Gallipoli

Despite being a bit behind in sleep over the past few days, I was once again forced to cut my sleep short. We had a 5:30 shuttle to a bus that would take us to Canakkale. We had to get up early to ensure that we had time to get to the accommodation, drop our bags off, get some lunch, and then catch the ferry to Gallipoli. Although nothing really happened during the morning, a part from said travel, I was very lucky to have gotten on a bus that had wifi. This meant i could spend a good 2 of the 5 hour trip watching the F1. This was a very effective way to kill time, and the race was really exciting. Although Max Verstappen once again walked toward a victory, the Australian rookie, Oscar Piastri, got his first podium. This made a rather wild prediction I had made a few months ago into reality. More interesting still, he was the first rookie to lead an F1 race in over a decade. He is an awesome driver in a great team, and I am excited to see his future unfold. Eventually, we arrived at Anzac Bay. As a huge history guy, I was very interested to see the monuments and beaches in which history was made over a hundred years ago. Although I had a general idea of the happenings of April 25th 1915, it was interesting to see additional information pieces as well as see the difficult terrain that the Australians, New Zealand's, and Canadians had to endure on the beaches. The cliffs utop the beaches made for perfect machine gun positions, and you can see straight away how so many lost their lives. Although quite a macabre and eary place, it was really nice to pay respects and be capable of more effectively putting myself in their shoes. It is difficult to do given the circumstances they would have found themselves in, but being able to stand in the original trenches really helps. It made the experience really quite intense and overwhelming. But getting to learn about the different battles and events while you do this can really hit hard. Such as the final stand of a battalion of Turks in which they were famously told, "I am not ordering you to fight, I am ordering you to die." Their is a memorial to this battalion, and it seems like such an unnecessary loss of life as they eventually were forced to conduct a bayoneted charge of the Australian position, in which they were all gunned down. These stories and being able to stand in the same trenches they stood made this such a different experience than I have had throughout Europe, but something I am incredibly glad to have done. After a few different stops from the beaches, up hill 10 and getting to place yourself in the shoes of the soldiers trying to capture the position, we headed back to the ferry to get to our hotel. Having had some traditional Turkish food last night, tonight I made the safe choice of pizza. It was pretty average, but after we headed home to go to bed. Upon filling up my water bottle, I ran into one of the girls from the hostel, and we began chatting. A few more people from the hostel joined us, and eventually, we learned that she had secured a joint via the tour guide. I enjoyed that with everyone before passing out and having a great sleep.Read more