Trip around the Sea of Marmara

For my 2-4^th days in Turkey, I signed up for a 3-day bus trip to see Gallipoli, Troy, Bursa, and Iznik. It was a really nice time, and I learned a lot about WWI and the history of Troy in it’s many stages, as well as how to make Iznik tiles!

Day 1
We left the ship at 8:30am on a packed coach bus to Gallipoli. We were supposed to have 2 busses, but enough kids dropped out of the trip that we could fit into one, although every seat was full though. The trip to Gallipoli was a 5-hour bus ride, but we went through some beautiful Turkish countryside to get to the ocean where town is situated. Gallipoli is known as the battlefield during WWI where the Allies (Britain, Australia, and New Zealand in this situation) were repulsed off Turkish soil after 9 months of trench fighting along the coast to control the Dardinelles. We visited several cemeteries of both sides of the fighting, as well as monuments and got to see some of the actual trenches left over from the war. Most of the trenches were less than 50 yards apart. They probably could have heard each other talking between the lulls in the fighting. The cemeteries were beautiful and peaceful, my favorite was right along the seashore with a view over the bay.

We left from Gallipoli to cross the Dardinelles by ferry around 5pm. That was probably the coolest ferry ride I’ll ever take, because as we crossed the strait, we also crossed from Europe to Asia!

That night we stayed in a nice hotel in Canakkale. Carey and I went on a walk down by the water that evening to see what was up. We got to see the Trojan Horse used in the movie Troy, which had been given to the city by the directors of the movie! Then we went and had cotton candy from a man on the street making it with fire, not electtricity, his little cotton candy stand looked like Trojan Horse too! Then we stopped by a little cafe on the water to get some tea. IT was pretty funny sitting in there because most of the occupants were guys, and they were all watching the soccer game in the next cafe through the glass wall seperating the two shops. I've never seen so many fans in my life! It was nice to get to sleep after the long bus ride, only the room was freezing! We couldn’t figure out how to turn up the heat at all!

Day 2
We left around 8:30pm from the hotel to get to Troy, about a 30-minute drive. Troy, as in Helen of Troy, as in Homor’s The Illiad. I was sooo excited to see the city had been fought over and so many had searched for for centuries. The first thing we saw there was a giant replication of the Trojan horse. Prety funny to think that the Trojans would fall for it, but according to legend they did. What a smart guy Odysseus was! Anyways, then we walked down to the ruins. And the ruins were everywhere! Troy is a series of 9 cities that have been built on top of each other throughout the centuries. It was incredible to see walls from 100 BC right next to walls from 2500 BC next to Roman walls from 5AD. We got to see Shliemann’s trench, the original dig of the discoverer of Troy, as well as many really interesting parts of the site. There were large pieces of the Temple of Artimus, gaurds houses, wells, a road built over the city wall, and a temple that still had much of it’s distinguishing features such as the sacrificial alter intact. I can’t believe I got to see it all!

We then drove to Bursa, stopping in a nice little town for lunch. Carey and I ventured into this nice little café for lunch where the people didn’t speak any English. It was great! I got chicken with rice, amazing rice. Then they served us apple tea, an amazing drink that everyone should try sometime. We traveled on to Bursa, where we went to the bazaar and stayed at another nice, warm hotel.

Day 3
We woke up early in Bursa to go to see the Green Mosque. It was really pretty, and really old. While we were there, it turned 9:05am. On the 10^th of November at 9:05am, Ataturk died, so all of Turkey stops for 2 minutes at that time to commemorate his death. It’s the strangest thing in the world. Everyone stops what they’re doing, people stop their cars and get out and stand, sirens go off and all the mosques ring the bells as well. I’m glad we were in town to see it.

Our next stop was Iznik, or the old Nicea. Birthplace of Christianity as we know it. It was so cool to be there and know the history of the place! It was the capital of the Byzantine Empire for a while when Emperor Constantine was forced out of Constantinople. While there, we got to go see a tile-making factory. The people there make tile by hand, and it takes 2 months from mixing the clay to firing the tiles in the kiln. They were absolutely gorgeous tiles, but very expensive. A little 10 centimeter square tile cost $40. So I couldn’t afford them, but they were nice to look at.

Our last stop in Iznik was to see the ruins of St. Sophia. It was once the largest and grandest Christian church, because Nicea was where Christianity was founded. It was built in the Byzantine style, with the domes and such that are reminiscent of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. I really loved it to see it all, too bad it is in ruins now. But it’s beautiful to see.

It was great driving around Turkey to see what life was like outside of the city. The countryside is so pretty, and even when it rained (which it did frequently) the country is pretty. I saw more rainbows over the last few days than I’ve ever seen!