This was followed by an amazing dinner on top of a building in Sultanahmet with 270 degree views of the Golden Horn. Only three more nights remain (well, two now, it took all night to upload the pictures).
5 hours on a bus back to Istanbul for the very last cemetery and presentations. Summer's presentation was watched by the CWGC director for Turkey, and he was so impressed he has requested a copy of it for the website. This was followed by an amazing dinner on top of a building in Sultanahmet with 270 degree views of the Golden Horn. Only three more nights remain (well, two now, it took all night to upload the pictures).
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Today was our final day on the Gallipoli Peninsula, and for me it is always bittersweet leaving all our boys behind that we've come to know over the past 72 hours. We spent the day down on Cape Helles, learning about the British Landings and other nations involvements. We visited the summit of Achi Baba, Memorial to the Martyrs, the French Cemetery at Morto Bay, V Beach, Twelve Tree Copse, Redoubt Cemetery and back to Ari Burnu for a soul cleansing dip at Anzac. Another amazing day of student presentations. Many students found it very difficult to leave their diggers behind. We began the day at Lone Pine and walked along the first ridge, Johnson's Jolly, 4th Battalion Parade Ground, Courtney's and Steele's, Quinn's, 57th Regiment Memorial, The Nek, Walker's Ridge all the way to Chunuk Bair. We also visited Mustafa Kemal's house at Bigali, to remember where the great master defended his nation from. Today was the day we'd all been waiting for. Actually getting on the ground at Anzac. Everyone had their soldier presentations ready and I'll tell you what, they didn't disappoint. I was absolutely blown away by the maturity and insight these students displayed today, not to mention the parents and staff who contributed so meaningfully to the groups experience on the peninsula. Very simply we walked half of the Anzac Sector from the commemorative site at North Beach to Lone Pine, which included Ari Burnu, Beach Cemetery, the exhausting 576 metre climb to Plugge's Plateau, Shrapnel Valley and Shell Green in between. We finished with a 1.5 kilometre hike up Artillery Road to Lone Pine and not one member of the group complained about the heat. It was an amazing day that went perfectly. Today held our first glimpse of the peninsula. We took the ferry from Çanakkale to Ecebat and took the coach to Gabetepe. There we set sail for a wreck on North Beach. Once we had familiarised in the sights of the peninsula we swapped our walking gear for swimming gear and snorkelled over the wreck of the passenger steamer Milo. The dark outline of the wreck can be seen in the Google Map screenshot below. The wreck was not far from the shore, and 5 metres deep. After lunch we returned to land and made a 40 minute drive north to Hill 10 and the cemetery there. We had our very first soldier presentation by Dianne. Today involved much more passive travel than most others so far. We had our earliest start of the trip at 6:30am and were on the ferry to Bendirma by 8am. The 2 hour 15 minute ferry was followed by a 2 hour and 15 minute bus ride to Canakkale. It was mostly uneventful, I fell asleep and we had a nosebleed, but otherwise we made it in one piece. The second part of the afternoon, and the much more exciting part was the trip to historic Troy. Parts of the archaeological site are 5,000 years old. Ms Treeves was like a kid in a candy store, and I'm sure she can't wait to show her Yr11 Ancient History class the photos. After we had finished at Troy, we checked in at the hotel and enjoyed a buffet dinner, swimming and journal writing. There are some pretty spectacular views from this hotel too. Definitely more photos to follow!
Yesterday was a big walking day for the group. We gave the bus a day off and walked to the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and Basilica Cistern. We had lunch at a very fancy restaurant and spent the afternoon getting lost in the Grand Bazaar.We split all the kids up and attempted to teach them in the sometimes subtle art of haggling. Glen managed to get a price from 250 Lira to 80 without saying a word or even really expressing interest in the item. He didn't buy it. We finished the day on the rooftop restaurant at our hotel and watched the sun go down from the terrace garden. More photos to come! Today was another beautifully mild day in Istanbul. So far we have avoided the scorching summer heat. We kicked off our day on a lazy Bosphorus river cruise, checking out both the Asian and European coastlines. This was followed by lunch at Hamdi by the Galata Bridge. I was definitely looking forward to this because I've heard so much about the restaurant. It didn't disappoint. And the view was pretty good. This was followed by a trip to the Spice Market. I could hear Ms Treeves breathing heavily in anticipation, and was quite happy to see her throwing elbows at whoever was in her way. It was in the end however, Mr Stanizzo who received a free duffle bag for buying so much! After dragging many of the adults away from the spice market, we went to the more recent Ottoman palace, Dolmabahce Palace. There were some pretty awe inspiring scenes in this building (PS not my photos, photography wasn't allowed). Finally we finish another mammoth day walking down Istiklal St in Taksim. The adoration of local football champions Galatasaray obvious down this street. Day 1 was a gargantuan effort by everyone involved. For me at least it began at 8am on Saturday, and didn't finish until 11pm Sunday (local time, or 6am Monday morning at home). Only a few minor hiccups threatened our departure: a forgotten visa and a lost hand luggage. However, everyone made it onto the plane with all their belongings for our 14 hour first leg. After an 18 hour night avoiding the sun, we landed at Abu Dhabi at dawn. We had a three hour stop over before it was back on the plane for the final 5 hours. Along the way, we definitely made a not-so-subtle detour around Iraq and Syria. Sorry guys, no hard feelings. And finally we landed, went straight into the tour for a lunch and tour at Topkapi Palace. Afterwards we enjoyed dinner at a seafood restaurant (well most of the kids did, bar a couple of fussy eaters who didn't appreciate their fish staring at them) and celebrated our only brithday on the trip. |