from gurpinar to giza

our visit to gallipoli was very moving, as expected. we first went to zeynep's parents place in the village of gelibolu, where the westernised version of the name comes from. it was great to be able to get a sense of the place from a local's perspective - not sure that many australians that go there get to have that angle on the place. actually it's been great like that everywhere we have been so far - because it is not the height of tourist season, we feel like we've gotten a glimpse of reality. anyway, back to gelibolu.
we arrived around eight-ish, and after dinner and a few drinks, we retired for the evening. the next day, steve took us out for the day to visit the memorials. the land is so beautiful and peaceful, that you just can't imagine what horrors it saw back in the war. steve said that apparently local villagers and farmers can't put a shovel in the ground without turning up something from the war - this was made apparent when we stopped at a museum full of artifacts. there was a collection in one glass case that really took me ages to get over (we have a picture of it in the web album)- a collection of bullets which had been hit by other bullets mid-flight. can you imagine how thick with lead the air was? there were spoons and forks used by the soldiers. there were buttons off their jackets, and spent bullet casings, shrapnel. letters from the soldiers to their mothers and friends were gut-wrenching - in all the anzac letters that were on display, not once did they refer to the turkish soldiers with anything but respect - one letter described them as 'fine, big men'. there was this one photo showing turkish and anzac soldiers standing around together, and the caption explained 'on a day of ceasefire, turkish and allied forces unite to bury their dead'. it just breaks your heart. there was this statue showing a turkish soldier carrying a british soldier, and a plaque explained the situation - the british soldier had been wounded and was lying on the ground between the to fronts. in a situation like that you'd expect him to be shot by a turkish soldier - instead one turkish soldier waved a white flag and firing ceased for a moment - in which he climbed out of his trench, picked up the soldier and returned him to his own trench. then he turned around and went back to his own trench. once he was in there, fighting resumed. just drives the futility of war home, really. we saw anzac cove from a distance as the road to it seemed closed - but we have a lovely picture of the sea spotlit by the sun through the clouds. it was a full day of wandering and contemplation. i signed the guestbook at the lone pine anzac memorial for mark and i. the lone pine memorial is a large rectangular shape, and originally there there were parallel trenches along its length. The soldiers from each side would jump out of their trenches, run across to the enemy trenches, and attack with knives and bayonets. the ages on the tombstones ranged from eighteen to thirty Ã?– average age was 25. what a waste of life... it was a very emotional journey.
on sunday we had a little drive around the town of Gelibolu before we headed back to gurpinar, and steve pointed out some local landmarks; a beautiful open air mosque, some old turkish baths, the tree under which he and zeynep got engaged. it is a lovely town by the sea, beautiful and peaceful. i could have sat on the wall and watched the view from behind the open air mosque all day. on the way back home we stopped at a little zoo behind a service station, that's run by the owners of the service station. they had an interesting array of animals, but i couldn't help but wonder how he managed to procure a zebra, a camel and a babboon, all the way out there. wonders never cease.
monday night was curry night, and by all reports it was not that bad at all. there is a new boardgame we've learned called 'okey' which it took me ages to master; i finally won a round monday night. today mark and went for a little walk in the local area, then chilled at home, for tomorrow we go to cairo. zeynep's sister has a friend who conducts tours there, and he'll be able to give us some pointers when we get there. we've booked ourselves into a hostel in central cairo and will book some tours from there. i'm looking forward to it; we are there for five nights and return on the 11th. we will probably head back into istanbul after cairo to check out the stuff we missed out on first time around, then jet off to berlin or amsterdam maybe. we have to be in london by the 23rd to catch our flight to dublin for christmas.
i can't belive i thought that thirty days between turkey and dublin would be enough; i have a feeling we won't be seeing the eiffel tower this time around (not that i'm too worried about that). i am enjoying so much what we are doing now, discovering places i had never dreamed i'd see. so we'll take it as it comes, and report from wherever we find ourselves.
oh, and on another note altogether, more photos are up now, including the ones of mark's zombie toes. don't say i didn't warn you!
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okay, it's been a while between writing and posting of this blog entry - steve's laptop doesn't seem to like blogger at all, but that's cool - we won't hold it against him! we are now settled at our hostel in egypt. here's the story so far:
we got zeynep to call us a cab in gurpinar to take us to the airport. he arrived bang on time and we were off - the quietest cab-ride in history, given we didn't speak the same language. the driver tried to make conversation at one point by miming an areoplane taking off with his hand and making making enquiring noises, but he didn't seem to get it when we said 'egypt'. frustrated silence ensued, then he offered us chewies, we accepted and said 'teshekular', and he seemed quite pleased with that. only one wrong turn late we got to departures with plenty of time to spare, and he saluted us goodbye before driving off.
at the departure gate we were treted to two seperate sceaming matches - one between the the lady at the aircraft gate and a man whose handluggage bag was too big - he got really heated and animated, then once all the steam was let out of him he calmed right down and behaved himself. the other screamers were walking past our gate-lounge - three besuited men who obviously disagreed on some point. you should have seen our fellow passengers leave what they were doing and flock toward the window. ah well, at least it made the wait seem shorter. the flight itself was uneventful till just before landing wwhen we had to do a few air-blockies above egypt due to increased traffic - the weather was a little grumpy so the ride was bumpy, which we all know shalini just loves. a few deep breaths and i was fine though.
at the airport we were met by the two mohameds - friends of zeynep's sister fidan, they are tour guides and our new best friends in egypt. we went from the airport to a coffee lounge and had our first go at sheesha pipes - yes, i said 'we' because mark had a go, too. we smoked apple-flavoured tobacco. it was quite nice to sit there in this lovely open-walled cafe as dusk floated in behind the fairy-lit trees, watching the rain fall and puffing cotton-candy clouds. yes. we're in egypt.
then the mohameds took us to our hostel. it is smack-bang in downtown cairo - sounds like blaring horns, smells like damp. full of people even as i type (it's 10.30pm on a wednesday here). the entrance to our hostel is between two shops, through an arcade of sorts. the mohameds looked a bit unsure, and since i booked this place off the net, i was too. the lift is an exposed one - not in a nice glass-walled kind of way, more of a no-walled thing happening. we rode it to the fifth floor and mohamed 1 strode in before us and began sternly chatting to the proprietor before we got the key. turnsout there was no need for worry - the room is big enough for a small family, the bed is nice, the net is free, and it's sparkly clean. we'll have to take pictures. if anyone's coming to egypt, stay here - the luna hostel - around $35AUD for a room with an ensuite and breakfast included. so, we checked in and went out again to a restaurant where a friend of mohamed 2 works, and the food was great. these guys have not let us pay for a thing so far. we need to get an early night tonight because we're off at 7.15am tomorrow on a tour that mohamed 1 has organised for us at mates rates.
i am so excited i can't even imagine what it's going to be like.
i am so excited i don't even care if it rains.