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Gallipoli, Troy, Istanbul, Sozopol

GALLIPOLI (TURKEY)
29 May 1999

A very moving and special place for Australians and New Zealanders.

Upon arriving at Gallipoli, we visited the small museum that is near Anzac Cove, before driving down to Anzac Cove and looking at the memorials to the fallen soldiers from World War 1. Anzac Cove is a beautiful place. It is hard to imagine that such a tragic event occurred here.

The graves and memorials around Anzac Cove

We then went up to the top of the hills to see the New Zealand Memorial at Chunuk Bair and walk through some of the trenches the soldiers used (restored for the tourists).

Then it was on to Lone Pine, a memorial site mainly for Australians with some New Zealanders there as well.

 Lone Pine

An amazing place......

The LOST CITY OF TROY (TURKEY)
29 May 1999

We then went to the Lost City of Troy where we were given a guided tour around the very ancient city. Parts of it a several thousand years old and archeologists have found several layers of the city that were built at different times.

ISTANBUL (TURKEY)
30 May 1999

Very early start to get to Istanbul so we could have a free day the following day. Up at 5.15am !

Highlights:

Guided tour through the Blue Mosque, unique as it is the only mosque in the world with 6 minuets (Mecca has 7).

Turkish carpet demonstration....very nice but also very expensive !

The Turkish Bazaar. This is a huge market place where some pushy salesman try to sell you their products for high prices but you can also barter with them ! You can buy Calvin Klein or Levis jeans and jackets of all descriptions. The salesmen will start high but get them right down...you should be able to get a pair of jeans for US$10.00 and a good jacket for US$20.00. My Calvin Klein jacket was US$20.00. I personally wouldn't buy any jewellery from there.

 If they won't budge, walk away. There are plenty of shops selling the same thing !

SOZOPOL (BULGARIA)
1-2 June 1999

 We arrived in Bulgaria on the first day of their summer and we were the first (and only) visitors to the campsite in Sozopol. We stayed in the hotel type accommodation area of the site so that wasn't too bad although the rooms smelt a bit musty from being closed up. We also saw our first bit of rain today and it rained for a few hours on and off.

Some of our group had a swim in the Black Sea which was 2 minutes from the campsite.

Worst breakfast of the tour here. Thankfully we were only here one night.

Stopped at Varna on the way to Romania to buy some cheap CD's but it was raining and the stalls had not opened so we missed out.