Saturday, April 30, 2005

Cruel Irony, or Happy Coincidence?

I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Certain things happen because they're meant to lead to other things. And I truly believe that the universe sends us signs, tells us what we're meant to do or what we're not meant to do. Today was one of those days ...

So I was on the train on the way to work and I fainted (don't worry mum, I'm fine!) and it's funny because on the trains and on the tubes here no-one talks to each other, let alone makes eye contact. Although sometimes I do the latter just to freak people out:D. But of all the trains to faint on, I did so on that one. And the people around me were really nice - gave up a seat for me, some guy gave me his bottle of water, two women gave me some sugary food they had in their bags, and another tied my hair back for me and held my cardigan. Sometimes it's nice to have your faith in human kindness reaffirmed, even if it is because of weird circumstances. Anyway, when we got to Waterloo this woman helped me off the train and took me to the Boots chemist and bought me a lucazade, even though I had my wallet out ready to pay. We introduced ourselves along the way, she asked what I did, I told her I was a journalist and, lo and behold, so is she! Not only that, but she's the head of the Special Programs division for GMTV, probably the biggest network and news program here next to the BBC. And she said to me if I wanted some freelance work to send her my details (she gave me her card), but obviously she couldn't guarantee anything.

Funny how things turn out, isn't it?

Thursday, April 28, 2005

ANZAC Day Tour

Needless to say Anzac Day was amazing, but I do apologise for the lengthy entry that is to come. However, it's for my benefit to keep a good log of my adventures, and if you guys like to read it that's cool too! But never fear - I have used SUB-HEADINGS! Which, as we all know, makes reading so much easier because you can just skip to the parts that hold some interest to you. And lots of piccies helps too.

So, here we go!

DAY ONE - ARRIVAL IN ISTANBUL
Okay so the arrival probably wasn't as successful as it could have been. Got up at some ridiculous hour, like 3am, and I had booked a mini cab the day before to arrive at 4.30, to get me to Heathrow by 5. But I couldn't sleep and was pottering around for ages going crazy and stressing about details. And then my mini cab didn't turn up. So I rang them, asked what was going on, and they eventually sent a car out to me. At 5am. But I got there eventually, hopped on the plane and was on the way to Istanbul!

I flew with Malev airlines which are Hungarian, and they were really good - nice comfy seats, nice food to for an airline. We changed planes in Budapest about 2 hours later, and then arrived in Istanbul about two hours after that. On the way I met a few Aussies ... and by a few I mean the majority of all planes were filled with Aussies and Kiwis. In fact, everyone I met that weekend was either a backpacker who had been on the road for ages, or a Kiwi or Aussie who lived and worked in the UK. I don't think I met anyone who came all the way over from Australia for the ceremony.

ANYWAY.

Got to Istanbul and realised my ATM card didn't work. Luckily I had changed a little bit of money before I left, but other than that I was going to be relying on the meals they provided us with and my surival instinct (bred through suriving living out of home, at uni and working at a cafe!). In the end it became a challenge to survive four or five days in a foreign city with only 60 quid. And my visa cost me 20 Euro once I got there...

So I met up our tour operators and they drove us into Istanbul. I was freaking out at bit - we're talking a REALLY massive city. 14 million people. But being as tired as I was, I decided to go to bed and leave the exploring for the morrow...


DAY TWO - ISTANBUL

Meeting people, seeing the sites...

Today I decided to make my way to the Grand Bizarre and, with my trusty Time Out guide to Istanbul in my hand, I headed out onto the streets of Istanbul. It's really intimidating, walking around by yourself in that city. I hardly saw any women out, but the men were everywhere and they don't seem to do anything all day other than sit around, stand around, outside shops and smoke and watch people, occasionally yelling stuff at you. I got down the main road and was consulting my map and getting thoroughly confused (sometimes it's a good idea to know exactly where you are on the map before you head off) when I saw a group of people walking towards me who looked suspiciously Australian. The conversation went something like this:

ME: Hey, are you guys Australian?
THEM: Yeah!
ME: If you're heading towards the Grand Bizarre, mind if I join you?
THEM: For sure!

So I tagged along with them for a while and we heading towards the Grand Bazarre...

The Grand Bazarre

Along the way we stopped off at this mosque. Istanbul is the city of the mosques, it's just amazing how many there are! And a few times a day they broadcast their prayers from loud speakers so the wailing floats through the city, it's quite surreal.

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Mosque on the way to the Grand Bazarre

Eventually we got to the Grand Bazarre. It has so many different entries and gates, we went in through this tiny doorway at the bottom of an alley, lined with shops. The Bazarre is just incredible. There are apparently 4000 shops inside, and you can buy anything and everything there. Having said that, there's a lot of the same, but it means they're willing to make good deals if you haggle them down enough.

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It's quite an amazing place, and had I had the money I probably would've gone nuts, so it's probably just as well my ATM card didn't work!:) The people there were much more friendly and less creepy than the ones hanging around our hotel. I know it's probably because they had stuff to sell, but they also seemed happy just trying their English out on us and talking to us about Australia, and one guy taught us a few Turkish words too! We spent a good couple of hours there just walking around looking at things, and eventually left through another little doorway. As we were walking out onto the street we were harrassed by people selling fake perfumes, but we also heard a guy yelling out 'Fresh bread!' - seriously, Lauren (one of the girls in the group I was with) walked in and he pulled a loaf out of the oven, stuck in in a paper bag and gave it to her - it was just delicious!

Turkish Currency

Okay, so my prediction about no Euros was wrong - in Turkey, ANYTHING goes. They've still got their old currency circulating, so a lot of things are still adverstised as 5 million lira, for instance, whereas in the new currency it's only 5 lira. They've basically just chopped the zeros of the end. So there's those two, then they also accept Euros, American Dollars and Pounds at some places. They will seriously take almost anything because almost anything is worth more than their own currency.

Byzantine Tower

From there we walked to a little kebab shop for lunch and then on down the hill, just basically winging our way around with no real idea where we were going. We ended up at a major ferry terminal (some of Istanbul being on the European continent, some on the Asian Continent), and walked across a bridge, up the hill to the Byzantine Tower.

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View across to the hill - Byzantine Tower visable at the top.

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Hey look, it's me!

The Byzantine Tower is incredibly old - built in 582AD. That's the thing with Turkey, of course, is that it is such an incredibly old country and was a major trade route for centuries, that there's many things in it that are extremely old. From the top of the tower you have 360 degree views of Istanbul. Unfortunately the day was rather rainy so I probably didn't get the best pictures, but you can still see how prominent the mosques are, and how incredibly built-up the city is.

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From there we wandered back towards the direction of the hotels we were staying at. It would have been nice to see the Blue Mosque but I ran out of time - I had to get back to the hotel in time for our tour Welcome Dinner.

The Welcome Dinner

I met up with our tour group in the hotel lobby and got myself some new travelling buddies - mostly kiwis, but again we're all living in the UK. From there we piled onto a bus and headed to what appeared to be a sporting club for our dinner. It was kind of disappointing, not going to a real Turkish restaurant or anything. But there was a belly dancer after a while, and we all go free beer because there had been so many organisational problems caused by the tour company. For instance, a couple of people in our group were by themselves after being separated from the friends they booked with - for some reason they were split up from their groups. And the rooms at the hotels weren't organised properly. Some people had a room to themselves with three other spare beds, while I know of one guy who ended up sleeping on the floor in someone's room.

But we had an okay night and headed back to the hotel ready for a very early morning...

DAY THREE - TO GALLIPOLI

A 5.30am wake-up call later, and we all met for breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Turkish breakfasts, we were to discover, were odd to say the least. Cucumber, hard-boiled egg, tomato, olives, fetta and crazy bread rolls were the stable breakfast wherever we went.

After breakfast we got into the bus and drove the four hours to the Gallipoli peninsular. By going two days before the service, we were able to walk around without the large crowds. We first went to the museum which is on a ridge opposite to the memorials. That was pretty interesting, but I wish we'd had more time there. Some of the more morbid things were a skull with a bullet in it, and a boot with the skeleton of the foot still in it. Those were kind of gross. But they also had collections of shrapnel and weaponry and the kits and clothes of the New Zealanders, Turks and Australians.

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View from the museum over to the Peninsular.

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The Digger kit

From there we drove down to Anzac cove and had a look around at North Beach and the cemeteries. It really is quite incredible to be there, to see so many graves, and read the inscriptions. Some of the kids that died there were only 17, 18 years of age. And when you look at those cliffs, you realise just how tough it must have been to get as far as they did.

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The 'Sphinx' - a natural formation - and the area where the dawn service was held.

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Looking out from the sphinx area towards the sea, and the set-up for the dawn service.

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One of the beach cemeteries...

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Me, at another beach cemetery

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Anzac Cove

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The grave of John Simpson, the digger who became famous, along with his donkey, for moving the wounded from the battlegrounds down to the beach hospital.

From there we drove up to the Lone Pine memorial. We really weren't given a lot of time there, but it was still great to be there. I saw the name 'Barr' and 'Aitkin' on the wall of names of men who died but whose graves are not known. Those are both the names of family of mine, although I wish I had investigated further before I left as to who I was looking for. Many of the cemeteries at the peninsular are mostly gravestones marking the spots where people probably lay. Many of the diggers who died there simply don't have graves. The space Lone Pine takes up - all of about 150m long, is where 2000 men died, allied and Turks. It really is incredibly humbling.

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The Lone Pine memorial.

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The remains of one of the trenches. The hillside has lots of overgrown ditches that were all once trenches.

From there we went up to the NZ memorial and had a look around there as well. That was the furthest point the Anzacs got to. They held the position for three days before they were pushed back from the Turks. It was a prime position as it oversaw the Dardenelles, and if they had captured the Dardenelles they would have been able to take over Constantinople (Istanbul)

To the Hotel!

We then drove two-and-half hours to our hotel, crossing on a ferry from European Turkey to Asian Turkey. It really is so weird to do that! We were driving along the coast and the sun was setting to our right, over European Turkey, while the moon was rising to our left, over Asian Turkey. That was really awesome.

We got to the hotel quite late, I discovered I had no hot water, and when I turned on the hot water tap in the sink brown water came out. So that wasn't the best way to end the evening!

DAY FOUR - RURAL TURKEY, AND A CAMP OUT

The Agean Sea

We woke up the next morning and looked outside and ... it was sunny, beautiful and the sky and sea were so beautiful and blue! We were right on the edge of the Agean sea, the water was crystal clear, and to our right were mountain ranges where you could see the tip of Mount Olympus, which we did when we drove past it later. That was really cool - the home of the Gods! These days it's called Mount Ida.

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The beach at our hotel, looking out over the Agean. Now I want to go to Greece!

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Driving past the mountains, Mt Olympus is just visible above the other mountains - it's the mountain peak with snow on it.

The 'Nomad' Village that never was...
We drove to what was supposed to be one of the few nomadic villages left in Turkey, but what turned out to be more of a business opportunity for Sammy, the guy whose tour company we were with. He's a sneaky fellow that one - fingers in every pie! One side of his business card is 'Sammys Travel Agency', while the other side is 'Sammy's Real Estate Agency'!.

The village was more like a few token women sitting around cooking for us, and a big rug sale. We got free drinks and food, but this was more a tax write-off for Sammy - basically, he had a deal goign with the Turkish government. He brings tourists to this village which is apparently a 'cultural icon' which the government is trying to preserve. Here we tourists get a speech about how if we buy rugs - which are made by tribal women are are, I will admit, authentic hand-made turkish rugs - the money will go back to the village. But because of that, they would not leave us alone which soon got incredibly irritating. I was very happy to leave soon after that!

Back at the hotel we all sat around the pool for a few hours in the sun. Having most of us come from England, we were all craving for sunshine and no matter how chilly the wind got, we were all determined to sit around in t-shirts and shorts (although some very brave girls got into their toggs) and soak up some sunshine. It was then time to rug up, pack up and start back to Gallipoli...

Camping out...

Firstly, let me say that I was so dissappointed to hear about all this uproar about the 'mess' the Anzac site was left in. Really, the focus should have remained on how 20,000 people came to Gallipoli to commemorate this occassion. No alcohol was allowed, which was great because things may have gotten hairy if it had been. But we had two bus stops, and every single person had to have their bags checked as we walked onto the site. As it was, we were bus number 168 into the site and had to walk 3kms to get there, and in the end there were 600 busses on the peninuslar! It was a logistical challenge-and-a-half! The Turkish army were there in force with semi-automatics at the ready which was a tad scary, so security was really tight.

But back to my original point - you put 20,000 in a really small space and no bins, you're going to have a mess, and I dare say there would have been even with bins. We took our rubbish with us, but many people wouldn't have. As it was, people had been there from 6 in the evening, so they would have had their share of rubbish. It really irritated me to hear that we were apparently 'disrespectful' when we were all anything but. All 20,000 people were well-behaved and very respectful towards the occassion. We all knew why we were there - to honour the dead. But it's a VERY long time to wait for the dawn service to start! We got there at ten and the prelude to the service didn't start til 4.30am. We were very lucky to get seats (in the wooden stands) and thousands of people walked in after us and weren't able to get seats anywhere. Many ended up climbing a little way into the hills behind the stands. As to the 'Stayin' Alive' thing I keep hearing about, they played the Bee Gees 'One Night Only' concert DVD just to keep us entertained - we had to watch SOMETHING for all those hours! And the Bee Gees are Australian, so in that they were appropriate. It makes me very embarrassed to be a journalist when you read all the stuff that has been written about the ceremony.

ANYWAY.

Sorry, slight grip there:).

It was freezing! I had a t-shirt, turtle-neck jumper, jumper, tour t-shirt, denim jacket, parker, gloves, beanie, scarf, long socks, jeans and I sat in my sleeping bag (indeed, we all looked like caterpillars sitting and standing around in sleeping bags!) and that was the only way I could keep anywhere near warm!

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Camped out in the stands with my new Kiwi friends - Jody and Kris.

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I am a tea-towel head.

DAY 5 - THE DAWN SERVICE

I must have managed some sleep sitting up, because the time passed more quickly than I thought it would. At 4.30am they had a Prelude to the service, which we'd had a preview of the night before. It was an incredible light and smoke show across the bay, accompanied with music played by a string quartet with didgeridoo (sp?), and a very moving mini-doco played on the big screens which included photos and stories from the troops, along with a letter written by a NZ colonel to his wife just a few hours before he died, which was very moving.

The HMAS Anzac was out in the bay circling around all night and was all lit up, and some of the sailors came on shore for the ceremony which was really cool too.

By this time the PM had arrived, along with all the other dignitaries, and then we could see Prince Charles arriving - from our view up in the stands we could see the big cavalcade moving down the road. When he arrived the service started which was very beautiful, lots of lovely music and readings. The only criticism I'd have about it was John Howard mentioning the English stuffing up on the day we lost so many lives - I didn't think the blame game needed to come into it at that point in time. The service finished with the Last Post as the sun rose over the hills, and the national anthems of Turkey, Australia and New Zealand. Corny as it sounds, standing there at Anzac Cove on that day, at dawn, and singing our national anthem was a really special thing.

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Dawn rises over Gallipoli...

[EDIT: I'm trying to get some photos of the light show - my camera didn't take very good pics of it, but one of the other girl's camera did.]

The Australian Ceremony

When the Dawn Service was over we headed up to Lone Pine. We had been told to wait for the VIP busses to leave, which we thought they had, but as we walked out of the gates towards the Lone Pine track, we passed a VIP bus. And, being the curious cat that I am, I stopped right in front of it and looked to see who was inside and lo and behold, there's John Howard, his wife and Helen Clarke waiting to leave in the front seats! So I sat there and waved my flag at them and yelled out 'Yeah! Go Australia!'. The PM and I gave each other the thumbs up before I yelled out 'See you up the top Johnny!'. Heheee..It amused me, and him too...

Walking up the track to Lone Pine was lovely - started to get a bit warm along the way - and many people commented how if it was slightly difficult for us to walk up there, imagine how hard it must have been for the diggers with little water, carrying their packs and dodging bullets! The track went past a cemetery and past Shrapnel Valley. It also afforded amazing views out over the cove.

We eventually got to the top and found some seats quickly, as the place was filling up fast. None of the grave areas were roped off, and with so many people in such a small place people were soon forced to stand in between the graves. We had a few hours to wait until the ceremony started, and we soon tried to nod off to sleep.

After a while the PM turned up, as did Peter Cosgrove, and both got a warm welcome. I think it was more that they were high-profile Australians who made the effort to come. But also, and much to their credit, when they got there they spent ages walking around through the crowd talking to people, taking photos and signing autographs, which was really cool. Not soon after the Mexican Wave started up. It was a really electric atmosphere.

But perhaps my favourite part of the whole ceremony, and many people I've spoken to since have agreed with me, was when just before it began the MC came on the mike and invited any veterans in the crowd to come down and sit in the VIP area. Well, that was just really special because when the vets did walk down, everyone gave them a standing ovation and cleared a path for them. They must have felt so proud having thousands of Aussies paying such respect to them. And when they got to the VIP area there weren't enough seats but many of the 'dignitaries', including high profile military officers, gave up their seats for them.

Prior to the ceremony they had a thing called the 'Beating of the Flag' which is a very special military march, performed by the Navy, Air Force and Army. When that was over, we waited for Prince Charles to arrive before the ceremony started.

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The view across from where we sat at Lone Pine, before the place filled up.

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The Ceremony begins.

It was all a bit too religious based for my liking, and the first hymn was terribly long, but the choir were really good, as was the army band. The wreath laying ceremony was kind of irritating - every man and his dog got to lay a wreath! There were all these random, and irrelevant, Aussie politicians there who all got to lay wreaths. I really don't understand why the Premier of Tasmania was there, but there you go.

Again, the Last Post was played, followed by 2 minutes silence and then the National Anthem which again was a very special moment.


And then it was all over. Our ceremony was running late and we had known that we would have been pushed to walk to the NZ ceremony in time anyway, so we elected to stay and wait for a few hours for the busses to start filtering through. As it was, the NZ ceremony was delayed anyway so we could probably have made it. But shoulda coulda woulda. Waiting for the busses took ages as it was, and then once we got on a bus we pulled up on the road side not far from the site to wait for all the other Sammy's busses to turn up and sort out luggage. It really was terribly organised, nobody knew what was going on. But eventually we got back to Istanbul for our last night in Turkey.

The End

And that's about it! Okay, so that's got to be one of the longest blogs in history, and I don't blame you for not reading it and just looking at the pictures! God knows I'd probably do the same!:)

In conclusion, Anzac Day was definitely worth it, despite whatever the media back home are dissing us about, they were there and they saw how packed it was. Istanbul was scary, but although I'd like to go back some point I'm certainly in no rush to do so. I'm now more intrigued about Greece and Budapest!

And now - bed, for some much needed sleep! Oh, and once I get more pics I'll put them up.:)

By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHELLE!

Thursday, April 21, 2005

I am wearing the jean pant.

Off on my holiday tomorrow - I can't wait! Of course I have to leave at some ridiculous hour of the morning because the tubes, for all their thinking they're all that and a bag of chips, don't run early enough to get me to Heathrow by 5.30am. So I'm going to have to spend 25 quid on a mini cab.

However, it will be worth it I'm sure! Assuming I don't get terribly lost. And thankfully the Turkish government have sorted out the Lira ... to some extent. Speaking of which, I had this idea in my head the other day that I'd be using Euros, and then remembered that Turkey has that whole 'we took over Cyprus and we don't like the EU' thing going on, and were still using Liras. BUT, remember the game Where In The World is Carmen SanDiego? You could always find out where she was by certain things like pictures or the currency she was using, and she was often in Istanbul using Liras, or in France using francs. Now the Euro's come in, they're going to have to rethink a lot of that game! They could be all like 'she was caught cashing in Euros' - so what?! She could be anywhere on this giant continent!

I think too much about irrelevant stuff.

Anywho, I promise lots of pics when I get back:).

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Most Over-Used Pun Ever Award goes to "Phantastic"

The coolest thing about London is that you can just rock up to a theatre after work on a Friday night and see a show. Last night, on a total whim, I decided not to be completely buried in work all weekend and instead go and see Phantom of the Opera, which was just AMAZING. It's so cool being able to see professional theatre companies perfoming these big shows 6 nights a week, as well as matinee performances, and not have to clamour for tickets or wait for the show to come to town, like we do in BrisVegas.

And, like a big sissy girl, I cried during 'Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again' - I always think of Gran when I hear that song. But yes, totally awesome, the cast were fantastic - I think the guy who played Phantom is so much better than Michael Crawford. Lots of theatre-obsessed buffs out there are going to track me down and kill me for saying that, but the fact remains that this guy was awesome. As were the sets - really impressive, especially the masquerade scene.

So yes. I'll stop raving on about how cool Phantom and the theatre scene here is and actually write another assignment.

BUT IT'S JUST SO COOL!

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Reading, Writing and Arithmetic

I know I haven't updated for a couple of weeks but I've been Boring Mel, more or less. I've been attempting to catch up with uni work, and save some money. Also my editor and another writer have gone away on holidays so I'm going to be kept busy at work for a couple of weeks.

However, I finally booked my flights to Istanbul today, after much hassle. Basically, because all the airlines are hiking up their prices thanks to Anzac Day, if I wanted an airfare for under 300 quid I have to go on a dodgy airline and have a brief stop-over in Budapest on the way there and back. But that's the way the cookie crumbles, and it's my own fault for not getting organised earlier! Also, to get a flight under 400 quid I had to leave a day earlier, but it means I'll get to spend a full day in Istanbul before the tour gets under way, but I'll miss out on a day of work. But the extra night will be nice and it only costs an extra £19 at the hotel, so I think I can cope with that.

Anywho, I'm going to attempt to write at least one assignment this weekend... wish me luck, for I am the Queen of Procrastination. As is evidenced by the cake baking, kitchen cleaning, bathroom scrubbing, vacuuming, washing ...