Troy and Gallipoli

Troy and Gallipoli | April 8, 2009

Went to Troy - Our tour was hosted by a guy who writes books about this sort of thing, so I was inclined to believe him. We wandered around the ruins and he explained that there were about 9 different Troys on that site ranging over 3500 years. Apparently there is also no physical evidence to back up the horse thing either.

Went to Gallipoli - This tour was run by a guy who seemed pretty keen to keep the tour party reminded that the ANZACs failed to get the high ground during their 8 months at Gallipoli. The guide did tell some quite touching stories about the relationships between the Turks and the ANZACs, but only when he got bored of telling us that we lost, but were all friends now so it didn’t matter. But just for those keeping score, the ANZACs did loose. And so on and so on.

The site itself is amazing, the trenches are still there and we went around the top of the hills to see where the fighting took place. There are a couple of places where no-mans land (the space between friendly and enemy trenches) is only 7 or 8 meters. The way it’s been built is that there is now a road on that 7 metres. Seeing it relly gives a sense of how pant wettingly frightening it must have been. There is no doubt that each side could hear the other talking and moving around.

Also, it’s bloody cold up there. I got to go in a nice warm tour bus, as opposed to jumping into the ocean and charging up the hill. It would have sucked big time. And that doesn’t even take into account that someone was shooting at you.