunnier and drier, though.

(Are we nearly there yet?)

Turkey Day 1: Wanderings, the Blue Mosque and Catamarans

Merhaba! It means hello. I've almost got the hang of thank you (tedeshekkurler, sp.) and now I just need to memorise a few more words like excuse me and sorry-I-stepped-on-your-foot. It's amazing how you can mutter a word over and over and over to yourself in your head, but when it comes time to use it, it's completely gone.

This morning I got up rather late (explaining to myself that, as Turkey is two hours ahead of the UK, I was actually getting up early) and had breakfast in the hostel cafe, sitting on cushions around a little table. Breakfast was interesting, so I'm sorry but I have to detail it: feta, two kinds of olives (I thought one kind was huge blueberries and got very excited until I bit into it), cucumber, bread and apricot jam. Just as I was getting ready to go, they were carrying large TVs outside and attaching them to their mountings. When they turned them on, there were the All Blacks doing the haka! It was a live game against the Irish at Eden Park with what I think was Turkish commentary - funny to hear Turkish-Turkish-Turkish-Man of the match-Turkish-Heineken Cup-Turkish. I watched about ten minutes of that and then decided I should really get out and find the hotel where my tour starts. I wonder what the score was.

Again, I managed to find the hotel with only prior consultation of a map. Unfortunately, the tour had changed the hotel so I got directions from the first hotel that I didn't really listen to and then spent about half an hour wandering to the right hotel, situated three minutes walk from the first one.

Bags dropped, I set off for the turquoise sea I'd seen down one of the roads (had a revelation today - turquoise must come from Turkey, right?) and crossed over a bridge to what I thought at the time must be Asia, but looking back on it probably wasn't (Istanbul is situated on both Europe and Asian continents, but there are three parts to it, two in Europe). There were lots of fishermen throwing their lines off the bridge and coming up with multiple small iridescent fish, and people selling bait and bottles of iced water.

I wanted to go back to Sultanahmet to check out the Blue Mosque, and I was reasonably confident of my ability to get back because you can see the Blue Mosque with its six minarets from a long way off, as well as the Hagia Sofya beside it. Just look for the two gigantic Mosques, I thought to myself.

No one told me there were more than two gigantic mosques.

At one point I got four gigantic mosques all in my camera shot at the same time (though some were very tiny), and none of them were the Hagia Sofya or the Blue Mosque. Surely they don't need that many gigantic mosques - what about a few smaller ones? Must be to confuse lost tourists...

The actual Blue Mosque

I did find my way back (just follow the tram tracks...) and bought myself a turquoise scarf so I could go into the mosque. I took lots of pictures of the courtyard, with its marble paving and pillars around the edges and latticed fountain in the middle, and then found that the mosque had just closed for midday prayers. So I sat against a wooden door in the shade of the courtyard corridor roof and listened to the call to prayer from the minaret loudspeakers.

It's a haunting sound. The Blue Mosque call was answered by another mosque further away, and then another one beyond that, so there was a kind of layered echo fading into the distance. While prayers are on, they have a lecture in another building for tourists wanting to know more about the Mosque, telling you why it's called the Blue Mosque (blue tiles inside), showing pictures of other mosques including an open-air one, and translating the calligraphy. It was really interesting (and there was a teeny tiny kitten outside). I'd noticed before that mosques are decorated only with flowers or calligraphy or abstract patterns, and this is because they do not want to have any representation of anything that might be worshipped (no idols etc.), while flowers are supposed to remind you of the gardens of paradise.

Teeny tiny stray kitten outside the mosque

To get into the Blue Mosque as a tourist you pass through a small arched passageway, take a plastic bag for your shoes and make sure you're properly dressed. It seems it's more important to have your legs and arms covered than your head (as a woman), because lots of people were using the scarves provided as shawls or sarongs and not covering their heads. No one was yelling at them, so I assume this was acceptable (though I'm not sure about the girl using hers to do a sexy pose for her boyfriend's camera...).

Everything in the mosque draws you to look up. The domes stretch high above, coloured and patterned, and beautifully-wrought iron frames hold golden lights just above your head. I should mention at this point that my camera does not talk to my iPad, so I don't have any way of posting pictures at the moment. I plan to put them up when I get back! (now done)

When I was finished staring at the huge pillars and beautiful paintwork, I made my way down the hill to the sea, where about a dozen catamarans were having races. There was quite a bit of wind, and at times one side lifted out of the water as they sped along.

I walked a bit further and found many, many people sunbathing and a few happily caught in a very strong current that was carrying them parallel to shore. In one place a man had set up a frame of balloons and a gun, and I guess you could pay to shoot the balloons, or the ferry that was just beyond the balloon frame. Your choice. Later, I saw another man doing the same thing in front of what looked to be a major water pipeline. Possibly they weren't real guns.

We had our first important meeting as a tour group back at the hotel. There are quite a few Australians on the trip, and I'm sharing a room with a New Zealander. There are also a few Americans and English people, so i think it will be a good mix. We went out to dinner at a nice restaurant where I had Adana kebab and baklava (I've been walking past windows full of baklava all day going mmmmmmmm). I think I possibly haven't drunk enough water today because I have a headache, but hopefully that will go away with sleep...

I'm very much enjoying the air conditioning in my hotel room.

Airport Adventures

I'm on holiday! And you know what that means - lots and lots of posts, probably intermittently posted as I have access to Internet. I will try not to bore you with what I had for breakfast each day. Well, actually, I can't make any promises.

I had tickets for a flight from London City Airport this morning at an early-ish hour, but because City is in the city and not an hour or two out by train, I didn't have to get up until half past six. I was extremely pleased with this, especially when it only took me twenty-five minutes to get to the airport. You can't get anywhere in London in twenty-five minutes, but I did it. I got to the Docklands Light Rail (aka the slow robot roller coaster) stop and caught the DLR with time enough to get the front 'driving' seat, muttering to myself all the while 'driving the DLR, I'm going to be driving the DLR...'. Unfortunately I was facing the wrong way, so I was actually right at the back. Ah well.

Upon trying to check in, I found my flight had been cancelled due to high winds. I had been a bit dubious about the winds thrashing the trees around, but thought of all the flights I've taken out of Wellington airport and hoped it would be fine. My airline thought not, however, so I waited in line for forty minutes to change my tickets. Planes were flying out of Heathrow, so in the end I was put on a direct flight from Heathrow to Istanbul rather than the stopover-in-Zurich flight I'd been booked on.

Now I just had to get to Heathrow. The airline got us a black London cab, which took us all through central London and then out to Heathrow, which for anyone wanting to know is a hundred pound journey. I have a cancellation buddy who's been changed to the same flight as me, and when we were getting to the end we looked at each other and hoped we weren't expected to pay the fare. Luckily, no.

So I am currently sitting on a Turkish airlines flight wondering which movie to watch, or if I should brush up on my Turkish. I know there's a word 'Merhaba' (sp.) but I can't remember what it means...

Turkish airlines also has the longest safety video I've ever seen, and tells you to remove all sharp objects from your person when you use the emergency slide. I never thought about that... (and actually, what sharp objects would you have on you after going through security?).

To be continued....

Now I'm sitting in my hostel trying to figure out where the day's gone. It's 8.30 at night already and I'm sure I got out of bed only a few hours ago. I watched Another Earth on the plane (interesting, very atmospheric movie. You never actually get to see the other Earth. I think I liked it, though) and then Singing in the Rain, which I've seen parts of but never all the way through. I walked past the Blue Mosque and what I think might be the Aya Sofya to get to the hostel, which I found without really consulting a map - very proud. Next step: food.

Aya Sofya and watermelon

Update: had a Caesar salad for dinner at a nice outdoor cafe and there was a cat with HUGE eyes staring at people from under the table.

Jubileeeeeeee

Much to report!

First, being a very long four day Queen's Jubilee weekend, my boiler has decided to not make hot water. This is ever so slightly frustrating. Service people may not come for a few days. I am considering taking a bath like they did in the centuries before hot water, by boiling it on the stove and carrying it up to the bath. I wonder how long it would take?

In other news, Queen Elizabeth II has now been on the British throne for sixty years! There are lots of things happening to celebrate, including street parties and parades and concerts and a gigantic picnic in Hyde Park. On Saturday we held a barbecue in our back garden where people dressed up in Hugo Boss suits and red heels and pearls (not all on one person) and toasted the Queen whilst surrounded by bunting. The weather actually turned warmish for a while, and the sun came out and everything. The barbecue fell over at one point (this is what happens when you let the boys handle the barbecue) and the fire came out and sat flaming on the ground, but we put it back in the barbecue and there were no other incidents apart from people over balancing and destroying the back fence.

Yesterday was the Thames Pageant, when a thousand boats sailed/motored/rowed seven miles down the Thames. I was very lucky to know a friend who works at the National Theatre, which was having a barbecue for all its staff and their guests on their many balconies. We got a nice spot looking over the river through some trees, and sat on our chairs with our Pimm's while the boats went past. First off was a boat with church bells on it (though you couldn't really hear them ringing for all the crowd noise), followed by the Gloriana, a beautiful rowed barge that looked like it could have come from the sixteenth century. Unfortunately I didn't get a good photo of the Gloriana, but here's one of a gondola rowed by Italian gondaliers. I'm not sure why they are dressed like smurfs - I saw quite a few people dressed like this so there may have been a particular reason behind it. Most likely not involving smurfs.

There were row boats and canoes and kayaks and an ancient waka that had come from a museum in the the Netherlands. I was very excited by the waka (Maori war canoe) and kept pointing and yelling 'waka!' but nobody really knew what I was talking about. The pointing meant I didn't get a very good picture, but here is the picture I did get:

Observe the umbrellas. It hadn't quite started to rain yet, but it was well on its way.

It wasn't long before the cheering increased and the royal barge came sliding into view. I clicked away madly (while watching the barge itself) and hoped I'd get some good pictures. I was pretty resigned to not seeing the Queen as I didn't think I could pick her out and didn't know what colour she was wearing, but the boat itself was very impressive - all done up in red and gold. It wasn't until I got home and looked at my pictures on the computer that I realised I'd caught a picture of the Queen! So here it is, my impressionist photo of the Queen and Prince Philip, and what I think might be the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Kate is wearing red, the Queen is wearing white).

As the royal barge went past, the National Theatre pulled up banners and ribbons and giant screens, and Joey the puppet horse from War Horse the musical ran along the top of the building and reared. I did get a picture of this, but this coverage by TV is much better and gives you a sense of the incredible skill that gives life to Joey.

Your brain just doesn't process that it's not a real horse. Apparently they've introduced Joey to a real horse, and the real horse got pretty freaked out.

They'd closed the Thames barrier, which is like a dam that stops the tide coming in and allows them to control the depth and flow of the water. It was amazing to see the river so calm. I also heard a rumour that if anything bad happened, one plan was to open the barrier and then the royal barge would zoom right out of there.

I think that would make a good movie.

It was raining pretty hard by now, so we went inside and collected our chocolate brownies and watched the television footage. Then we remembered that the band from One Man, Two Guvnors was doing a gig outside, so we braved the downpour to see if they were still there. They were! Soaked to the skin, but still playing to the crowd of umbrellas and flags and people with their hair plastered to their scalps. They started into Hey Jude, and everyone was na-na-na-ing and having a great time in the freezing rain. The atmosphere was amazing.

(Their suits are actually maroon. That's how soaked they are.) So that's been my jubilee weekend so far. How has your weekend been?

Mooovies

Still summer here. We have a four day weekend coming up, though, so rain and cold is pretty much guaranteed.

I took advantage of my unlimited movie card last week and saw two movies in two days: Beauty and the Beast in 3D (for the second time) and The Raid. I spent most of Beauty and The Beast marvelling at its genius and trying to figure out what makes it so good (love the prologue with the stained glass, love the first scene with Belle walking through the village and everyone singing, love the music and the lyrics, nice segue to introduction of Belle's father, great explosions... I wonder how far through the movie I can get?). Beauty and the Beast was the first film I ever saw at the cinema, and I still remember sitting there in the dark and staring up at the gigantic screen, feet dangling and worrying intermittently about being eaten by the fold-down seats. I had a colouring book, too, with Belle and Beast in the snow with the little birdies. Belle may also have been my model for book-reading habits, with her ability to wander through a crowded market while reading a book without crashing into anything.

And the ending! All sparkles and happy people, though I've always liked the furniture versions of the servants more than the human versions. I also faintly object to the platinum-blondness of the Prince. Why do fairytale princes have to have long, flowing blonde locks? Still, good movie.

I was expecting The Raid to be in English, but it's in Indonesian with subtitles (Brother Ecl says he thought the main characters were going to be bad guys because they weren't speaking English. Sad but true commentary on Hollywood movies). I don't mind subtitles (in fact I think it's better to hear the original words) but was a bit worried I'd miss some of the action because I'd be reading the subtitles. No chance of that - there wasn't that much dialogue. There was lots and lots of action, though, and for some reason it was all easy to follow. Normally I glaze over a bit when fights last long than a minute, but there was something about The Raid that meant you were glued to the screen all the way through.

We were a bit late, so never got introduced to the main character. This meant I wasn't sure who was the main character until right at the end, when he was pretty much the only one left. I quite liked it that way, because it kept it surprising. Normally you know the main character will live to the end, but if you don't know who the main character is anyone might be next. I wonder if this would work in a book? Hmm. Maybe a short story.

Enjoyed any good movies recently?

A Year in the UK and meeting authors (squee!)

Today is the one-year anniversary of my arrival in the UK. It's kind of scary to think about. Time goes past so fast.

In the last year I have learnt to ride the underground like a natural-born Londoner (hmm. As I write that, I am reminded of two occasions in the past week when I stood on toes because I wasn't holding on. I had to turn my page! It was necessary! And the train braked at just the wrong time). I've decided that the most important things to do on the Underground are to keep moving (even if you go in the wrong direction. Turning on the spot is much better than standing still) and to memorise the best doors for each station.

I've learnt to carry an umbrella with me wherever I go. I've learnt to dress in proper layers, with a coat and everything. I've shopped in huge stores and caught trains to different countries and tackled the banking system. I've been to Germany and France and Wales and Northern Ireland (and will be going to Turkey soon! Stay tuned!). I've had a proper English Christmas dinner and snow and seen squirrels. Lots and lots of squirrels.

I've witnessed the preparations for the Queen's Jubilee (something faintly scary about the union jack EVERYWHERE. And apparently we will have bunting for our jubilee party next weekend. BUNTING). I've seen the changing of the guard. I've been stuck multiple times on the Underground and taken the slow roller coaster that is the DLR. I've been to a reception at Parliament and stood on either side of the Greenwich Mean Line and watched Shakespeare in the Globe Theatre. I have got tickets to the Olympics and the Paralympics.

And this week I have had a barbecue in the back garden and discussed the possibility of there being a WWII bomb shelter under the patio and watched Eurovision (interesting. Veeeerrry interesting). And yesterday I went to see Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson in Stratford, which was hilarious and involved discussions of cannibal ducks and kittens and putting your friends into your books. Sarah Rees Brennan was also there and I managed to get books signed by all of them. I also managed not gush too much when SRB said she liked my necklace (she likes my necklace! She does!), or tell her how I was once four hours late to work because I had to finish her book...

It's nice meeting authors. You can be sure they're real people, and not just internet/publishing industry secret conspiracy inventions.