From the Bronze Age to WWI in hours and miles

Saturday, July 11, no matter what Blogspot thinks!



We got out of Assos relatively early, and headed first for the Bronze Age sort of. Troy was our goal. There are at least 9 stages of excavation and they continue... but the beautiful area that was once on the Aegean coast has seen a lot of history, even aside from the Trojan War. Most of the interesting excavation is from Troy VI, but work continues. And just to keep the tourists happy, in addition to the spectacular ruins, they've constructed a giant wooden horse you can climb up in. We spent a couple of hours clambering around the ruins (and in my case, finding a Trojan cat to make friends with.) It was very hot and very very sunny, and we had miles to go, so back on the bus.

We missed the ferry across the Dardanelles at Canakkale, so we got doner from a street vendor and amused ourselves with lunch. The ferry ride took about 30 minutes, across gorgeous smooth blue waters, but we were all perhaps somber as we looked ahead at the Gallipoli (Gelibolu in Turkish) peninsula. High on a hillside here is a large Turkish flag and a poem that proclaims
"Stop, Sojourner.
This Earth you tread thus unawares
is where an age ended
Bow and listen. This quiet mound
is where the heart of a nation throbs"

Up more twisty roads. The Gelibolu Peninsula is one massive graveyard and battlefield... 2 years of miserable trench warfare, entire units wiped out, more than 500,000 casualties combined. Today it is peaceful and serene and much visited. The most popular site may be the ANZAC sites at ANZAC cove -- each year they come and do commemorative ceremonies, though there are few remaining survivors, obviously.

The plaque put there by Ataturk in 1934 reads thus:

Those heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives
You are now lying int eh soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace4.
There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours...
You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears;
Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace.
After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

Probably not a whole lot of comfort, but stirring nonetheless.

The two years were marred by poor communications, miscommunication, no communications at all, and a tragic series of circumstances that left too many dead to no effect.

Some mild humor from Jack Churchill, Winston's brother, who memorialized the disastrous landing at the beach code named "Y Beach":
Y Beach, the Scottish borderer cried
When panting up the steep hillside.
To call this thing a beach is stiff.
Y Beach!
It's nothing but a bloody cliff!
Why beach?

There were tons of memorials, tons of graves, and many stories of heroism and gallantry at both sides... stirring indeed.

Then back on the road. There were more than 200 miles to Istanbul and Lisa had a plane to catch to go ahead of us to Belgrade. We drove fast. Turkish roads are much improved over the last 25 years, but it is still not a nation of fast road travel. There is heavy traffic and much slow moving traffic. Gas is about $6-7 a gallon, but there is a lot of automotive and truck traffic. We made it to the airport in time, anyhow, and then back to our old Istanbul stomping grounds, the Bristol Hotel. We walked down Istiklal Street -- it's a block or so beyond our hotel and used to be the main thoroughfare of urban Istanbul. Now it is walking mall,full of shops, restaurants, clubs, movies, people out to be seen. We had dinner in a restaurant featuring Circassion food... very very good. Yogurt soup, to start, then a Circassian meat pastry, and so on. No one is starving. We ate out on the alleyway and watched people go by. Then sleep!

We are in Istanbul till Tuesday evening. I took this day off to do laundry, catch up reading and writing, work on lesson plans, baby my knee a little. they were doing a walking tour of places I'd already been, so it was not an issue. I'm kind of enjoying the quiet, though I wish the air conditioning worked better!

More tomorrow.