Well I finally got around to being able to post some photos from Turkey to this blog (thanks Brian!). Unfortunately I had to delete most of them off my memory card, (though they are saved on my laptop). This here is at dawn with the sun coming up behind us, we were sitting on the hill at ANZAC Cove during the dawn service. Gives you an idea of what the landscape was like.
Here I am holding the Australian flag at ANZAC Cove. Needless to say, it was really really really really cold. Very surreal experience.
The Australian, New Zealand and Turkish flags, at ANZAC Cove just after the Dawn Service had finished.
The General London Update - boring really!
Hey everyone!!! Well aren’t I doing well? An update on my latest London adventures. Things have slipped into a bit of a routine – which has its advantages and disadvantages.
Still working. Monday to Friday. Which is ok as it gives me my weekends free. Have been doing the usual socialising type stuff. As you can imagine, in our house everything is very social. It makes it a little bit hard at times. Sometimes I just get to the point where I have had enough of people in general, and lock myself in my room and read and listen to music! Music is always good for the soul!!!
Mr MD, you’ll be glad to know that I have been steering relatively clear of the RedBack. One thing I will never forget is you asking me to promise I would never go there before I came. But I have been there on the odd occasion. Though not as often as some of my friends. I have probably been there 4 times in total. Which is pretty good I think, considering its pretty much a 2-3 minute walk around the corner. So very dodgy characters inhabit that place!
We had a BBQ on Saturday at home. Was nice to do something a bit more mature, besides just drinking for a change. So the women spent the afternoon in the kitchen preparing salads and vegetables etc (what a good job we did too!), whilst the men stood at the BBQ, beer in hand! How traditionally Australian can you get?! We ate good food, were all thoroughly stuffed, and then drank! I will confess now to drinking so much I ended up totally legless, before people start to hear stories. I have definitely not been that intoxicated in a very long time, my University of Auckland days being the last time I can remember being that bad! We also had fireworks, which were probably the highlight of the night for those of us that didn’t continue on to the rave at about 3am. Needless to say, Sunday was spent with the worst hangover of my life. There were bricks bashing around in my head and I couldn’t walk 5 steps without feeling like I was really going to be sick!
Two weekends ago I went to Bristol on Saturday for a girls trip. We stayed at a guys place that Carla did Trek America with in 2001. The poor guy, 5 girls totally over took his home, made a mess etc. He took us out that night with a friend of his and showed us the hot spots to go out at. Was an awesome night out. I pretty much danced the night away. I really liked Bristol as a city! Didn’t get to see too much of it, but what I saw, I definitely liked!
Am gearing up for my trip to Scandinavia at the end of this month. But to be honest I’m more excited about seeing ‘The Eagles’ farewell concert on June 18th. Poor Gerri (my friend that I’m going with), I think if she hears me mention it one more time, she probably won’t want to come anymore – Haha.
I’ve joined the gym – shock horror! But I’ve decided its time to get fit again, and start building some muscle. I’ve lost some weight since coming here, but not much size compared to the amount of weight, so I’m concluding in my infinite wisdom, that it is all muscle mass that is being lost – not a good thing. So its back to the gym to build it all back up again. I’ve enjoyed being back in there so far. I was expecting I would hate it, so its nice to enjoy it for a change!
We’ve had a couple of nice days here in London. Last Thursday and Friday were really great, things were definitely looking up for London. Then the weather turned nasty on Saturday, Sunday, Monday. But today things are looking up again. Its about 23 outside.
Oh some other big news (well big for me anyway) – I resigned from the CBA. I really thought I would work in that bank for the rest of my life. So much opportunity in an organisation with over 30,000 employees. I know a lot of people think the saw it coming when I applied for leave without pay, but I had every intention of being back there on June 13th. I’m really going to miss that place. First place I can say I used to wake up every morning and look forward to going to work. I’m gutted, but still, life must go on. I’m just not ready to go home yet – there are still more places I want to see here first!
Well I must stop rambling. Thinking about going back to netball maybe in the second half of the summer. Hopefully this gym work will strengthen my ankle enough. My life just isn’t quite the same without netball, I have to admit.
Ok, I’m off now. People can’t email me and tell me I’m slack just yet!!
Hope all are well back home. Miss everyone lots. I miss my girls (cousins) and Ben heaps. I miss family and I miss Ebony and Bella, and I miss little baby Danger next door (who probably isn’t so little any more). Take care, as always.
Love Ree
Commemorating ANZAC Day - Lest We Forget
Well, this time I'm slightly more up to speed, and sitting here ready to give you the low down on my trip to Turkey!! Be prepared for a long read!
As I'm sure the majority of you know, I made the journey to Turkey to visit Gallipoli for the ANZAC day commemorations. We started out early on Sunday morning of the 23rd April, and headed for Heathrow to catch our flight to Istanbul. All ran smoothly, apart from the fact that Burger King on the other side of customs wasn't open that early in the morning, that seemingly made the male contingent of our expedition party unhappy.
The flight there was nice and smooth, though we did find out that Sheriee has an incredible fear of flying. Doctors usually prescribe her drugs to keep her calm when she is going to fly, but she didn't get any this time, and that was not a good thing. She definitely could have used some! A few drinks on the plane livened everyone up. Upon arriving at Ataturk airport in Istanbul, the NZers in our group sailed right through immigration - however Andrew and myself got stopped because we didn't have visas. Assuming that Aussies would be the same as Kiwis (well we certainly won't make that assumption again) we didn't bother to look into whether we would need a visa or not prior to leaving. Luckily enough, we were able to get one at the airport there, and 30Lira later, we were ready to roll!
We spent that afternoon wandering around Istanbul, and being harassed by restauranteurs, and I made for an early night whilst the others went out and had a few drinks etc! The next day we left on our coach at 8am and headed towards Gallipoli. The bus ride was long, and uncomfortable. Our saving grace was perhaps the fact that our bus was only half full so we were able to stretch out a little. We stopped on the way once for a toilet and food break, and happened to stop at a petrol station where every other bus on its way to Gallipoli was stopping.
Arriving at Gallipoli (finally) we made our way to ANZAC cove, and then went around the hill and visited Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair, as well as the museum that is up there. I think the thing that stood out the most to me during this time was all the scrub that was around - I knew it was apparently mountainous type terrain, but I wasn't expecting to see so much scrub, as in low lying trees and prickly bushes etc. My mind just kept wondering how the ANZAC's ever made it up as high as they did when they had to get through all that scrub with enemy fire coming their way from the top of the hill. We also took the chance to visit some cemeteries. This was a very sombre experience. The thing that really hit home here is just how young the majority of our troops were. On the gravestones it says their names, what regiment etc they were from, and their age. Majority appeared to be between 17-23 or 24. Being 22 myself, you can imagine what a wake up call this was for me. Some graves are lucky enough to have a small nice quote or saying at the bottom of the stone, obviously written by those that had family etc.
In the evening we made our way back to ANZAC cove by bus, and set up on the hill, prepared for a long cold night. I was by far the most prepared patron on my particular tour, and I rugged up with thermals, jeans, two pairs of socks, long sleeve top, jumper and then my big blue fleece and wind proof jacket. All of this and then I hopped in my sleeping bag and lay there with my head on my pillow. The excitement made it hard to sleep, though I probably managed to grab about an hours worth of sleep in total.
I thought the commemorations were put together really well. There were two big screens up, and all throughout the evening they played parts of documentaries relating to the history of WW1 etc. They were very informative. The Australian Defence Force Band also played music from that era, and there were also quiet parts of the evening when we could try and grab a little bit of sleep. Even Andrew Denton was there and interviewed some people. It really didn’t start to get freezing until about 1-2am in the morning. And then boy did it get freezing – I even felt the cold through all of my re-enforcements! The boys kept going to the kebab stands; they managed to eat an average of 5 kebabs each throughout the evening (disgusting I know, but what can I say – they are blokes). Some people listed to music, others read by torchlight. All in all it was generally pretty quiet. I’ve heard that in past years they have had bands etc to play there the night through, but this year they had an alcohol ban (which was a jolly good idea in my opinion) and the organisers felt that having bands would only promote people towards breaking the rules and sneaking alcohol into the area.
At around 4:30am in the morning, you could feel the atmosphere get a bit tenser, as people eagerly awaited the dawn service to start at 5:30am. 4:30am was the time that the first troops rowed into shore and started to try and make their way up the hill. Many of them didn’t even make it out of the water. Gunfire from the Turkish started immediately. To be honest, after everything that I learnt at Gallipoli, I realise we never stood a chance. We were greatly outnumbered, and the Turkish definitely were in a better position, location wise.
At 5:30am it was still dark, and the dawn service started. The crowd was incredibly silent. You could tell everyone was hanging on every word, every prayer, every song and hymn. It really was moving. Along came the last post, nearing the end of the ceremony, and the tears started to flow. I’m not sure what it is about a bugle player standing there alone amongst a silent crowd playing that song, but it was like every body started to tear up at the same time. You could see people wiping away the tears pretending they weren’t crying. It was amazing. At that moment everyone was remembering the men and women that died for our country, the events that took place in that battle that really gave Australia its first sense of identity as a nation. The sun was out by the end of the ceremony.
Afterwards we all headed back up the road towards the buses where the majority of people dumped their stuff to be picked up by our coach, and walked towards Lone Pine, the Australian memorial. I however chose to get on the bus, as I had more than just a sleeping bag to dump, I had a pillow and a million layers of clothing!!! The bus dropped me and the other couple of slackers off at Lone Pine, and I took a seat with Bec, another girl from our tour, and we waited for the service to start at 10:30am.
The Lone Pine service was amazing. It was nice to have a service that was geared just towards the Aussie troops. Whilst waiting for the service, the Defence Force Band played some songs, and the crowd joined in with singing such things as Waltzing Matilda. I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud to be Australian. It was sooo packed at Lone Pine that people even had to sit in amongst the gravestones. Nobody sat on them, but just in amongst them.
The Lone Pine service went a bit more in depth into Australia’s involvement in the Gallipoli campaign, and just how it came to be that the ANZAC’s landed at the place where they did. They did not have proper maps; they only had a tourist type map, as man before had never really occupied the area. Seeing the landscape, it is easy to see why. I still find it quite hard to understand how war works – history documents the fact that on a couple of occasions the ANZAC’s and the Turkish agreed not to fight for a day, so that they could retrieve and bury the dead etc. Also on particular days, they would stop fighting and play soccer together! I just find it so hard to fathom how one day you can be shooting at people and killing them, and the next day you can play a friendly game of soccer with them, only to return to all the shooting and carnage the following day. This is something I don’t think I will ever understand.
After the Lone Pine service, Bec and I walked up the hill (which is now a narrow tarred and windy road) towards Chunuk Bair, to wait for our NZ counterparts to finish their service which had started at 12:30pm. There were a couple of things made clear to me on this walk, which according to our map was 3.3km (though I wouldn’t have guessed it that long). Point number one: I haven’t done any exercise in a long time, might be about time I got around to joining the gym again. Point number two: my respect for our diggers multiplied ten fold. As if I struggled on a tarred road with no scrub to get through, imagine what it must have been like for them, with having to struggle through all the scrub up the hilly terrain often with weights of between 30-40kgs on their backs, with enemy fire raining down on them.
We finally made it to the top, and I didn’t complain once, (I was determined not to complain) and we waited for the Kiwi contingent. Then after waiting what seemed like an eternity for our bus to make it to the front of the queue, we boarded and headed towards the Helles monument – after our bus driver made a couple of wrong turns and got us lost of course!
Helles is where the British troops landed, ready to do battle. I have to make the point that the British lost many more times the amount of troops than the ANZAC’s did, and the Turkish lost even more again. Something in the vicinity of 90,000 if my memory serves me right. Helles is kind of like a memorial to both these sides, and it stands 70 metres in the air. I’m really disappointed as my camera battery went flat so I didn’t get a chance to take any photos after the dawn service started. But the monument at Helles really is worth seeing. The view from there is breath taking.
We then boarded the bus to head back towards Istanbul. There were lots of sleeping bodies on the bus, as most of us had only managed to grab 2-3 hours sleep in total in the 48 hours leading up to that point in time.
Back in Istanbul we all crashed pretty much straight away, and were up early the next morning to do some sight seeing. Led by our not so crash hot tour leader Bulent, we visited the hippodrome, where there are monuments that were presents to Turkey in the ancient times from other emperors etc. We also visited the cistern, which is like a big ancient underground water tank, and we went to the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. We spent Wednesday afternoon on the roof of a dodgy Turkish bar, where the Jim Beam was incredibly expensive, but worked a treat. Needless to say having a few drinks in the sun on an empty stomach is not a wise idea. Nor is trying to get back to your hotel by yourself after a few drinks in a foreign city where you don’t speak the language – I have learnt my lesson, nothing more to be said on this.
Thursday was spent wandering through the Grand Bazaar. I’m sure most people know but for those that don’t (I didn’t until I actually went), the Grand Bazaar is the largest type market place in the world. It’s enormous and so easy to get lost in there. 8 of us went in together, and we all got separated from the group at some stage during the day. The one rule of the Grand Bazaar (from our point of view) never pay the asking price. Always bargain with the shop keepers, as the majority of them are out to rip the tourists off. As an example, my flatmate Andrew wanted to buy a necklace for his girlfriend, and got the guy down to about a quarter of the original asking price!
That night followed with a couple of drinks again, but mainly we all had a pretty early one. We were absolutely stuffed after 5 days of being on the go all the time. Friday morning it was an early start and we returned to Heathrow about 11am. A few drinks on the plane, and we were termed ‘trouble in row 17’ by the cabin crew. We weren’t disruptive in any way shape or form, they just couldn’t believe we were drinking so early in the morning.
We returned home and continued to have a few drinks, and indeed it was a nice end to our trip to Turkey!!! Pictures to follow as I am again at work (shows how much work I actually must be doing when I can find the time to type out 2000 words here). Will try and upload some pictures during the week. Otherwise checkout my bebo.com website for more pictures.
Take care all, as always, Ree
Its been a long time....
Well this is quite possibly the most slack I have been so far. Though I am good at emailing mum pretty much every day as I promised her!I don't have any photos to add with this post, as I am at work and don't have the capability to do so here. But I will give you an idea of what I've been up to anyway...First and foremost, a large part of the last 6 weeks or so have been spent working. Monday to Friday, 8:30-5:30 that is most likely where you will find me. However I did get the chance to have a nice 5 day break over easter. Easter I went away with 7 others to the fabulously relaxing island of Mallorca. The weather was nice, generally about 23-24 degrees celcius. The sun was awesome, and most afternoons were spent by the pool, with a drink in hand. Needless to say after sun down each night, we all got up to a bit of mischief. We stayed in the small town of Santa Ponsa, and by the end of our 4 nights there, I'm pretty sure we were well known at the majority of bars. Well known by both staff and patrons. This is probably due to our fashion sense, and the fact that we all wore 'aviator sunglasses' out together. The old "avi's" as they have been termed, definately attracted a lot of attention. On easter sudnay we hired a van, and drove to what looked like the nicest place in our guide book. That was Port de Formentor at the most northern point of the Island. Our good mum Mrs Murray (aka Laura) was the only person in any fit state to drive, and so she skillfully tackled the extremely narrow and windy mountainous roads to get us right to the tip. It was well worth it when we got there, the view was amazing. Just ocean for as far as the eye could see, and we were up in the clounds as well which was pretty breath-taking. We didn't quite manage our general McD's hangover cure this particular day, as every one we came across had not yet opened, this may have had something to do with the fact that it was Easter Sunday!! This of course didn't sit well with young Andrew, who only wanted McDonald's for his hangover and refused to eat anything else!!To drive around half of the Island only took us about 2 and a half hours in total. So that gives you an idea of just how small the island is. They also don't speak strictly spanish there. There speak mainly Catalan and Mallorqui. They do speak some spanish, but my speaking spanish only managed to order myself chicken, chips and salad when I thought I was indeed ordering Pizza!!!Sadly though our mad and crazy adventure had to come to an end. On the last day it rained, which was a shame, but that's the way god intended it obviously. I decided to pass they day by continuing my love affair with Jim Beam in the Hotel Lobby, and I think a couple of the girls were a bit concerned that I wouldn't be let on the plane due to intoxication, but I was fine - I swear!!Well I'll have to leave it at that - as its time to go home now. But I will update on Gallipoli at the next chance I get. Hope everyone is well, as always.
I hope this picture makes the water look cold. Because it sure looked cold when I was there in person. This is taken from the beach/shore at ANZAC cove in Gallipoli
The famous speech made by Prime Minister Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1934. Is now on this big plaque at Gallipoli
Our diggers made it from all the way down there, to all the way up here where I stood to take this photo, with enemy fire coming down on them.
A cemetary down by the water. Many graves remain un-named.
Majority of the dead were between 17-24. Really hits home how young they were, and how brave they were at such a young age.
