Gallipoli

wow! what an experience - the physical setting of the place is magnificent - stunning cliffs and views, the moving, emotional side and the hassle of being there! so the day joined up with the tour party - lots of people everywhere but eventually on this big bus - about 8 out of 40 our age - the rest are in there 20's - 7 from NZ the rest auzzies. need I say more! they are all very friendly and the youngies chat away to us, so dont feel very acient! trip down took about 5-6 hours from Istanbul on 2land highways which rapidly deteriorated the longer we left Istanbul! made the trip very bouncy on the bus!. countryside this area was rolling hills, horticulture and lots of saffron growing. we arrived at the place outside of Gallopoli, which is a small ferry town. saw lots and lots of buses waiting on the road, ready to get into the site. we stayed in the town till about 6 when the site opened and went. On the road there were3-4 stops for the army and police checking on us. very strong presence of these throughout. then tow lots of auzzie volunteets hop on bus to talk to us about the rules. no alcohol, unopened bottles drugs etc. app. a few years ago the young ones made real fools of themselves with alcohol and the nz aus govts asked to have it banned as it was potentially embarrassing for our countries. dont blame them. anyway then we get out with our backpacks sleeping bags etc and walk 600 metres to security checkpoint. buses arent allowed to park up. girls got searched by lady army officers, men by men (muslim thing) and then only a few more metres to the Anzac cove setting. not very big, the grass areas by then virtually all covered by then by bodies, we managed to sneak into small area, so not too bad. there are lots of small grandstands looking down onto the main stage where it all happened. we were warned if we got a seat there, you had to sit in it all night, so we kept to our grass site so we could sleep. In hindsight, however, for those of you who want to go, get to the best grandstand looking down, cause what people did was sleep on the concrete area under your seat! then you get a good view in the morning. we parked up on the grass, but cculdnt see the ceremony! big screens either side, that showed it to you tho. That night from 8pm on they put on documentries showing you the history of Anzac, great for those young ones that had really little idea of what happened , plus tha army bands played through out the night - showed on the big screens. so in actual fact, very little sleep happened! I slept from about 3 -4 am! people kept arriving all night. 90% were 20 - 30 yr olds, and were fanatasitically behaved! maybe it was the no alcohol, but they did both countries proud! we were asked by the MC who ran the hights programme (all by Auzzies) to remember this was hallowed ground, where we were sitting was a military cemetry, blood was soaked into the ground we slept etc and to respect the dead. my god! talk about really bringing it home. and respect they did. there were food stalls, souvenior stalls around to one end - off the main site so that was good. plenty of toilets (portaloos) with soldiers outside guarding them. this was the main turkish prescence.