Sunday the 26th April.

After a bit of a sleep in we boarded the bus to make our way to Troy. Here we experienced local cuisine at a restaurant of an author who signed his books on Gallipoli and Troy for us.
We viewed the wooden horse of Troy and some ancient ruins of the city and an opportunity to take our first group photo.

From here we chose to take another toon is to the town / city of Assos. Here we walked up the hill through the traditional road side markets to enter the ruins of an ancient temple with fabulous views of the country of Greece across the water.

 back to the gorgeous sunset at Cannakkal.

Friday 24th of April

Our day begins with the journey of a trip to 5h the ANZAC Cove. On arrival we joined the end of a snaking line of buses that took 4hrs to get to it's first registration station. Here we were to check that the ballot for tickets and passport receiving a wrist band to confirm that they were right. Continuing on we Reached our second destination where we disembarked from the bus to walk a short distance up the road to catch a shuttle to be transfered to the website of the commemoration ceremony. Once here we had to compete with Thousands of other aussies who had already arrived and made Themselves comfy by lying out across the grass and taking up huge amounts of space. Eventually over 10,000 of us were manoeuvered around so that all people had a seat of some kind. 
The ceremony consısted of various forms of entertainment, from, bands and singing to traditional Aboriginal cultural presentations and New Zealand. A short film called the 'telegram messenger' was shown to put us into the right head space in apprecfiating the fact that we now have our freedom due to the selfless actions of defense of all a rmed forces across the last 100 years and still continue to do so ..

ANZAC Day

The dawn service began at 5.30am. The silence that fell across a crowd of over 10,000 pilgrims was amazing. The silence was broken by the sound of the waves crashing along the beach quietly. It was really quite errie.

At the completion of this service we divided ourselves into the Aussies and New Zealanders to attend the appropriati location of either Lone Pine or Chunuk Bair. This service beg that about 12pm and was a little less formal with people being able to share with them the stories and items of Gallipoli. The elderly gentleman from our bus group had being carried with him a 100 year old original map of Gallipoli feeling that belonged to father inlaw.
This memorable day ended up being 36 hrs long beginning with our arrival on the 24th. There was very little food or drink supplied throughout the day and everyone was beginniing to get a little frustrated.  We finally got back to our accommodation, in Cannakkal, at 11pm on the 25th and were told that there was a meal waiting in the dining room.

Sightseeing with ANZAC Group.

We continue to explore the ancient city of Istanbul with our new group of Aussies and guide Cemil. We begin with the ancient Basilica Cistern that that supplied the city of Constantinople with it's water supply in the 6th century.

This was Followed by the Aya Sofia which was originally a Byzantine Church that has now been made into a museum. The lines to enter thes sightseeing waits ranged form of 1hr to 15 minutes. Moving onto the Blue Mosque viewing tradtional payer from cleaning to prayer rituals.

 Mosque

Museum

We finished the day moving our way throught the Topkapi Palace that was the former home of the Sultan and the Grand Bazzar. Within the Palace we Admired the craftmanship of the tradesman and the 'over' use of mosaic tile patterns. After 2.5 hrs we had finally journeyed throughout the entire palace and it's many rooms.

The Grand Bazzar was a very busy market place, full of shops displaying crafts tradfitional from carpets, jewelery and handbags to souvenior shirts and samles of traditional food and drink.

Sightseeing

Istanbul full of history, Geographical, political, religious and cultural. Ugur original guide was amazing, with a wealth of knowledge and you could tell he enjoyed what he did as he just talked non stop. We could have listened to him all day, he just had a knack of making sense informative talks with a touch of humor, to keep us interested. Wednesday was a final day with Ugur with a walking tour of Pera and Galata seeing the area of ​​the recent political protests and what they called a pedestrian square which hold approx. 1.5million people on the weekend and late in the morning. We experienced three seasons with sunshine rain and hail as we journeyed. Ugur has many contacts around the local area and got us into some fasinating destinations such as the Hotel where the Orient Express stopped with passengers such as Agatha Christie and other wealthy travellors stayed, to have an expensive hot chocolate. Everything within the hotel is original including the elevator that can only be used 10 to 15 times a day, due to it's age and maintanence of the running system. We sampled traditional Turkish Doner Kebabs in a sandwich, from a local cafe and pretzels for the wagon portable stalls on the streets.
We were priviledged enough to enter a Greek Orthodox church that actually held one third of the column to which Jesus was tied and whipped, with the other two sections located in Jerusalem.
We climbed the stairs to the panaramic pathway around the top of the Galata Tower being amazed with the 360 ​​degree view of the city.
At the comletion of this day we reluctantly said goodbye to our guide, as from here we are being placed into or groups for ANZAC and meeting our new guide at the welcome dinner.

Finally Here

As I am entering this blog I can hear the call to prayer echo from the mosque on the sea edge. It is so magestic.
Wow what a day. After 25hrs of travelling, including the 11hr flight from Singapore to Istanbul, we have finally arrived on land in Turkey. I could never in my wildest dreams have imagined what this experience would be like and will not be rushing back to do it anytime soon. It has made me appreciate the fact that my job does not include the need for international travel.  On board Singapore airlines we ate the most amazing, never ending supply of food, viewed many of the latest released movies and tried when we could to get as much sleep as possible.
On arrival at the cargo section of the airport in Istanbul we were escorted in buses to the main terminal for baggage collection and gathering of the Mat Mclachlan Tourists.

Glimpses of Istanbul as we flew in this morning.

Moving through peak hour traffic. After a walk around the city this afternoon I have come to the conclusion that driving here is not for the faint hearted, it is very scary. Apart from being on the opposite side of the road, pedestrians cross the road at any break in the traffic, anywhere they like. Cars drive backwards down one way streets and there is very little indication. It is no wonder you here the constant sound of horn blasting not to mention the presence of 'Trafik Polisi'.

Passing many historical land marks dating back to the Byzantine Era. There are still big areas of the city that are borded by the original walls of Constantinople, both along the shores of the sea and inland.

On arrival at the Hilton the views from our room are spectacular. 

This evening some of us are gathering for an evening at Kumkapi, famous district close to the fishing harbour where gypsy band provide our entertainment and we partake in some local cuisine. 

On our way

Have landed safely in Singapore 2.50am our time and waiting for the plane to be cleaned so we are able to reboard to Istanbul. 28 degrees in Singapore. Very tired and looking forward to longer flight to get some sleep. Food on flight was fabulous.

Getting Ready

Our journey begins on the 20th of April flying out from Sydney and landing in Istanbul on the 21st.
I will endeavor to keep you updated as we move along but this will depend on the availability of Wi Fi at our various destinations.