Gallipoli to Istanbul, via Troy

Mustafa was our guide at Troy and he started out joking about his name because "most Turkish men share that name". He spoke excellent English and was definitely engaging; he also made more than a few references (as has come to be expected) to the books he'd written and would be for sale at the conclusion of the tour.

The city of Troy was apparently actually made up of seven distinct cities that were built on top of each other over thousands of years because the location was so perfect and defendable. Hence the legend of the Trojan Horse being required to penetrate the walls of the city and it's "cargo" opening the gates of the city under cover of night.

I'm told that this part of Turkey is considered to be part of Asia, so I've now been to Asia! We took the same ferry back to the Gallipoli Peninsula, as that was the preferred route for the drive to Istanbul. It was definitely a long day, which ended three hours later than usual because there was such significant road construction in Istanbul and the city is so huge that we were technically driving within the city for over five hours - not overly impressed by that fact! The other surprise was that we weren't able to be dropped off at the hotel because the coach can't stop there (tram route) and the drop off was a 20 minute walk from the hotel... Extra hassle after the exceedingly looking day, especially with all of our luggage. Oh well, sacrifices campers make for a night in a hotel :)Read more