Gallipoli

Twister champs in the bush near Troy
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From Ephesus we headed north to firstly take in the ruins of Troy. Most people have heard the legend and have seen Brad Pitt declothed in the movie so I can understand the attraction to this place. However from all reports the ruins were rank and required the expertise of an overpriced guide to even paint a half decent picture of the times. With this information we happily sat on our butts whilst a hardy few flummoxed their way around. That night was the last bush camp and we signed off in style by pulling out the Twister board and tangling ourselves into a complete mess among the forested hills overlooking Troy.

Anzac Cove
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A short ferry ride away is the Gallipoli peninsula. We arrived to the Boomerang Bar and saw what resembled a derelict pub and a wasteland of a car park which was where we had to pitch our tents. Unimpressed we hammered our stakes into the granite and boarded our bus for the ANZAC battlefields tour. The tour itself was excellent and its interesting to get a complete picture of the events over the small area it took place. At some points the battle trenches were as far as three metres apart yet they were in stalemate for a massive proportion of the nine months the battle took place. Even the insistence of our tour guide repeating things three times mid sentence didn't put us off things. The cemeteries dotted the horizon as far as the eye could see and from all counts it looks like more memorials will be created for the Turks soon. A definite highlight so far.

Lone Pine site of the Australian memorial
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Back at the Boomerang Bar we saw the proprietor awake from his raki induced coma and come alive as we cooked dinner and drunk the remainder of our supplies. I was wearing my New Zealand One Day cricket top and the owner was adamant I should donate it to the memorabilia collection littering the confines of the Boomerang Bar. When I quietly declined he packed a good old sad and thought about withdrawing the free Efes t-shirt I was given when I bought a beer. When we compromised on the him having the remainder of Emma's cooking wine he perked up a bit and his cute dog was allowed to play with us once more. All having inhaled enough water pipe and drunk enough we stumbled to bed with the stray dogs and god knows what else. The trip the next morning to Istanbul will signal the end to another tour and to another group of friends.