An Unplanned Year

We left our hotel early this morning to catch the 8am ferry across the Dardanelles Strait to Europe and the Gallipoli Peninsula. We got there in time for taking the 7:30am ferry.

In Turkish, Gallipoli is Gelibolu.

We started at Anzac Cove where 16000+ soldiers landed on 25th April 1915.
Immediately you wonder how such a plan was even thought achievable. During the campaign the two opposing forces lost over 120000 soldiers, with about 80000 of those being Ottoman troops lost.

There is a large monument that displays a letter from Attaturk.

And a statue that represents how Türkiye is caring for ANZACs now.

We visited Ari Burnu Cemetery

and the Lone Pine Memorial,

there were two VC winners listed on the Lone Pine Memorial;

Chunuk Bair Cemetary

and an Atatürk Memorial.

We then started the final long drive of the tour to Istanbul.
A dedicated tour of the Gallipoli Peninsula would stop at many other locations and memorials and would be worth doing.

Driving to Istanbul we passed the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge that crosses the Dardanelles Strait, the largest suspension bridge in the world.

The towers are 318m high and the longest span is 2023m long. These numbers are significant for Türkiye: 318 – 18th March 1915 – date of Ottoman naval victory in the Dardanelles Strait, before Gallipoli; 2023 – 2023 is the 100th anniversary of Turkish nationhood.

We got back to Istanbul, had a bit if a rest then wandered out to find some Tantuni. It was delicious!

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We had all alarms turned off this morning so that if we needed sleep, we had it!
We were still up and out of the hotel by about 9am, heading to Topkopi Palace.

From the 1400s to the late 1800s the palace was home to the Sultans who ruled the Ottoman Empire. It is now a museum and library.
We walked around the palace for several hours. Our first area was the former kitchens.

In their day the kitchens served 5000 people on a normal day and up to 15000 when the soldiers came to collect their pay every quarter.

Now they house displays of ceramics, spoons, cookware, tableware etc. The largest collection of Chinese and Japanese ceramics outside of China and Japan is here.

The next area housed clothing worn by the Sultan and their families. The fabric these gowns were made from was stunning.

Handwoven silks in vibrant colours and patterns, hand embroidered, some were fur lined.

One information board said they took on average two years to make.

The next building was the Treasury, which housed all the gold, jewellery, “ordinary” items like a water jug, a cot, a chair covered in precious gems like diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, topaz and more.

This building also had a terrace with a great view of the Bosphorous River.

Next up were religious relics. A beautifully decorated building

(though Moroccan mosaics are far superior to Turkish mosaics) that houses such things as Moses’ walking staff, a footprint of Mohammed (if he was a yeti), one if his shoes (amazingly this was a different size to the footprint) and boxes for his beard hair!

From here we visited the library,

a beautiful room we’d happily read a book in – then grabbed a bite to eat.
Next up was the council rooms then the Harem. ‘Harem’ just means ‘private space’. But it was where the sultan, his mother, his wives and concubines, eunuchs and staff lived.

Once we’d finished there we headed for the exit and found a cafe to sit, have a drink and some lunch and cool down!
We then headed towards the Basilica Cistern, but the queue was long and in full sun, so we kept walking towards the Grand Bazaar. Here we attempted to locate the area we missed the last time we came, then walked towards the river and caught a bus back to our hotel.

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Today is our last day in Istanbul and Türkiye. Our flight back to Podgorica is in the early evening, leaving the hotel around 3pm. It takes an hour to get to the airport on a regular day, so they recommend leaving early.
We checked out, left our bags at the hotel and headed to the ferry terminal to go to Kadaköy, the Asian side of Istanbul.

We had a Turkish coffee, wandered around the streets of the bazaar, enjoyed a tantuni for lunch,

then hopped a ferry back to Karaköy.

Meandered back to our hotel via a beer stop, grabbed our bags, the taxi and the flight in that order.

We’re now at our hotel in Podgorica and will drive into Albania tomorrow for a week at the beach.