Troy and Gallipoli

We passed thru TROY on our way to Gallipoli so took a couple of pics. this horse was at a restaurant to draw the tourists in not the real thing but close. At the site of Troy the horse that was featured in the recent movie is on display. We actually decided to give the site a miss as we had just been to Ephesus.

We had breakfast in a little cafe next to our hotel  in a town that dosnt see too many tourists, and as Trevor happened  to point out to me I was the only female in the restaurant, something I hadn’t actually noticed until then.  We didn’t know how to ask for what we wanted for breakfast but as it happened one of the young guys there spoke English so we asked if he could order a traditional Turkish breakfast for us!!  Turned out that the cafe was full of Turkish soldiers on their day off, Sunday, they had come off the base and into this town for a day out and breakfast and to use the internet.  

We ended up chatting with this soldier asking him about how it all works and what he thought etc. It was so great, he was so gracious and polite and helpful and happy to boot, a joy to chat with.  He said that it is still mandatory to do a 15month service in the Turkish army and that he normally worked in water sports in the tourist town of Marmaris for the summer and did his stint in the army during the winter months, if your married you don’t have to go into the army, he said it was ok but also said that the government said that they were going to phase this out and within a couple of years it would not be mandatory.   He was sorry that he wasn’t in Marmaris at the same time as us to show us around because he said we missed so much, the turtles, the houses in the cliff side, the dolphins, the diving, the mud baths and so much more, you could see that he genuinely wanted us to see his town, it was nice.

                                                                                                                                                

 GALLIPOLI another sobering experience 1915 world war 1!

We met another guy in a restaurant  in Istanbul, the waiter, Trevor asked him about whether he had been in the army or not, well he had, he said that he had done his 15 months a few years back and had spent over a month in the snow one winter in eastern turkey, not been able to shower for 1 month and been in active combat with terrorist from Iraq,  one night he said that on his watch 6 terrorists were shot and killed.  Just watching this young guy tell us his story brought tears to my eyes, he said it changed him.  He said his father had done it, his older brother and now his younger brother would have to go in too, i asked how he felt about his younger brother going in and he said it will be good for him as he dosnt respect his elders, money, life at the moment and he knows from his own experience that the army will change him.  As I watched this young guy tell us his story i could see that as he told it it put him back there, which was difficult for him, he said that if he hadn’t taken pictures he wouldn’t have believed that he had actually been there.


  He said at times he would be armpit deep in snow, trudging around with 2 machine guns and a rocket gun shooting out into the unknown, he said he never knew if he would ever return home.  Then he walked away for a while and came back ,  he said the thing is that he visited with his friends in the army a few weeks ago and then just last week one of them died in a car accident, he said how strange that was, seeing as they were all in such danger during their stint in the army yet his friend had died at home in a car accident, only 25 years old, life is short.

This was real, listening to this young guy really hit home with me, as he was telling us his experience i felt like i was out there with him, i could feel the courage and fear at the same time this young boy must have felt and then my mother in me kicked in and thought, thank god my own son didn’t have to be put out there, some may think it was good for this kid but not me, yes he had to grow up really fast but at what price, Im glad that Canada dosnt have the same rules.


Inscribed on a memorial at Anzac Cove by the first president of Turkey Mustafa Kemal:-


"Those heroes that shed their blood
and lost their lives
you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country
Therefore rest in peace
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, 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."

During this war the Turks were fighting against the British and the alies so this inscription is quite powerful!