Despite a Icelandic volcano erupting and causing chaos to our travel plans we arrived at our next destination – Istanbul, Turkey. My Dad, sister and two uncles made the pillgramige to Turkey to attend Anzac services at Gallipoli. For those of you who aren’t Aussies or Kiwis – Anzac Day is the day we commemorate the first landing of Australian and New Zealand troops in a war – which was on the beaches of Gallipoli, Turkey. Its a pilgrammige that many Aussies do and I am proud to say it was one of the most patriotic and moving experiences I have ever had.

The day before our tour started so we decided to walk around Istanbul and see where the wind took us. We ended up getting a ferry across the Boshperous  and went to the Asian side of Istanbul. After a bit of a walk around the local markets we then got another ferry over the the Europe side of Istanbul. Two continents in less then two hours! After that we headed down to the Grand Bazaar for a bit of shopping. It is a mesmerising place filled with many different wares and knick knacks and chockers full of people shopping, haggling and bartering of both stall owners and shoppers. Plenty of bargains to be had from leather jackets to home wares – even little Aladdin lamps but as this was early in my trip so didn’t get much of a chance to spend my liyras!

The next couple of days were with the tour exploring Istanbul and Gallipoli with the help of our guide. In Istanbul we saw the Blue Mosque and the Agia Sophia which were such stunning buildings photos don’t do them justice. The mosaics inside them are thousands of years old and still perfectly stunning. We were lucky as we had a tour guide that spoke very good English and had a lot of passion about telling us stories, histories and interesting facts about Turkey. We spent our time at Gallipoli exploring battlefields and gravesites of signifigance to the Anzacs. The graves were beautiful and I’m not ashamed to tell you that I started crying because I was so moved. When you see where they landed, the terrain they had to climb and fight through and then you see the graves row upon row of boys that were as young as 16 it just makes you so completely grateful for everything that they (and people in the defence forces now) went through.

The next day was the Anzac day service and it was an extremely early start to make it there for the dawn service. It was freezing cold but we were armed with huge puffer jackets, sleeping bags and lots of woolie. It was a pretty uncomfortable wait but once the service started it was well worth it. . Its hard to describe the service as it was something you just have to be there to experience but if you ever considering going I recommend it. The speeches made by the dignitorys made you reflect and remember and the ode led me to shed more tears. After the service we did the 3k hike up to the top of Lone Pine where there was a second service for Australians (they also do a seperate service for Turkish and New Zealanders throughout the day).

Our final day was spent in Istanbul so we decided to head to the spice market which is similar to the Bazaar except a bit more food based. We didn’t get as hassled and I really enjoyed the browsing all the different things. After that we went back to the Grand Bazaar to pick up a few things that we didn’t get the first time. This was followed by a lazy arvo sitting on cushions, drinking EFES and reflecting about the past months family holiday. We followed this up by visiting an English (or close enough to it) pub and eating a steak. Turkish food is amazing but its very limited to the types you can have – unless of course you love kebabs!