So I thought saying goodbye to "Jack and Rose" real names Reg and Eva was the saddest thing about last Monday.... I was wrong!

We departed the cruise ship at 11am on Monday back in Bodrum. It was a beautiful day and Lacey and I were happy to be back in Turkey. We love it here!


In Bodrum we only had a few things to do and that included going to Migros (a swiss supermarket chain) and heading to an internet cafe. We had a flight at 8am Tuesday morning so we had all day to kill. It was nice walking around the city. I discovered that the Turkish Post system is uber-expensive and also that the Bodrum airport is open 24 hours a day.

This is where I spent the evening on Monday - sleeping on a bench. You can imagine how impressed I was.

So after the traumatic ordeal we arrived in Istanbul at about 10am. We flew into the asian side and had to catch a ferry to the european side where we were staying in an area called Sultanahmet. This is major tourist town and we easily found a hostel.

Tuesday was spent dragging ourselves through the city in search of food. That evening after a mid-afternoon sleep we headed back out for a treat and watched a free show in an out door cafe. We watched a "sufi whirling show" which is a twirling meditation that originated among Sufis, which is still practiced by the Dervishes of the Mevlevi order. It is a symbolic ritual through which dervishes aim to reach the "perfect" kemal. They try to desert their nafs, egos or personal bad desires by listening to their master and sufi music, thinking about God and whirling (from wikipedia)

On Wednesday after much needed rest we set out to explore the city. We wandered down to the "grand bazaar" and were amazed at how big it was. We found that street vendors were also a lot cheaper than in the bazaar. The turkish people really know how to hassle you and try every way possible to get you in their stores. For example: "Hello Lady, do you come from heaven!" Hahaha it is funny at first but after a while it is really tiring when men are asking you to come into their shop and have tea, etc!

We went through the "Blue Mosque" which is the national mosque of Turkey and was built between 1609 - 1616 under the rule of Ahmed1.
The mosque gets its name from all the blue tiles in the interior walls.

Unsure of how many days we were to spend in Istanbul, I didnt want to miss the chance to go to Gallipoli. I planed to go on a tour organised through my hostel, so this was how I spent my Thursday. My dads birthday.

I had to wake up at 5.30am to be ready to be picked up by a shuttle to take me to the "otogar" (bus terminal). No one else from my hostel was going on the tour but thankfully when I got on the shuttle an aussie girl from Melbourne was also doing the tour so we spent the day together.

This tour was fantastic. Of course I knew of the battle of gallipoli but the information that I found out from the tour really made me appreciate what the australian army men went through. This picture to right is the view from Anzac Cove known as the "sphinx"

The terrain here is crazy and there are winds 75 percent of the year at over 60km per hour. We got to go in trenchs and also visit the largest australian memorial site called "lone pine" Lots of Australian families paid for grave stones but the rest of the peoples names are here. You could spend hours going through the people and seeing if there are long lost relatives on the lists.

Supposedly if you search hard enough you can find bones on the land. But my tour group and I did find a few things including shrapnel, bullets and a piece from a hand grenade.

I spent 10 hours on the bus on Thursday and didnt arrive home till midnight but it was well worth it and I would recommend anyone going to Turkey to take the time to visit here.

The turkish people really respect australians and I wasnt really sure as to why seeing as a war with our men took place on their land, with thousands of people killed but through it all there is a great respect between the two countries. Here is an extract from a speech given by an Australian ambassador at the commoration of Lone Pine.

"A unique relationship was forged between Australians and Turks on the battlefields of this peninsula. During the suffering and destruction of the war our soldiers developed a respect for their Turkish adversaries as soldiers and as men. The Australians appreciated the Turks’ courage, fighting ability and sense of honour. For example, J J Ryan of the 4th Battalion, who fought at Lone Pine, referred to the Turks as “good honest soldiers – brave”, who were “not afraid to die”. E W Bartlett of the 11th Light Horse said the Turks “fought very fairly and like us were honest troops”. One final example from Allan Salveson, who landed soon after the Battle of Lone Pine and was sent to hold the line here: “they were very good fighters and very fair people"

As I mentioned in an earlier post. The people in Secluk showed such hospitality to us and now I can really understand why.

So back to Istanbul on Friday we planned to meet Lauren (the aussie girl from Thursday) and go to the Princes Islands, aout a 90 minute boat ride from the golden horn of Istanbul. James a NZ guy from our hostel also came.

It was quite a long way to the islands and sadly not really worth it. I did see some massive jellyfish though! We still had a nice day and then once we arrived back to Istanbul Lacey and I made the trek to the Tasim area and found a really great street full of shops and nice restaurants. There was even a gloria jeans coffee shop! After dinner we headed to the metro station and caught the oldest subway in the world down the hill.

I went a bit crazy later on a had some CHOCOLATE baklava and also bought lots of handmade turkish jewellery... so pretty!

Our last night in the hostel was a bit of a blur as the guy behind the hostel bar decided it was a good idea to give us free shots and beer, but we had fun hanging out with all our fellow travellers!

Rush, rush, rush on Saturday we had alot to do in our last day in Turkey. First things first we went and bought our ticket to Varna, Bulgaria. We then went to the "spice bazaar" and had a look around.

Funnily enough, whilst having lunch we met a girl who we had met whilst in Selcuk, 2 weeks ago so we spent some time with her which was really nice and then after we went to the Aya Sofia. Originally a christian church it was then converted into a Mosque. One of the most amazing places I have ever been to. Sometimes to me churches all look the same but this one was GINORMOUS and had lots of character.

In the 1930's Turkish president Ataturk, turned the mosque into a museum and made sure that the original mosaic tiled pictures of the church are also shown, though once covered up. The detail and contrast within this place was amazing.

So back to the hostel to pack up our things we stayed there for a little while and then made our way to the bus station ready to begin the 11 hour bus ride to Varna. I hate buses but I was also a bit nervous about crossing the border.

Thankfully we made it and I now have a Bulgarian stamp. We jumped into bed in our cute little hostel at 5am this morning and spent the day relaxing and having a wander around the city. A bit dreary, tomorrow we will explore more.

I just wanted to mention also, if you get my blog sent to you in an email, if you reply to my emailed blog it also gets sent to everyone in my contact list. If you would like to write me you can hit FORWARD and write to my email address or you can go to my blog link and at the bottom click on COMMENT.

Speak to you soon,
Love Megan