Turkey

3 days in Turkey were fantastic. We didn’t experience any agriculture, but it was great to see this beautiful country. We stayed in Istanbul, pretty much in the heart of the busy city centre. There are people galore, just walking up the street is a task in itself, as no matter what direction you go in, you always feel like your swimming upstream.

The Grand Bazaar markets are packed with around 4000 different shops selling rugs, scarfs, jewellery, lanterns, clothes and more. The market place originally started 1000's years ado, created for ottoman to come and sell their stores. Everyone is pushing to try and sell, and it is a great, busy, noisy place. I brought a few nic nacs and the suitcase is slowly getting heavier.

 

The Blue mosque is a very grand Muslim house of worship. It is a beautiful building, but its beauty (in my eyes) has been taken with the swarms of tourists going through there every day. You have to remove your shoes and cover your bare skin, which seems a bit silly to me when so many people are there just to check out cool building, rather than honour any god.

The sofia church was pretty amazing, one of the largest Christian churches in the world, built by the Romans in the 500’s AD. It had been converted to a Muslim house of worship when the Ottemans had taken over, and the Muslim religion become dominant. All the mosaics had been plastered over, and minuets (tall skinny towers) added. But today, it is being restored to its natural state, and removing the plaster is uncovering very well preserved Christian mosaics.

Turkey is now 99% muslim, but in the past has a huge history if different cultures and religions.  

The underground city cisterns, where water was stored under the city in1400’s, abandoned and then discovered in hundreds of years later. They have been restored and we were able to walk around the giant underground ‘tanks’.

Gallipoli visit was as special as I had expected. It was great to visit with 7 other ANZ’s. We took a day trip out there, and although it was a long drive, we had a great guide who showed us around all the sights in just the afternoon. Such as sad place to visit, with the huge loss of life, and it is hard to imagine such a beautiful place being in such terror as war. After going there you definitely get a much better feel for how hard the conditions that our ANZACS experienced. There is sense of pride seeing how hard our Aussies fought and the conditions they endured, but you can’t help but think what a terrible waste of life on something as futile as war.

We had some lovely meals together, a couple out on the rooftops looking over the city and the sea. The weather has been fantastic, and it has been a real holiday. I only wish I was doing this part of the trip with my own family and friends.

Linda and Rob, on the rooftop

GALLIPOLI COAST, where our troops landed

ROOFTOP DINNER RESTAURANT

TURKISH DEIGHT!!!!