Sunday 27 April: Farewell dinner

At the Panorama Restaurant, it was too cool to sit outdoors but we went upstairs between courses to admire (and be gobsmacked, yet again, by) the view from the rooftop. The Istanbul skyline was studded with domes and minarets, glowing in the late evening sun. Ships sailed past on the Bosphorus, seabirds wheeled overhead and at eye-level in various directions we could see other rooftop diners also enjoying the view from their own rooftop restaurants. As the sky darkened, many of the buildings were lit up, the bridge was illuminated in stripes of blue and red and a fireworks display burst out over the water.

Our meal was punctuated with speeches and toasts: to “Graeme and the team”, to the Volunteers, to Baris our guide, to “our changed views of Gallipoli”, to “the production team at the Efes brewery” (in tribute to several good nights of celebrations) and, more seriously, to “those who were at Gallipoli in 1915.” Jim, who left the group on our return to Istanbul to join another tour, came back (with his wife, Jan, just arrived from Sydney) to join in the fun. Travel plans for the next week or two were discussed (Vienna, Rome, London) and a birthday cake was brought out for Vin, who celebrated his birthday on Saturday, with a rousing chorus of “happy birthday to you”.

We were especially touched that the team leaders, who were as tired post-Gallipoli as the rest of us, had found time to prepare a gift for each of us: a personalised set of prints, including team photos and smaller group photos taken in various locations. There were lots of nice things (all true) said about Baris, who has made such a huge difference to the trip and taught us so much about the Turkish view of Gallipoli.

Our wonderful guide Baris in action

We all feel a sense of accomplishment at what we have achieved, and it’s hard to believe that the trip is nearly over, after all the months of planning and anticipation. It hardly seems any time at all since the team came together at Singapore Airport, and at the same time it feels like years ago as so much has happened since then. We’ve eaten together, shopped together, Turkish-bathed together, partied together (some more than others!) and shared our backgrounds and family stories. Some of us have shared rooms (thank you Leonie for being a great room-mate!)

We've celebrated three birthdays, for Fran, Simone and Vin. We've compared purchases and found out who are the best bargainers Luckily only a couple of people (no names) came down with tummy bugs, and there were plenty of nurses around to give good advice and hand out stocks of travel medicine.There are catch phrases that we’ve come to know (“Lord love ya”, that’ll be you, Simone!) and some team members have been given nicknames: Major Tom, Peter the Great and, in true Aussie fashion, Shorty and Curly (from which you can maybe guess how tall Mick is, and how much hair Jin has, or hasn’t).

But along with all the fun times, there has been a real sense of purpose and dedication, which has made this a unique time for everyone. As Graeme said, our experiences leading up to Anzac Day and on the day itself have created a bond not only with each other but with all the Red Coats of preceding years. We’ve all visited the sites, talked about our individual soldiers, survived the hectic hours as buses arrive and the long hours helping people through the night and then, half asleep on our feet, taken in the dawn service and the services at Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair.

On Monday, the group starts to head off in different directions, starting with Marc who has a 3.30am pick up at the hotel; then Andrea, Rosemary, Anna and me at 5.30am; then 15 people going back to Australia and NZ, Jim and his wife on a cruise down the Bosphorus, .Jane and Nicky to explore Cappadocia, Tom to walk the length of England and Scotland (we know it will be no problem for him!)

Saturday 26 - Sunday 27 April - post Gallipoli

Tired is not the word - even exhausted is only a mild term for how we felt once we got back to the Grand Eceabat Hotel on the afternoon of the 25th.

People dealt with their exhaustion in different ways. Some went down to the Kapitan Bar to down a few beers (Efes!!!), which may or many not have been a good idea, although they did score some free Anzac Tshirts from their visit. Some fell asleep, and felt either better or worse when they woke up. Most - not all - made it upstairs to dinner at 7pm, but most were in bed pretty early that night.

On Friday night, Graeme asked if we had any funny or memorable moments to share. Marc said that he had stumbled back to the tents for a rest and just as he was trying to drop off to sleep, he was jerked awake by the sound of someone practising the bagpipes under the trees nearby. Who on earth would be playing the bagpipes in the middle of the night?? We had to confess it was a Kiwi who played at the CB service. Someone else had a story about trying to wristband a man who was quite belligerent, and finding out later that the same man had been thrown out for being drunk, and was sobering up in a tent offsite.

On Saturday we had an 8.30am departure from the hotel, to make sure that the keen bargain hunters who wanted to shop at the Grand Bazaar could do so, as it's closed on Sundays. It was a slow trip back, especially once we hit weekend traffic on the outskirts of Istanbul. The traffic was crawling along so slowly that there were vendors selling their good inbetween the lanes on the roads.

Once re-installed at the Ottoman Legacy Hotel, we made plans for the afternoon - the main ones being shopping at the Bazaar or a visit to the Turkish baths. Both involved catching the tram, our first experience of doing so, but with a lot of noise and some shoving, we all managed to buy our 3 lire tokens and jump on board in time.

The baths are 500 years old and very beautiful. We didn't quite know what to expect, and nobody spoke much English so any communication was by pointing, tapping or gesturing. The seven of us who went (of the women - the men had a separate section) quickly decided that this was going to be a very bonding exercise and we had better shed any inhibitions straightaway. Anna's first comment when we walked into the bath room was "this looks like a big soapy orgy!"  (But she coped with the situation very well, given that many of us were old enough to be her mother, and one actually is her mother!) We came out feeling very relaxed, and would happily have made another vist on Sunday, if there had been time.

The Bazaar Shoppers had all had a good time too, and here were a lot of sudden dashes to money machines to replenish stocks of cash for more present-buying.

Later plans included a visit to to see the Whirling Dervishes and dinner out at various places around the city, coming home at various times of the night. I felt pleasantly relaxed after our Turkish bath experience, which was a good state to be in for the Whirling Dervishes as there was a lot of Whirling and not much else. It did feel very peaceful, but you didn't want to be in any kind of hurry.

On Sunday, Baris very kindly offered to guide us around for the day, and most of us took him up on the offer. We have come to appreciate the fact that Baris basically knows everything and everyone and can do anything. First of all he gave us a great tour of Topkapi Palace, where the tulips were still flourishing and the tilework was amazing.

Then he worked magic to get us tickets for Hagia Sophia without having to join the enormous queue, and found a friend inside who is an expert  on the building to guide us round. Hagia Sophia is a stunning building and it was the highlight of the day for many of us. Afterwards he took us to the Pudding Shop for lunch and took anyone shopping who still had purchases to make. The Pudding Shop has been around since the 1960s and used to be a popular meeting place for hippies and later on overland trips to and from Asia.

Several of us skipped the shopping to go and admire the Basilica Cistern instead.

One of my favourite moments came inside Topkapi Palace, as we went into one of the display rooms. The guard on duty asked where we came from and I said "Yeni Zelanda" (having finally found out the Turkish for New Zealand.) The others in the groups said Australia. "Ah, Anzacs!" said the guard, and then he added, "You are all brothers and sisters." That seemed to encapsulate the very special and unique relationship that NZers and Australians share with the Turkish people.

Way to go!

3 hours from Wellington to Sydney, 8 hours from Sydney to Singapore, 11 hours from Singapore to Istanbul. It still seems a long way to the other side of the world, and how much longer it must have seemed for those soldiers setting off on troopships from NZ and Australia in WW1. Plus we had Singapore Airlines food and movies to help dispel the monotony of hours on a plane, ad all they had once they landed on Gallipoli was bully beef, biscuits, jam and tea - and they had to fight the flies even for those.

Regrouping at Istanbul Airport. Still trying desperately to remember each other's names. 

Istanbul is full of tempting sweet shops...

...and tulips. Apparently they originated here, not in the Netherlands at all, and thousands of them have been planted all over the city, in big and small flowerbeds and at the sides of the roads.

We are managing to stay awake, helped by an introductory walking tour of the city this afternoon, with an enthusiastic and knowledgeable commentary from  our lovely guide Baris, who pointed out lots of places that we might like to revisit on our return after Anzac Day (if we can find them again). In previous years, the group has gone on the bus bus from the airport straight down to Gallipoli, but it has been good to stop and get our bearings for a bit -even if we were lost and confused for most of the time, kept forgetting which way to look for traffic and still couldn't remember everyone's names. The electric trams are new since our last visit to Istanbul and they swoop past alarmingly close to people walking on the pavement.

We walked as far as the Sultanahmet Mosque, enjoying the sights of all the pavement stalls - grilled and charred sweetcorn, simit (rings of bread coated in sesame seeds) and roasted chestnuts; one man was selling mussels with slices of lemon and an enterprising boy was creating Spirograph designs for sale. Another boy was selling rings of sticky coloured toffee which he swirled onto a stick. A sadder sight was the number of families (many apparently Syrian refugees) sitting begging on the streets, parents, young children and babies.

Coloured toffee for sale (very pretty, even if very bad for your teeth!)

Embarrassing Technological Moment no 1: after a crash course in travel technology over the last couple of months (new and first-ever tablet, new and first-ever phone-that-does-more-than-just-send-texts, new software for transferring photos from camera to phone, TravelSim, multi-currency cash card and numerous new passwords), I've come prepared with all the necessary chargers and  plug converters - but had a moment of panic this afternoon when the phone charger wouldn't seem to fit into the plug converter. I managed to find a shop near the hotel that might be able to sell me another one, but they very kindly showed me that I just wasn't fitting it in firmly enough, Here's hoping the rest of the travel technology works OK.

Sitting in our hotel room now, and can hear the evening call to prayer coming over the minarets. We are off to dinner soon at a local restaurant, then tomorrow we have the 5 hour drive down to the Gallipoli peninsula.

View from our room at the Legacy Ottoman Hotel

Looking from the lifts across the atrium to the other side (not the kind of place we ever stayed at in our backpacking days!)