galipoli

we saw the battlefields of galipoli today. yesterday was spent on a bus traveling. the buses here are actually pretty sweet. they give you muffins to eat and water and sodas to drink every hour or so. thats more than we got on our last few flights!! we arrived in the city of channakale on the west coast of turkey last night and had another delicious turkish dinner… the food here is so good!!

the battlefields of galipoli ais where there were crazy battles during WWI between the turks and the british and anzac (australian new zealand army corp) forces. the allied forces invaded turkey and there was this crazy standoff for months, but eventuall turkey was able to drive the allies off. the trench fighting was insane, and i guess the trenches were sometimes only like 25 feet apart!! you were soo close to your enemy, for days an days on end!! we walked around the area and got to see a bunch of the actual trenches and barbed wire and stuff. there were also cemetaries. tons and tons fo cemetaries. it was insane to think just how many people died here… and this was just one battlefield out of tons during WWI. it was all so eerie to think about… and also to think about how so many of the soldiers were only 18 years old (as they are today). kids practically!! little kids living in trenches for days on end with bombs flying everywhich way and bullets whizzing by constantly. if you poke your head out of the trench…. it’s over!

there was one particularly interesting story we read up there. at one point ther was a cease fire. all the troops in the trenches were treating their wounded. all of a sudden the british general saw one of his men laying on the ground in the middle of the battlefield, badly injured. but there was nothing to do! if he crawled out to help, he would be shot instantly. no one could leave the trench. then all of a sudden he saw someone in the turkish trench raise a white pair of underpants up high in the air. everyone was dead still and quiet. at this point a turk crwaled out of his trench, walked through the field, picked up the injured british and carried him to the british trench, dropped him off, and ran back. everyone was in shock!! this guy risked his life to save an injured enemy. anyways, i thought that was really cool.

we walked around these battlefields w/out any water unfortunately and soon were extremely tired and thirsty. the hike back down was another 3 km!! doh! we started walking back when all of a sudden this Turk in a tractor pull sup and offers us a ride! there wasnt anywhere really to sit in the tractor (one seat) so we just sat on thes panels by the driver and held on to dear life!! it was a crazy bumpy ride and so rough, but it was really cool anyways!! after he dropped us off, another random minivan pulled up and gave us a ride the rest of the way. sheez… turks are sooo nice!!

for dinner we took a break form turkish food and had steak and macaroni and cheese. both were way different than what we expected, but still very good.

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