Saturday September 21

Recovery bike ride to West Seattle.

Thursday September 19

Homeward bound.

Ottoman style for my last sleep in Istanbul

Mamara's hotel, near little Aya Sofya.

Sunflowers on the trip back to Istanbul

Tuesday September 17 Beware of Greeks bearing gifts

In Çanakkale. I needed to dial back on the effort as I'm dealing with travelers diarrhea. So just looking around the waterfront and noticing the extraordinary ottoman fort in Kilitbahir, on the other side of the Dardenelles. That wretched crappy Eceabat restaurant last night. Rude restaurant owner. Wish I'd given him the finger. But I was more emotionally drained by Gallipoli than I'd imagined.

Known only to god

More than 20,000 gave their lives

Great Uncle Tom Fowler

So sweet. Tucked under a name on the Cape Helles memorial.

Cape Helles

Monday September 16

The delicate wrought iron balustrades at the French War cemetery. More than 100 years of sunny afternoons have passed, under the beautiful warm Turkish sky, here in the Aegean.

Morto Bay

The beautiful quiet French cemetery. All are "mort pour la France". Again exquisitely sad.

57th Turkish regiment cemetery(Atatürk’s)

105 year old trenches

So unfair

Maybe one of these is the Frank who gave his name to my Dad

Lone Pine

Anzac Cove and The Sphinx

RIP

Atatürk and why he’s venerated by the Turks

I am blessed to see this

I hope Mr Carroll senior had a good life

Thank you, Private Pearce

You helped Australia decide to become an independent country.

Food for thought

Hell Spit

The graves face Greece.

Those who don’t know history are bound to repeat it

Alexander Donaldson of Hughenden North Queensland wore this

Propaganda for the brave and naive

A famous moment of human kindness

Both the Turks and the ANZACs were pawns in the war between Britain and Germany.

1915 was a watershed year on the path to Turkish independence

Poetry in the museum

Inside the Gallipoli museum

Just in case you are unimaginative.

Monday September 17

In TJ's Hotel. I hired TJ for a 95 euros all day private tour. I didn't come all the way from
Istanbul under my own steam, in order to tag along with Crowded House's afternoon group tour, even if it's only 150 lira.

Dropping me off at the feribot terminal in Eceabat

Lamb chops for dinner

Nice meal at this place, associated with Hassle free tours. I'm hungry.

Crowded House in Eceabat

Well it's not Mamara guest house. It'll have to do.

The bus hit him

Hopefully the driver now knows to look left and yield when entering a roundabout.

The Dardanelles

Once the bus is fully on the Gallipoli Peninsula it's very scenic.

Free refreshments during the trip

Water, tea, soda or box juice, keke or crackers. A nice touch.

80 lira through BusBud

3 hours 56 minutes listed trip time. In fact, Lonely Planet's 6 hours is accurate. The bus picks up passengers on the highway and at various otogars, plus has a 30 minute rest stop for fast food and cigarettes. And that's before we rear ended the careless compact car outside Eceabat.

Bayan WC

1.5 lira into the vending machine. Slide your wheelie under the locked grate on the left. Inside, pretty clean, soap, TP, and not yet stinky.

The Camel Coaches outnumber my Troy coach

Istanbul’s big Otogar in Enseler

Made it by tram and metro. About an hour.

September 16 off I go to Gelibolu

A splendid send off in the Sunday quiet at Mamara

A fixer Hamman for sale

On my walk back to Mamara. It's amazing to think it's truly an Ottoman building. The whirling dervishes performance was inside one of these.

Kahvesi in the Spice Market

I didn't appreciate the attempt by the waiter to charge me 8 lira for what the cook had told me was 6. He was a prat. Gave me a ready made one, a little sweet, before I'd time to order. The glass of water and adequate Turkish delight also never showed. Please don't treat me like an ignorant tourist. Prick. I don't care though.! I've had the full meal deal in Izmir, so I know.

Bargain hunting

Unfortunately even at only 5 lira a scarf nothing appealed.

Saturday evening is hopping in the Egyptian Bazaar (Spice Market)

My lunch tab

I'm going to compare this to my menu decoder in my phrase book. The Ayran was also excellent.

Kunufe at Barancan Ocakbasi

I would have preferred milk pudding, but this was the only dessert on offer. Shredded pastry with a center layer of light cheese soaked in sugar syrup and baked. Total tooth rot! Really needed the Turkish coffee. Glad I tried it, but not something I'll seek out much.

My excellent eggplant and lamb kebab lunch

So glad I walked away from that tourist trap/hookah rooftop that serves "American" food. I gave this place, Barancan Ocakbasi, an excellent TripAdvisor review.

A beautiful floral tombstone at Suleymaniye