Yes, I’m still alive!

Merhaba, benim adım Hamfri!
English: Hello, my name is Humphrey

Yes, I’m still alive! I just haven’t blogged for a while because I’ve been up to doing so much. There are many things that I want to blog about, but for the time being I’ll just let you know what I’ve been up to since my last post. So here we go.

Chilling in Хасково (Haskovo)

When I last wrote, I had just have arrived back in Haskovo and was staying at Elly & Stus flat. After chilling out there for a day or two, I left Elly & Stu there and caught the bus back to Istanbul. This time the bus was a lot less exciting — now that I’ve done many border crossings.

Istanbul

Once in Istanbul, I stayed there for a couple of nights in a dorm room full of Australians — actually, most of the backpackers we have met have been Australians. Part of me really liked Istanbul, but there was another part of me that didn’t like it at all. I got really sick of being harassed by Turkish shop workers to come into there store. “Sir, how are you? Do you want to come into my restaurant? We have big menu”.

Since this kind of salesmanship is completely different to what I’m used to in Australia, it didn’t take me long to put up an internal brick-wall, and to start refusing anything and everything that was offered to me. But, then I got hungry, so I had to go into one of them. Then I discovered how nice and helpful everybody is. They may stand outside there shop and pester you to come in and look around, but once you do they are very helpful, understanding, and friendly. It’d be great to get service like that in Australia!

And for something different, here is a bunch of locals fishing off a bridge in Istanbul

Gelipolu (Gallipoli)

Before I left Aus, I wasn’t planning on visiting Gallipoli. However, while staying in Istanbul everybody that I was talking to recommended going there. So I caught a bus down to Eceabat (Eje-a-bat: In Turkish ‘c’ is pronounced as ‘j’), stayed at the Crowded House Hotel for a couple of nights, and did a tour of the place. Buses in Turkey are like no bus in Australia. This bus had free wireless internet, snacks, Çay (Chai, or for us Aussies, tea), and ‘quality’ Turkish satellite TV.

My suggested way to tour Gallipoli: So, if you are ever planning on a trip to Gallipoli, I reckon you should catch the 7.30am bus (35TL) from Istanbul to Eceabat. If you book the Crowded House Tour (45TL / $34AUD) and tell them you are catching the bus, then the tour will wait for you at the bus stop . Afterwards, you can stay there in a dorm room (15TL), and in the morning catch the ferry (2TL) to Çanakkale. Once there, you can catch a bus to any part of Turkey that you like! Most places will tell you to stay the night at Çanakkale, but that is an extra 30mins away. Also, the Crowded House Tour was pretty good quality, and was far cheaper than any other price I was quoted Anyway, that’s my two cents.

Anyway, back to what I did… At first I thought it would be weird to be on a tour that was run by a Turkish guy. In fact, our tour guide’s grandfather fought on the Turkish side. But it turned out to be really good. Apparently both sides had a great respect for each other during the war, so the Gallipoli campaign is often referred to as the last gentleman’s war. Both sides would throw cans of food and notes across no-mans-land to the other side so that they could eat something a bit different. There was also a Turkish solider who came out of the trenches into no-mans-land (holding a white flag), picked up an Aussie who was crying out for help, took him back to the Aussie line, and went back to the Turkish trenches to start shooting again.

Here’s a pic of Anzac Cove. What a terrible beach to land at!

Çanakkale & back to Istanbul

The next day I caught the ferry over to Çanakkale (quite a nice city), had a look around, and then caught the bus back to Istanbul where I met back up with Elly & Stu. We stayed a night there a night and the next day we caught a plane to Cappadocia. Catching this plane wasn’t as simple as it could have been, but you’ll have to wait until my next blog post to read about that :-)

Here’s the actual Trojan horse from the movie Troy which is now located on the docks of Çanakkale, and below that is the river at Çanakkale.