Extreme touring has slowed since the Active tour began

So happy to have slept in beds instead of a bus!

To the plane we go!

 

1 hour on a plane > 13 hours on a bus, ANY day!!  I'm beyond glad we skipped out on our most recent overnight bus....don't worry, more bus rides await us!

Back to Istanbul in no time to meet up with our tour, and I'm the only American in a group of Aussies.  (Meg told me this was likely to happen) and of course our Turkish tour guide; but I'm totally OK with it (duh!).  Everyone asks Marnie and I how we know each other, and when we tell them that we just met last week in Turkey, no one can believe it.  I guess an overnight bus right really lends itself to some hard core bonding.  We do a guided walking tour around Istanbul, do a bit of shopping in the Spice Market and the Grand Bazaar, where aggressive and pushy aren't strong enough adjectives.

Group dinner

The next morning, Marnie and I head to Basilica Cistern, an undergound city in Istanbul.  It's increadible!  There's rows of pillars coming out of the water holding up the vaulted ceilings.  There's also two giant medusa heads that came from Egypt.  They're huge, and I have no idea how they got them down there.  The afternoon was a 5.5 hour bus ride that took us to Eceabat, a sleepy town compared to Istanbul.  Tourism I'm sure is their main attraction, but I bet there's as many stray cats and dogs as there are people there. 

In the Basilica Cistern

Basilica is the starting framework of the church, and Cistern is where water is kept.

(Oh, have I forgot to mention the strays all over Turkey??  The cats sit around when you're eatting dinner waiting for your scraps, it's quite disgusting.  The dogs are a bit cuter, but they're still pretty dirty.  We had a couple kittens in our room in Cappadocia, sneaking in through our open window with no screens to commendere the bread and cheese I snuck from breakfast.  They were a bit cuter since they were kittens, but pretty gross none the less)

The kittens getting at my cheese

Most of our Day 2 in Turkey was spent traveling (Our actual touring has really slowed since we started this "Active" Tour) and we watch Gallipoli (with Mel Gibson 30 years or so ago) after dinner, since I'm the ignorant American.

Anzac Cove....Hiking and later snorkeling here

Gallipoli is something that all Aussies know about and learn about in school.  I was reading over our itinerary and Marnie laughed out loud when I tried pronouncing it (gally-polly was what I said but guh-lip-uh-lee is the correct way).  It was a battle (I feel like battle implies that it was short period of time, it was several months, I just can't think of a better word) that the Anzac fought during World War I that caused a lot of casualties and gained no progress or land for the Allies.  Who are the Anzac you may ask, I did and got laughed at by everyone.  I knew the question was going to be a stupid one so I tried to pull the tourguide off to the side to ask him privately, but apparently I wasn't quiet enough because everyone laughed in amazment when I asked.  Anzac in the Australia and New Zealand Army Corp, hence why they learn about it in school. 

Silliness on the beach

We hiked the state park and learned all about what happened at Gallipoli.  There are tons of Anzac cemetaries and memorials all over the park, which I think is an amazing thing for one country to have memorials for other countries that were at war with them.  These memorials are beautiful and all in English, so that it can be read by the Aussies and Kiwis.  I'm sure it was much more inspiring to the Australians than it was to me, but even as an American, it was quite touching.  Lone Pine was the big Australian Memorial, several Turkish Memorials, too.  The views as we climbed up the mountain was increadible, and it was hard to imagine such brutal battles being fought there. 

Nek Cemetary....AMAZING views!

We then rode down and snorkeled Anzac cove over a sunken battle ship.  Pretty cool!  This is what I was doing as everyone back home was starting their nine-to-five. I was thinking of you all :)

That night, we took the Ferry over to Canakkle to check out the Trojan Horse that they used in the movie Troy.
This morning we were up early for another long bus ride.  Thank God for Wifi and Marnie's laptop :)

OK so when the websites are in a different language, it's a bit difficult to post, so I had to wait until today to get things figured out.