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From: damag@bigpond.net.au

To:

Cc:

Sent: Monday, July 23, 2001 1:56 AM

Subject: Talking Turkey

 

Dear All (in Australia)

 

You will be receiving your email from us slightly differently from now.  We are having terrible communication troubles and so we are going to send this email to one person in Aus (i.e. Deb Walsh) and she will forward it on to all of you in Aus - 17 of you!  Those living "overseas from Australia" will still be getting the usual from us - provided Turkcell allows us through - which at the moment it is not - we are ringing Thessoloniki in Greece to get through. 

 

Deb

 

Dear All

 

Greetings from Gallipoli.  The sun still beats down as fiercely as in Greece but the wind also seems to have a vicious streak.  Skins getting browner and browner and the ocean, that once swallowed dying soldiers, now soothes heated holiday makers.  Yes, we made it into Turkey. 

 

Backtracking a little - when I left you last week we were in Kavala, about to go see some old "things".  Did that!  The oldest thing we saw was a huge aqueduct that was built mid 1500's to carry water from the new to the old parts of the city.  Although being renovated bit by bit, the traffic that screams around it must, eventually, undermine the whole process.  The other things of note in the town (apart from the fact that Paul and Silas passed through here in about 64AD on their way to preach Christianity to the people of Phillipi) are the birth house of Ikia Mehemet Ali (1769-1849) and the alms house that he set up.  Who the heck is Ikia Mehemt Ali I hear you ask?  The son of a wealthy tobacco merchant of Albanian origin, this guy became famous as the Viceroy of Egypt and the dynasty he built lasted until the time of King Farouk (about 1950s we think).  The alms house had been run by Islamic monks (dervishes) and housed upwards of 300 poor men (don't know where the poor women went).  It is a wonderful 18 domed building that, in part has been restored.  The part that has not been restored is still crumbling around the restored bit.  The restored bit is now a fancy cafe and restaurant.  We had the famous Greek frappe (iced Nescafe) there and the view over the Kaval harbour is great.  The Nestles company has certainly got Greece covered.  A glass (iced) or cup (hot) of Nescafe is more expensive that a proper expresso or Greek coffee.  Tradition has it (don't quite know how old this tradition is) that when your Nescafe is served you smell it, sip it, dissolve any bits still around the glass, then spend the next hour, at least, drinking it.

 

Moved on to Alexandropoli, a town 45km from the Turkish border.  (Camping Alexandropoli - this one has people!  Large, OK facilities, small shop, reasonable sand/pebble beach, noisy.)  The town itself has not a lot to offer but is a good stopping place so as to be at the Turkish border early in the morning.  We arrived by about 8:15am and it still took 1 1/2 hours to get through.  If ever there was red tape and money changing this is the place!  Passing the Greek side of the border was easy.  Show your passport, get a stamp.  Drive about a kilometre and then take your life in your hands as you go down what appears to be a one way road until you see a truck heading straight for you.  Oh well!  There are several military uniforms telling traffic where to go and some of the traffic even obeys!!  OK - need Turkish money to pay for the Visa that all the guide books say  that Australians don't need.  (By the way anyone travelling on a British Passport MUST pay in Sterling!.)  Offer Greek drachma to the exchange house - they won't take it - what is more we had purposely got out extra drachma just for this purpose!  Nowhere in the guidebooks does it say they won't accept Greek money in Turkey - live and learn.  We offered them Australian dollars and they were only too happy to change our AUD$100 into 68,900,000 Turkish lira.  When you see a 10,000,000 lira note you start to get lost in the zeros.  Even worse when you have to start to pay it out!  Money accomplished!!!

 

Not only do we humans need a visa but so too does the van.  Huge amounts of bureaucratic red tape (and lots of red writing on paper - all in Turkish so we could have sold the van for all we know).  Payed out lots of zeros in Turkish money and then go see the Police.  Grunts, groans, cigarette ash in the computer key board.  More  money and lots of stamps in Arnold's passport (only one in mine - and a sticker!).  Feeling that we may run out of zeros, we decided we had better get a bit more money.  Didn't have any more Aussie dollars so dragged out the German Marks.  These they were also happy to take.  Actually got a better exchange rate for the Aussie dollar.

 

Pass through another "one way" street on the command of the border guard who, after looking at our passports and addressing Arnold by name (i.e. "Arnold") he gave back our passports  and some of the bits of paper and waved us through - right into the arms of an oncoming road train that squealed to a halt.  The driver gave us a dirty look but hey - we were only doing as we were told.  Not since our Russian trip have we had so much "fun" at a border.

 

Like Greece, Turkey is dry and harsh.  We drove straight down to the Galipoli peninsula with the name of one or two campsites along the way.  By this time it was hot and we were hungry and the poor old refrigerator was really struggling even to keep the water cool.  Naturally, the first few campsites for which we looked just didn't appear anywhere.  As the k's were slipping away quickly, we decided to keep going all the way down to the campsite very near to ANZAC Cove.  The main road is basically down the east coast of the peninsula and when almost at Eceabat you turn inland and cross the 4kms to Kabatepe.  Another couple of k's found us at Hotel and Camping Kum.  Well - umh! - what can I say?  The beach is good.  The restaurant serves great vegetarian smorgasboard (with a bit of meat jealously guarded by chef who dishes it out at his pleasure).  Facilities - well maybe the ones in the motel rooms are better!  We just have to accept that standards are different.

 

Grave tour of Gallipoli yesterday (Friday).  As was expected, row upon row of wasted young lives, both Aussie and Turkish (New Zealanders, British, Indian and French too but not as many).  Lone Pine cemetery leaves shivers down your spine as the view from there over such beautiful, peaceful beaches lulls you into disbelief of the horrors that these beaches once witnessed.  The Turkish cemetery is probably better kept than the Aussie/NZ ones.  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains ours and I guess, with the number that they have to look after worldwide, and the obvious lack of water in the area, it is difficult to keep them any colour other than golden wheat.  The graves themselves are well maintained but the sites all suffer from lack of water.  At Lone Pine we found a "Gillespie R" name on one of the lists of people known to have died but have no known burial place.  This guy could have died of his wounds at sea or his bones may still lie somewhere in Turkish soil.  Either way, it is a bit of genealogy to follow up when we get back to Aus. 

 

Feeling somewhat flat, we came back to Camping Kum and swam for a while.  Apparently some tourists actually swim in ANZAC Cove.  Personally, I couldn't even if I wanted to.  Seems a bit wrong somehow.  A thoughtful day covering a lot of ground, up hill on a very narrow road that snakes between all of the cemeteries.  Only once did we meet a bus coming in the other direction.  Fortunately, we saw it coming and found a place to pull over before we could be run off the road.  The Turkish drivers don't want to wait for anyone.  It is said that upwards of 12,000 tourists visit this small area on Anzac Day.  I imagine it would be hell on the roads, despite being awesome to experience a Dawn Service at the Cove.  I think we probably were able to see and a lot more because of the lack of people.  In fact, many was the time when we had the various cemeteries, and also ANZAC Cove, to ourselves. The Boomerang Bar (opened by an Australian; who would have guessed) was the only light aspect to the day.

 

Today is Saturday.  We had planned on heading for Istanbul today but the dreaded travellers belly has struck us both - not badly but enough that we don't feel we want to travel that far today.  No, we haven't been drinking the water.  Yes, we have been washing our hands.  Don't know what has caused it but we are okay and hope to head for Istanbul tomorrow (Sunday).  Mobile phone reception is nil here at Kabatepe so this letter will not reach anyone until "Turkcell" can give us some sort of service.  I am sure Istanbul will not block us out.  Not so sure what it will offer by way of campsites but - hey - our rubber flip flops (thong has a different connotation in the UK) have had many a shower over the last few years.  A couple more won't hurt them.  Arnold's have even been mended with clothes line and look splendid!

 

Until next week when I will report from who knows where...hope you are all well as we (almost) are.  We made Istanbul - will tell you all about that experience next week!

 

Deb & Arnold

From: damag@bigpond.net.au

To:

Cc:

Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2001 11:55 PM

Subject: Istanbul, not Constantinople, as the words of the song go

Dear All (thanks Deb Walsh for ongoing to Aussie contacts -got confirmation that it was received by several)

 

Still hot!  Back in Greece and turning into grease spots!  However, Turkey was just as hot and Istanbul hot and polluted. 

 

The trip from Gallipoli to Istanbul was about 335km.  Bit of a breeze really - and so it was until we reached the outskirts of the city where roadworks sent us right off the map.  Won't bore you with the details but, when finally we reached the area where the campsite was supposed to be, it wasn't!  We kept hearing "One kilometre", "one kilometre" everytime we asked someone where the campsite was.  Eventually, someone said - "Closed"!

 

Terrific - been on the road from 8am - 5pm (Turkish roads aren't brilliant, roadworks made life very hard and, being Sunday, everyone was at the beach - and we were on the coast road!).  Then this very kind "Closed" man says "one kilometre - Ciroz Camping".  One more BLOODY kilometre!!!!  This time we are in luck.  Drive through the gate (with a guard) and eventually get shown to a very sunny spot in the middle of a curbed paddock.  No, we couldn't move down there closer to the sea - that was for Turkish people only - ok - accept that.  Absolute exhaustion from heat, travel and frustration.  Beer - a good cooling solution to the day's trials and then a good sleep.  Oh no, an all night Turkish party, a football game that went on until after midnight, the comings and goings of the airport - runway 100m away and the 4.30am call to prayers were all going to prevent sleep!  Tomorrow will be better - Topkapi Palace first up.

 

Well, tomorrow - i.e. Monday - was better.  The Topkapi Palace is an amazing place.  Built as a Sultan's Palace it took us all day to see everything.  The Treasury is probably the most spectacular of all of the places within the palace.  Peter Ustinov's film "Topkapi" is about the theft of a dagger from here.  Saw the dagger - don't know how anyone could ever have used it it is so handle heavy with emeralds and rubies.  Saw the 5th largest diamond in the world, surrounded by a couple of dozen other smaller ones - any of which I would not refuse.  The main stone is 86k.  A little too large for a ring and a neck ache would certainly ensue if it was worn as a pendant.  The street full of kitchens within the palace is now actually full of the Chinese collection - Ming Dynasty stuff by the cupboardfull!

 

A visit to the Harem was interesting but, as all the guide books inform you, you have to wait in line.  Fortunately, our wait was only about 40 minutes.  The thing that is so remarkable about the whole place is the tile work.  To our eyes many of the patterns don't seem to match.  It seems a bit like a mish mash of styles but somehow the whole thing still seems "right".  Our tour guide for the Harem decided to take up a bit of our time afterwards and we spent quite a bit of time talking to her about the customs and traditions of the country and she kept sounding us out about Melbourne where she has relatives.  She has only one son and I think she was trying to ascertain whether or not she would sacrifice him to a modern country like Australia.  We asked her about arranged marriages in Turkey and she says now that, with hind sight, she wishes she had married the man her parents wanted her to.  But, she says, she married for love.  "Once love has gone, after a year, you see what maybe you should do!  My parents chose better economy but..."  She made us laugh.  Many of the treasures in the Palace are of religious significance and, even with our limited understanding of Islam, they looked pretty special.  Certainly there is a lot of wealth of gold and precious stones in their religious and ceremonial stuff.  I say stuff because they are not really icons as in the Christian religions and I don't know what else to call all of the "stuff" there.  Things like gold vials with tufts of Mohamad's beard or head hair, nail clippings etc.  Some of the supposed bones of John the Baptist also get in there somehow - the forearm and hand have their own gold plated cast type arrangement around them.  The skull bones are enclosed in rock crystal, gold, diamonds, rubies, emeralds and pearls.  All in all an amazing place.  Lunch on the palace terrace, overlooking the busy waters of the Bosphoros was an added treat.

 

As the train trip into and out of Istanbul was about 45 minutes - no air conditioning on the trains and they were cram-packed - we decided that we would leave the van in the campsite and stay one night in the city.  So, as luck would have it, we chose a hotel suggested by Lonely Planet that was extremely close to the Blue Mosque and Santa Sophia, the Hippodrome, the Basilica Cistern and plenty of good eating spots.  Tuesday and Wednesday are a bit of a blurr of things to see, food to eat and places to go. 

 

Santa Sophia is now a museum but is a huge church that was built by the Roman Emperor Justinian in about 537AD.  On its completion Justinian is recorded as saying something like "Oh, Solomon, I have outdone you!"  Unfortunately the scaffolding holding up the massive dome at the moment marred the view but huge restoration work is still being done (commenced this time in 1991 with the help of Austrian money).  A Christian church until 1453, it then became a mosque until Ataturk proclaimed it a museum in 1935.  The thing to do at Santa Sophia is to put your finger (thumb actually) into a hole in a marble pillar, make a wish, and if your thumb comes out damp (its called the Weeping Column), your wish will be granted - mine did!  Probably all the other sweaty fingers that had been in the hole!!! Yuck!

 

It is said that the Blue Mosque, built in 1603 was built to better Santa Sophia.  The dome of the Blue Mosque, however, has 4 huge pillars to hold it up.  The beauty of Santa Sophia is that the dome appears to be held up by nothing (except the current scaffold).  Fortunately, having done quite a bit of reading, I went wearing a long skirt and longish sleeves in my shirt and Arnold was not wearing shorts.  We were allowed into the Mosque, my head not requiring to be covered because of my modest dress, and we spent a long time in awe of the gentle softness of the light and the pale blueness of the Iznik tiles that gives the mosque its name.  It was amusing watching the ill-prepared, particularly men, wearing sarongs over their shorts - and being embarrassed by it.

 

Mosaic museum and the hippodorme (no chariots just mad taxi drivers) were also on the list.  The mosaic museum has floor tiles circa AD500.  The pavement, filled with wonderful hunting and mythological scenes and emperors' protraits, was a triumphal way that led from the Byzantine emperor's Great Palace.  At long last these have been successfully restored and have been put into a museum with walkways suspended over the floor so that you can get a really good perspective of the floor.

 

We went to lots of places - too many to mention - but one of the most fascinating was the Sunken Cistern or Basilica Cistern that was built in AD532.  It is an enormous water storage tank constructed by the same guy as did Santa Sophia - incapable of thinking small.  Columns, capitals and plinths from ruined buildings were among those used in its construction.  Heaven knows how old some of the columns are.  The cistern (really like a big cave with 336 columns holding up the roof) once held 80,000 cubic metres of water that was carried along 20km of aqueducts.  Another really good thing about the Cistern was that it was cool!!

 

Grand Bazaar was, as expected, 4,000 shops with each shop keeper spruking outside his shop offering carpets, gold, pottery etc etc etc.  I hate that sort of thing so it was a token effort only.  Also went to the Istanbul University that is very much in need of repair - and appears to be getting it in some places.

 

There is so much more to Turkey than Gallipoli Peninsula and Istanbul but, due to insurance problems with the van that is as much as we could see.  Sadly we left Turkey, hoping to be able to get a tour from London some time early next year to see places like Cappadocia and Pamakkale.  At least we have seen parts of it and we didn't really expect to go into Turkey with the van.  Fellow travellers in mobile homes - beware!  Roads are not good, campsites are few and far between and leave a LOT to be desired.  Cleaning below the waterline of the toilets does not seem to be known about!  The drivers are more pushy than in Greece and use their car horns a lot more often - don't hesitate even for a fraction of a second at the lights!!!  BUT, we made it without a scratch so it is certainly do-able.

 

Won't repeat all of the things that happened at the Turkish border.  Very similar to going into Turkey.  This time it only took 45 minutes (mainly because it was lunch time and no one wanted to do any work).  No money had to change hands but about 10 stamps had to go onto various bits of paper and passports.  Arrived back in Alexandropolis and had a few days swimming, cleaning, washing etc ready to start to head south to Athens, via Mt Olympus and other places of interest.

 

Don't know where we will write from next week except it will still be Greece.

 

Until then -

 

Deb & Arnold

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