After having faced the major IT disruption on the 19th of July, luckily just resulting in a few hours delay in our flight to Istanbul and in a long wait to finally get our car at the airport, we were able to start our OTR in Turkey.
First stop the Gallipoli Peninsula (Gelibolu Yarımadası), that we reached after about 4 hours drive from Istanbul international airport (Friday evening is Friday evening in Turkey too, so the road from Istanbul was pretty congested).
While planning our Turkish itinerary, I realized that Gallipoli could have been a good first stop and it gave me the opportunity of visiting the places of "Gallipoli" a 1981 movie by the Australian director Peter Weir, about the Gallipoli campaign of WWWI. A movie about friendship and the stupidity of war, about the many young men whose lives were wasted on both sides and who are now resting together in this peninsula.
From our small pension in Eceabat, we drove through a sort of ring, along the main road (we avoided the road proposed by Google Maps that basically cuts through the peninsula), touching the main war cemeteries of the peninsula (there are tens of smaller cemeteries all across the peninsula, visiting it properly would have required much more than the half a day allowed by our schedule).
The largest mass grave on the peninsula and the main memorial to the ANZAC servicemen killed in action is Lone Pine. Around 2,200 ANZAC members and over 4,000 Turks died in the 3-day battle. The tremendous losses at Lone Pine are even more sobering when you think about this: this was simply a diversionary tactic away from the main objectives of Suvla Bay and Chunuk Bair to the north.
Just a short distance before reaching Lone Pine, we encountered a small Turkish cemetery, at Albayrak Sırtı
and then the Respect to Mehmetçik Memorial (Mehmetçiğe Saygı Anıtı).
The monument refers to a historical event in the Gallipoli campaign, where a Turkish soldier carried an Australian serviceman to his lines to save his life.
Less than 5 minutes drive from Lone Pine, the 57th Infantry Regiment Memorial is located.
The 57th Infantry Regiment was the first to clash with the ANZAC troops and with the lead of Mustafa Kemal was able to slow them down, suffering huge casualties throughout the entire Gallipoli campaign.
After visiting the war cemeteries, we headed towards Troy, the legendary city described in Homer's Iliad.
The archeological site might not be The archaeological site may not be so eye-catching, but it is incredible to walk in the footsteps of Achilles, Odysseus, Hector and Aeneas.
Even if we speak of Troy, we are actually in front of 9 different cities that were built across more than 3000 years of uninterrupted occupation, from 3000 B.C to 500 A.D, normally indicated as Troy I to Troy IX (Troy II is the settlement that Schliemann believed being the Homeric city).
Besides the excavations site, there is a small museum well worth visiting, included in the ticket. The museum is about 1 km distance from the site.
Troy is open from 8,30 a.m. until 8 p.m. every day. Ticket price in August 2024 is 27 euros (at the ticket booth, euros are not accepted. Cards or Turkish Liras only).
From Troy, we drove to our final destination for the day: Assos,
The ancient Greek city of Assos dates back the 6th century BC. Even if it is often described as a hidden gem, you will certainly not be alone exploring it: Several people will certainly congregate in its main attraction, the Temple of Athena, located at the highest point of the city, at sunset.
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Besides the Temple, the other main attraction of the site is the Hellenistic Theatre.
Opening hours are from 8,30 a.m. until 9 p.m. The ticket cost is 12 euros (at the ticket booth, euros are not accepted. Cards or Turkish Liras only). When we visited the site, we noticed that after sunset gates were basically open for people to enter the site free of charge. Not sure if this is common practice.
There are several small hotels and pensions at Assos, more or less close to the acropolis. The old village is anyhow quite difficult to navigate by car: narrow, cobbled streets, lots of stalls selling the usual paraphernalia for tourists, people walking without paying too much attention to what is happening around them... So overall it is much better to park the car as soon as you can and reach the hotel on foot or to arrange for them to come and pick you up.
Both Troy and Assos are included in the Museum Pass.
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