Türkiye wanderings: Istanbul, Bursa, Gallipoli

This post is part of a series on the Great Girls' Adventure of 2015. My daughter and I travelled to Türkiye, Greece and Romania. Each country on our adventure has its own post. I've written my reflections on our Turkish experience at the end of this post and my reflection on what the trip meant to me as a whole at the end of the Romania post.

Background

Our (first) Great Girls' Adventure, as we came to call it, took place in October 2015, when my daughter (referred to in my posts as E) was just shy of her 14th birthday. This trip was special as it was just the two of us and our opportunity for an adventure before E embarked on the final two important years of high school.

I was originally looking into travelling to Spain (on my bucket list) but I ended up finding a good deal on flights to Türkiye with Emirates. I've always been interested in seeing Türkiye, largely because of the ANZAC connection with Gallipoli. Türkiye seemed like a great place for the inaugural Great Girls' Adventure! We extended our adventure to Santorini, Athens and Bucharest after we realised just how close Greece and Romania are to Türkiye. Way exciting!!!

Check out my posts on our Türkiye adventures (Istanbul, Gallipoli, and Bursa), and our sojourns to Santorini and Athens in Greece, and our Romanian wanderings (Bucharest and Transylvania)

Our long trek to Istanbul

Our first hurdle was making it to Istanbul from Brisbane, given that E hadn't done a long haul flight before other than the 10 hours to Hawaii in 2013. We flew in relative luxury on an Emirates A380, leaving Brisbane at 9pm, hoping to sleep most of the 13-hour first leg to Dubai. This was my third trip with Emirates and I'd fly with them again. They do good food and service and the extra comfort of the A380 is wonderful for giants like me.

Travel tip: If you live at the bottom of the world as I do, I highly recommend only travelling the long leg on journeys across the globe on an evening flight. The first leg from Australia to the UK and Europe is 13-14 hours if travelling via the Middle East. It's best if you can kill most of that time asleep and spend the second leg awake.

It was lovely to finally arrive in Dubai and be able to stretch our legs during the 5-hour layover before the second flight that would get us to Istanbul. E was decidedly unimpressed with Dubai airport, even though I'd remembered it from previous trips as kind of cool. She said, "it's just an airport" and "there are too many people". All true, but I was still in awe of the size of the place and all of the sparkly things in the shops. A total feast for your senses.

We were given a meal voucher because of the length of the stopover, but it was only for selected food outlets and for a set menu. We found something to eat that matched the time our bodies thought it was even though we probably didn't really need to eat.

We managed to fill in the 5 hour stopover, which, I have to say, is not the longest I've spent wasting time in an airport! Some of that time was spent stalking ATMs to find one that worked. I was on a quest to find the euros that I thought I needed to pay the driver in Istanbul for the hotel transfer. We did prevail in the end and I had my hands on the first of many different currencies we used during our trip.

We were on a smaller plane for the 4-hour flight to Istanbul and I can confidently say we were kind of over travelling by the time we arrived. I always feel a bit yuck after long-haul trips (30 hours this time!), desperately in need of a shower, change of clothes and a way to fix my woeful travel hair.

Arriving in Türkiye was terribly exciting but also made me feel anxious about what might be in store for us. We had organised with the hotel to be picked up from the airport, with this instruction via email:

Good Morning,

Your Atatürk Airport Transfer is confirmed. One of our driver will be waiting for you out sight at the custom exit with a sing writing your name on. Kind Regards.

Lovely, thanks! The trouble was, there were a bajillion people in the arrivals area and an equal number of people standing with makeshift signs with people's names on them. Yikes! I swear I walked up and down the arrivals area THREE TIMES before I finally found the guy attached to our hotel. He held a tiny sign that was a little lost in the sea of other signs. It had my daughter's name written on it, not my name as I had been expecting. The instructions didn't quite match up with reality but we eventually found our guy, not before my anxiety went through the roof, mind you.

We made it to our hotel, language barriers and our travel exhaustion aside, but not before our driver treated us to a mad mini van dash through the late afternoon Istanbul traffic. This was our first taste of the manic, horn-tooting, not-following-road-rules drivers in that crazy city. Are there any road rules in Istanbul? If there are, no one follows them!

Our first introduction to Istanbul

It only took about half an hour to get to the hotel from the airport and then we were at our home for the next five days, the Istanbul Harmony Hotel. The hotel was in a great location - only a few minutes' walk from the blue mosque and other important things to see in the European part of the city. The place had a slight Fawlty Towers feel to it, in the most fun and interesting way. I never pay a lot for accommodation and I prefer the authenticity you get when you avoid standard hotels. Mr Ibrahim, our lovely, helpful and friendly host, definitely fit the Basil Fawlty mode. He beamed at us constantly and never gave up on his quest to have us drink tea. He was so proud to show us our room on the top floor, up four flights of narrow, spiral stairs. The room was tiny but we could see the port and the Bosphorus from our window. We'd asked for two single beds but were given a double. It was super comfortable so we always slept well.

Great location and exceptional value for the price. We loved staying there.

Note: I discovered that the hotel is now called the Harmony Hotel Istanbul and Spa. It's had a MAJOR makeover since we stayed there in 2015. There are great recent reviews and it's looking pretty schmick these days. I'm slightly sad, though, that it may have lost its original charm.

We both felt a bit stunned as we tried to take a breath and realise where we were. Istanbul, like Morocco, makes you feel alive and exhilarated and stimulated, all at the same time as you feel somewhat overwhelmed. It's so very different from Australia. It just took us a little time to adjust and brace ourselves for the adventure ahead.

We had taken out Turkish lira from an ATM when we arrived at the airport but we didn't feel like much for dinner. We found a little market on the next corner from our hotel where we bought some Turkish bread and drinks, for the sum total of about $3AUD. Our first purchase in Türkiye! The shop was tiny and we had to squeeze past other shoppers and communicate as best we could with the shop owner.

Everything was pretty cheap tin Türkiye when we visited, especially since the lira was only worth 48c against the Australian dollar at the time.

The water in the shower in our room was hot, the hotel was quiet at night, and the bed was super comfortable, as I said earlier. The staff were helpful and friendly and we felt safe there. The old building had its charms, but unfortunately, there was an unpleasant smell emanating from our tiny bathroom. I guess the ancient building came with ancient plumbing. The loo didn't seem to flush properly and the water in the shower didn't drain properly, either. Not to worry, we sprayed deodorant around the bathroom for three days until we managed to find a supermarket where we bought the biggest bottle of air freshener we could find. Problem solved. As I mentioned above, the hotel has been renovated now, so I'm guessing the plumbing has been fixed.

We had an amazing night's sleep and awoke ready to face our first proper day in Istanbul. Breakfast was served in the bowels of the hotel and despite not really knowing what we were eating, we fuelled up and headed out to explore the city.

Our Turkish wanderings

Türkiye is more correctly categorised Eurasia rather than Asia as it spans both the European and Asian continents. Istanbul is a transcontinental city in Eurasia, with just under 15 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area. The city straddles the beautiful Bosphorus Strait, a 31km body of water that separates Europe and Asia and connects the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea. The European side of the city is its commercial centre and home to two-thirds of the population.

This post is about our Türkiye wanderings over the five days we spent in the city as part of our Great Girls' Adventure in 2015. This is the post that introduces our adventure so you might like to read it first.

We stayed on the European side of Istanbul where most of the historical and cultural places of interest lie. Our hotel wasn't expensive, but in a great location, close to the blue mosque and an easy walk to the other main sites on the European side. We stayed at the Istanbul Harmony Hotel, but I see that the hotel has had a facelift and it's called Harmony Hotel and Spa these days.

The below photos are shots from our wanderings in our hotel neighbourhood.

We did the Big Three of the European side of Istanbul on our first day in Türkiye: the blue mosque, the Hagia Sophia, and Topkapi Palace. As an architecture nut, I loved exploring the buildings in this part of the city. Istanbul is a wild ride, but that's all part of the adventure.

The blue mosque

The blue mosque is so named for the mosaics inside. Officially, it's called the Sultan Ahmed mosque, as it was constructed between 1609 and 1616 during the rule of Ahmed I. The mosque has five main domes, six minarets, and eight secondary domes. It's an interesting mix of Byzantine elements of the nearby Hagia Sophia and traditional Islamic architecture. There are over 20 000 handmade ceramic tiles lining the interior. Apparently, it is considered to be the last great mosque of the classical period. It's super impressive from the outside as you can see from the photos below.

The interior was smaller than I was expecting given the ginormous structure you can see from the outside. It was crowded with tourists when we were there, all jostling for a good photo position, and the queue to get in was long. I know we were tourists, too, but it was a little hard to gain a full appreciation of mosque's beauty and ambience with so many people. That said, the mosaics were just stunning.

Travel tip: If you are female, make sure you are appropriately dressed or be prepared to wear the provided clothing at the entrance. I was asked to wear a full robe with a scarf, as the yoga pants I was wearing weren't long enough to cover all of my legs. My daughter (E) just had to wear a scarf as she was wearing jeans.

We were approached by a man as we walked up to the queue to enter the mosque. He promised us a guided tour and no waiting in line if we visited his shop after we'd finished. I managed to politely decline and when we saw him hovering out the front later, we quickly took off in the opposite direction before he spotted us! This is kind of the norm for Istanbul. We were approached by someone at the Hagia Sophia as well. I get that people need to make a living, but it can be a bit overwhelming. It's something you need to be prepared for and learn to politely decline if you're not interested.

Sultanahmet Archaeological Park

Leaving the mosque we headed towards the Hagia Sophia via the square in Sultanahmet Archaeological Park. The park was originally the Hippodrome of Constantinople (as the city was called then and the capital of the Byzantine Empire). The Hippodrome was a circus that was the sporting and social centre of the city. The park is now a major destination for travellers to Istanbul, housing two of the city's most visited sites, the Sultan Ahmed (blue) mosque and the Hagia Sophia, and four other notable sites: Topkapi Palace, Hagia Eirene, The City Walls, and Basilica Cistern. The park (including its historical sites) was added to the UNESCO register of World Heritage Sites in 1985.

The Square nicely connects the mosque and the Hagia Sophia and provides an awesome perspective of both structures. That's me in the bottom right-hand photo, walking towards the magnificent Hagia Sophia from the blue mosque.

The Hagia Sophia

The Byzantine structure was constructed in the Middle Ages in 537, first as a Greek Orthodox church, then as a Roman Catholic cathedral, and finally as an imperial mosque when the Ottomans took control of Istanbul, before being turned into a museum in 1935. It was at the Hagia Sophia that Mehmet II declared himself Sultan after defeating Constantinople in 1453. It was there that Ataturk proclaimed Türkiye a secular republic in 1931.

At the time we visited in 2015 the building was a museum but I believe in 2020 it reverted again to a mosque and is now free of charge for visitors as long as Islamic religious traditions are respected. The building is so huge, you can't really get a picture of it from the outside that does it justice. At one point, it was the largest building in the world!

The Hagia Sophia was a 'bucket list' item for me for our visit to Istanbul. I wasn't disappointed. To this day, it remains one of the most magnificent buildings I have ever seen. It is absolutely worth a visit. We stood in awe of the building for ages, just taking everything in. Below is a small sample of over 100 photos we took during our visit.

Topkapi Palace

The third site we visited on our first day in Istanbul was Topkapi Palace. It's not like the palaces I have been to in other parts of Europe as it's not very palace-like, more a series of buildings in a complex. It's also different to other palaces I'd been to with its mosaics and Arabic designs. Construction began in 1459 and continued during the 15th and 16th centuries. The palace has served as the main residence and administrative headquarters of the Ottoman sultans. The buildings are sprawled across a large area, hosting some cool things like jewels and swords and armour and stuff.

The best part about Topkapi, I think, is the view of the city, towards the Bosphorus Bridge and the Sea of Marmara. The Bosphorus really is the jewel of Istanbul. It's so pretty and it was lovely and sparkly for our visit.

We were getting pretty tired by the time we'd been to the three sites so we stopped and sat in the Square to watch all the people. Lunch consisted of pretzels and orange juice - pretty much Istanbul staples. Pretzels can be purchased from street stalls all over the place, for less than one dollar each. Yum.

E chose a pretzel filled with Nutella!

We went back to our hotel for a rest before heading out for dinner. later The meal was super tasty - Turkish ravioli and moussaka! We also bought some delicious Turkish delight from one of the many stores just off the square near the Hagia Sophia. It was lovely later in the evening when it was quieter, to sit in the square and sample the Turkish delight we'd bought and people-watch. I'm not really a fan of Turkish delight normally, but this stuff was great, and unlike anything I had tasted in Australia. It was a nice way to end our first day in Türkiye.

Bursa and Mt Uludag

We were keen to experience something of Türkiye beyond Istanbul. The Bursa tour piqued our interest from the day trip information we were given at our hotel. We were lucky to book two spots for our second day in Türkiye.

Day tours are a great way to experience a lot in a short time when travelling without your own transport. They are usually long days but convenient and hassle-free for the most part, especially if you can be dropped off and picked up at your hotel. I've always had lots of fun and interesting times on day tours. It's nice to have random encounters with people from all over the world and I've enjoyed talking to them as a one-off interaction.

The tour was a surreal experience as we were the only English-speaking people on the 30-person bus. The other people were all Arabic-speaking, from Türkiye, Lebanon, Oman, Jordan, and Kuwait. It was an interesting to experience being in the minority for once, and feeling the isolation of not speaking the common language. We don't find ourselves in that situation very often as English speakers. Our day out gave me total respect for anyone who moves to a completely new place and has to learn to cope using an unfamiliar language. It also cemented my understanding of my privilege as an English speaker (and a white person).

I can't recall our guide's name and I didn't keep a record of it, but I remember him as being like Dev Patel's character in the Marigold Hotel films. He was about the right age, friendly and helpful, and he had a manic kind of energy, rushing about and speaking super fast. The long explanations he gave in Arabic at the various stops were interesting as we obviously had no idea of the instructions he was giving the others. Immediately afterwards he would turn to us and say things like: Be back on the bus in 30 minutes, OK? I'm still not sure what he was telling the other people on the bus given our instructions were significantly shorter than the ones he delivered in Arabic! It was fascinating to watch the other travellers nodding in acknowledgement at the instructions while we felt separated from the group by our lack of understanding.

We didn't want to bother the guide by asking more about what was going on. We just got off at each stop and did our own thing. Some of our fellow travellers kept to themselves but others we talked to about our respective countries. Even with language barriers, it was lovely to meet people from a bunch of different places. We had the most incredible day out and we're so glad that we booked the tour.

The first part of the day was spent making our way through the city. Istanbul has around 15 million inhabitants and is one of the largest cities in terms of the metropolitan area population. This is something we can't comprehend coming from Australia, having that many people in the one city. It was nice to sit in the mini bus and look out the window at the city sprawl and see beyond the Sultanahmet area for the first time.

We crossed the Sea of Marmara at Yenkapi on a car ferry after about an hour of our bus driver's mad driving skills. (He drove really fast all the time, I remember that.) The ferry crossing was way cool. We sat up on a little bench in front of the cabin so we had fantastic views of Marmara (and all the seagulls).

That's our bus, encircled in pink in the top righthand photo.

We drove straight to Bursa after disembarking from the car ferry. The city sits at the foot of the 2500m high Uludag mountain range and is the fourth largest in Türkiye. It's about a 2-hour drive from Istanbul by car, or you can take the ferry from Yenkapi and a connecting bus.

Bursa was once the capital of the Ottoman Empire, from 1335 to 1363. Today it is often called Yesil Bursa - Green Bursa - in reference to the city's parks and mountain surrounds. It's a gorgeous city, with red-rooved houses, early Ottoman Empire sites and an incredible mountain backdrop. We didn't have a lot of time there and we only had the chance to visit the Yesil neighbourhood that overlooks the city. This part of the city is amazing, though, as it has magnificent views of the mountains and city centre. Bursa, you sure are pretty!

The mosque you can see in the distance in the above photo is the Grand Mosque, for 500 years the biggest mosque in Türkiye. It can hold 5000 people for prayer! The structure was built between 1396-1399 on instructions from the Ottoman sultan who wanted a mosque to commemorate his battle success. The mosque is now on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

While our stop in Yesil was not long, we still had enough time to do my favourite thing when travelling, just wandering around, taking it all in and trying to imagine what it would be like to live there. One of the main things to see in the neighbourhood is the Yesil Cami mosque (The Green Mosque), built between 1415 and 1419. We didn't go inside but could still appreciate its beauty from the outside.

The next stop was the Bursa Teleferik, up to the ski resort on Mt Uludag. Man, that was scary. The line stretches 8.8km and is the world's longest cable car. It was opened in 2013 after the old aerial tramway line from the 1960s was modernised. The trip takes 25 terrifying minutes, bumping over 45 support towers, rising up from 395m to 1870m.

I was terrified and in awe of the scenery at the same time. At one stage I had to close my eyes and take deep breaths as I was kind of freaking out.

But, wait, there was more terror to come! A chair lift to higher ground! This was an additional (small) cost on the day, but it was totally worth it for the views. The chair lift took us up to higher ground so we could look back down to the resort below.

There was plenty of free time at the top of the Teleferik. Some of the people on our tour did quad bike riding (and got separated from the rest of us!) but we preferred to explore the area and wait for the chair lift ride.

Imagine how awesome it would be to visit in winter when the mountains are covered in snow! I understand that the mountain is a popular ski resort in winter.

Once we all gathered back together again, we had a Turkish BBQ lunch halfway down the mountain. By then it was mid-afternoon. Just as well for the Pringles we bought in Yesil as there was no chance to eat until 4pm when we stopped for the very late lunch (Also, Pringles reign supreme in Türkiye; they are everywhere.)

We also visited a honey place and a huge Turkish delight shop on the way back to Istanbul, plus there was a rest stop at a giant tree with a café built underneath it. It was late when we got back to the hotel so we didn't bother about dinner. We had a great day out even if it was exhausting (around 12 hours all up) and we didn't understand most of what was going on. This was one of the best day tours I've ever done!

Bursa and the Uludag mountains were just magnificent. I highly recommend a visit if you are staying in Istanbul. We had plenty of time in Yesil overlooking Bursa and on top of the mountain to take in the views, but I wish we'd had more time to see other parts of the city.

I had no idea that Türkiye would be so beautiful outside of Istanbul. The trip to Bursa made me want to return to Türkiye to see more of the country. It was definitely a highlight of the whole trip, despite feeling completely terrified on the cable car!

Bosphorus wanderings

Day 3 in the city we we decided to visit the Grand Bazaar. I was bit surprised, actually, as I had somehow pictured it to be bigger. I've been to the Fez medina and Marrakech markets in Morocco and I'd read that the Istanbul bazaar is better. I didn't think so but then again I wasn't looking to buy anything. My feeling is that there was more atmosphere in the medinas and the markets I'd been to in Morocco. E wasn't all that fussed on it, either, as the barter system was a bit overwhelming for her. We didn't stay long in the end. She did buy the backpack in the below shot, though!

We were soon hopelessly lost after we came out of the bazaar. It's such a maze of streets in there and our sense of direction is woeful at the best of times. As usual, I had a slight panic for a moment. We decided then to follow the rule of thumb of 'heading to the water when lost'. The good thing about our hotel was that it was located near the water and close to the blue mosque so we had two landmarks to use to find our way back.

Heading to the water was a great idea in the end. Even though it took us an hour to walk back to our hotel, just look at the view we had during our walk! The Bosphorus sure is a magnificent sight and it was nice to see it up close.

I love these unplanned experiences that often seem to result from us getting lost. Just wandering around new places and spaces is one of the best parts of travelling, I think, even if I plan my trips up to the wazoo.

We had a rest after we arrived back at the hotel and then decided to head to an outlet shopping centre for something different to do. I had Googled the place before I left home and had a general sense of where it was, and knew that it was too far to walk to. (That said, I can't remember where it was now!) Our ever-helpful host, Mr Ibrahim, confirmed all this for us and called us a taxi, advising that the trip should cost no more than 20 lira. He was right, and we made it there just fine. Honestly, that man was a wonderful host.

It was fun wandering around the shops of a modern centre, such a stark contrast to the ancient architecture we had seen to date. Most of the shops were ones we didn't have in Australia. E managed to buy a long-coveted item, a denim jacket, from Mango for less than $30. Awesome. (I am now the proud owner of that jacket.)

We headed up the food court for a late lunch. There were a couple of American fast food chains that we recognised but we wanted something more traditional, even if the food court version. Nothing was in English, but we gave it a go. The guy who served us didn't understand us, nor we him, but we just pointed at what we wanted on the menu. It turned out we made good choices as the gozleme was delicious.

Things were going great until I asked for the bill. Instead we were given some tea. Right! I don't like tea but I added a heap of sugar and it wasn't too bad. And the sweet treats that came with it were yummy.

Our eventful day didn't end there as we left the shopping centre to catch a taxi back to the hotel. The hotel's business card that Mr Ibrahim had given us to get back had precise directions on it and a little map on the back. Bless him. We thought we'd be fine even with the language barrier. The taxi driver assured us he knew where to go. (I think that's what he said, anyway.) Everything was fine until two thirds of the way back when he inexplicably turned up a street that took us away from the hotel. I'm not sure where driver was planning to go, but he just suddenly stopped in some random place. We thanked him and got out as we felt it would be too hard to explain where we needed to go. Again we headed for the water and followed our instincts back to the hotel. About half an hour later we made it back. So much walking that day! I'm rather proud of us, though. I am rubbish with directions and never fail to get lost, but we kept reasonably calm and managed to see more of the gorgeous port in Istanbul along the way.

This was 2015 and looking back, I guess we didn't have network access outside of Wi-Fi on our phones. Writing this post in 2023, I get lost less often now that I have proper access to Google Maps., although my sense of direction is still no better.

Lest we forget: Our sojourn to Gallipoli

Gallipoli holds a special place in my heart as an Australian (and a New Zealander by birth) and a history nerd. A pilgrimage to Gallipoli (or Gelibolu, in Turkish) is something I have wanted to do since I was a kid. I was really excited to go there during our Great Girls' Adventure on day 4 of our stay in Istanbul.

We did the trip to Gallipoli as a pre-booked Viator tour as it's a long way out there from Istanbul (about a four hour drive each way). It's much easier to do the Gallipoli trip with a guide if you are sans your own transport. If you have car, I'd recommend you do it yourself, just for the freedom to take things at your own pace.

Our day started at 7am when we were picked up in a mini van, along with several groups of other travellers who were either going to Gallipoli with us, or going to Troy for a day trip, or doing the overnight trip to Troy and Gallipoli. What a business to organise all those people!

Things didn't start well, though. We pulled up outside a hotel to collect the final four people, but they didn't bother coming out until they had finished their breakfast. Like, what? They were told the pick up time and they could see the bus parked out front of the hotel with the other travellers waiting on it, yet they didn't budge until they were good and ready. One of our fellow travellers gave them a serve when they finally got on the bus. It was embarrassing to later discover that they were Australian tourists. Eek.

Awkward moment done, we headed west from Istanbul, so the opposite direction to where we had travelled when we went to Bursa two days earlier. You can see on the map below where we travelled to Gallipoli from Istanbul (and to Bursa).

It was a really pleasant drive. We stopped at a roadhouse-type place for brunch but we just bought some crackers and chocolate and munched through all that before we boarded the bus again. It was around 11.30am when we arrived in Eceabat, the small town closest to the peninsula. Lunch was similar to the BBQ we'd had in Bursa - chicken kebab, rice, green salad and fries, and some melon for dessert.

The various groups dispersed after lunch and we headed off in a different bus with an Eceabat guide to the Gallipoli peninsula. The mini van driver took the day-trippers to Troy and we met up with him later, once we were ready to head back to Istanbul.

We had the basic tour information that said we'd have a guided tour but I wasn't expecting a 4-hour guided commentary of the site. I also hadn't realised there were so many bits to see at the memorial site. Our guide had 17 years of experience and his English was brilliant so we could understand all the information. He talked a lot, though, and there was a bit of cognitive overload. That said, I admired the guide's passion for his job and this important part of Australian, New Zealand and Turkish history.

Two things struck me about the site: The first was the beauty of the peninsula and the view of the Dardanelles. It is a fitting resting place for the fallen soldiers but so hard to imagine such a beautiful place in a time of war. The second thing was that I appreciated that the Turkish and Australian governments have managed, despite the hordes of people who flock there every year, to avoid making the sites too touristy. There is an air of respect and the important sites seem relatively untouched. There are no gift shops or places to eat and it's all very peaceful. As it should be. If I ever have the chance to to Gallipoli again, I would prefer to wander around on my own than have a guide. I think it would be a quieter, contemplative experience.

That said, the tour was really comprehensive and we were driven to each key site. That's helpful, as all the bits are quite spread out. We visited ANZAC Cove where the troops landed in 1915. Next to the landing site is the place where the dawn services are held each year on ANZAC Day (middle shot, second row below). The cove itself is quite small. When you see dawn services on television, the piece of land where everyone gathers looks much bigger than what it is in reality! I can now imagine the chaos on 25 April 1915 when the troops landed there. The terrain is quite hilly and you get a feel for the futility of the task that lay ahead for the doomed soldiers.

We also visited Ari Burnu cemetery, Hell Spit, Lone Pine, the Nek, and the Turkish memorial.

It was a long day and we were not back at our hotel until close to midnight, after stopping at a roadhouse on the way back for a late dinner. The long drive out to the peninsula is absolutely worth it, though. I am so honoured and grateful to have had the opportunity to visit Gallipoli. I feel quite proud to be Australian (and a New Zealander!) now that I've been there. I can't quite believe that I have stood where the troops landed in 1915.

The bond between the Turkish people and Australians and New Zealanders is quite strong, I think. Even in our limited conversation with the night manager at our hotel during our stay, he spoke about Gallipoli. I learned that the ANZACs called the Turkish soldiers 'Mehmets' and 'Johnnies' is the term used by the Turks to refer to the Australian and NZ soldiers. Not only did the landing and subsequent battles shape both our ANZAC nations, it also had a huge impact on Türkiye and the formation of the country as a republic out of the Ottoman Empire under Ataturk. Also, apparently, the 'spirit of Canakkale' is a phrase in Turkish still used today to symbolise an ability to achieve the impossible.

This quote from Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is a fitting way to end my reflections on our Gallipoli visit:

The Princes' Islands

On our final day in Istanbul we decided to go to one of the islands in the Princes' Island group. The group of islands in the Sea of Marmara off the coast of Istanbul consists of four larger islands and five much smaller ones. The islands are so named because, during the Byzantine period, princes and other royalty were exiled there.

We could have done this trip on our own. It's just a matter of getting to the port on the Eastern side of the city to buy a ticket on the ferry to the islands. Instead, we did it as a day tour. It wasn't a tour really, just a guy (an elderly man called Mehmet) who picked us up at the hotel, took us to the ferry terminal, showed us where to go for lunch, and took us back to our hotel at the end of the day. I now wish we'd been a bit more adventurous in Istanbul, and done some more stuff on our own. Next time!

Anyway, it was a beautiful day for a ferry ride. Just look at the view of the water from the terminal, as we awaited our ferry.

If nothing else, it is totally worth going to the islands for the views of the city from the ferry. You can see a lot of the main historical sites from another angle, the distance allowing a greater appreciation of their size and magnificence.

There are two large islands in the group that are most usually visited and we spent our day on one of them, Heybeliada. Motorised traffic on the island is limited to emergency vehicles so you can only get around on foot or by horse and buggy. The island is quaint and not something I was expecting to experience in Istanbul.

We met a lovely couple from India on the tour and we had a really nice time chatting to them on the buggy ride and over lunch. The guy was working in Dubai at the time and knew loads of Australians, had a brother who lives in Melbourne, and had studied in the UK. We had plenty to talk about!

It was a beautiful day out, capped off by running into two Lebanese women on the ferry ride back who were on our earlier Bursa tour. They were with their friend who hadn't been on the Bursa trip. How crazy to be sitting opposite them on the return ferry ride! They were really nice but we had somewhat of a language barrier. We tried really hard to talk to them, though, and they were interested in Australia, as we were in Lebanon. Their friend had better English so he asked me lots of questions and even tried to sell Beirut as a tourist destination! I am pretty sure they asked us to go out with them (can't be sure because of our lost-in-translation conversation, mind you) but we had to go back with Mehmet and we weren't sure about heading off into the unknown with relative strangers. Besides, we wanted to go back to a lovely store we'd seen near our hotel to buy an traditionally-embroidered cushion cover each before we left Türkiye.

Türkiye reflections

It was with some sadness that we said farewell to Istanbul when we'd finally found our feet in Türkiye after five days there. We really only touched the surface in Istanbul and had a taste of two places outside of the capital city.

Departing Türkiye to head to Greece I felt like we were just becoming comfortable with the place as we were leaving. I wish we had ventured a little further afield and spent more time in the Eastern part of the city across the Bosphorus. I am really proud of E, though, for coping in a country so different from Australia at 14 and for embracing all that Türkiye has to offer.

We had a fabulous time in that mad, chaotic yet beautiful country. Istanbul is really a majestic city but I know there is a lot more of Türkiye to see beyond its capital city. Türkiye is an adventure and feast for your senses, well worth trying to deal with language barriers, cultural differences, and the tourist hard sell. We visited in October and the weather was perfect, warm and sunny. At the time, it was also super cheap, too. Türkiye is a place that captured my heart and I would definitely love to go back one day to continue my wanderings.

Next stop on our Great Girls' Adventure...Greece!