Friday 27th of April

Istanbul to Cairo
Last night we arrived in Egypt at about 1:30am. Met up with a travel talk man who organised the Egyptian visas and got us through the airport. We got a transfer to our hotel with the other people that had been on our Turkey trip. We were picked up by our tour guide to be Yuki (pronounced you-key). As we drove through Cairo to our hotel he was telling us how they don’t have traffic lights that work…well they do but no one follows what they do. The traffic lights are just there for decoration. When he was first talking about them he called them street lights. I thought that’s a bit harsh not having street lights in a major city. I quickly realised what he was talking about. Despite it being about 2:30am when driving through Cairo there was still heaps of traffic and people everywhere, shops were open and markets were on at 2am in the morning.

Our hotel was beautiful. The bell man brought our bags to our room and everything ran smoothly and very professionally compared to the Turkey hotel. Although we were unsure if we had to tip the bellman or not, as we had no small money we didn’t. The room was nice and Glen and I were sharing a double and Jen had a single. There was heaps of room for us all.

That morning we got up a around 9ish and headed to breakfast. We let Jen sleep. Breakfast was a buffet full of pastries, crepes and omelettes. We then went back to the room and Kieran fell asleep. While Glen and Jen went to register for the optional extra tours (all the other things you want to do that aren’t part of the package, like go see Abu Simbel, or the light and sound show) Kieran slept.

The tour didn’t officially start till the next day so we knew we could just relax and do as we wanted. Yuki had also suggested this as a good idea and I can fully recommend just lazing around for a while instead of seeing all the sights. Kieran woke up at 1pm and found Jen and Glen with a few of the other people by the pool. Egypt weather was awesome hot and hotter yay!

We then continued to lye on the deck chairs, drink cocktails, eat and swim as there were pool waiters and everything was so cheap especially using the pound. Beers were 18 Egyptian pounds, which is around £1.80. When in London the same thing is £2.60. We also kept a look out for Katrina and Steve from our Turkey tour as they were supposed to arrive sometime that afternoon. After much sun baking and doing very little Katrina and Steve arrived and we had dinner together in the hotel restaurant which was a buffet, a bad choice for things to come.

Thursday 26th of April

Last day in Turkey
We met everyone for breakfast at 9am and put our big packs in Steve and Katrina’s room as they were not leaving till the next day so we didn’t have to leave our bags with the hotel people. We then headed down to the Grand Bazarre. The Grand Bazaar was awesome and huge. It had beautiful jewellery, ceramics, Turkish lamps and carpets. I said to Glen that I wish we could buy some really great pieces and ship them home, but I bought a few small things. We also got some Turkish tea apple flavour its really good..
After lunch we had to say goodbye to Matt and Rebecca, and Matt and Hayley as they were not continuing on to Egypt. So Jen and Katrina and I did more shopping while the boys went down to the pub and had a few beers. As Steve and I had a few beers we forgot about the time and had to run back to meet the girls as the prearrange location and time. Only to find out that we all wanted Macas (really over kebabs) for dinner and headed back to opposite the pub we had been in all afternoon.

That evening we met in the lobby for our transfer to the airport and to continue our travels to Egypt.

Tuesday 24th of April and Wednesday 25th of April

Istanbul to Gallipoli and Gallipoli to Istanbul
We had to get up early to pack our bags and get everything ready for Gallipoli we had to pack for any weather. During the days in Turkey when in the sun it was hot but as soon as the sun went down it was quiet cold. As we couldn’t take our big packs down to ANZAC cove we had to leave them on the bus. We had to make up smaller bags, it was lucky we took an extra bag. I packed all our clothes into my day back. We also had to carry around our normal daypack of stuff as we would be seeing things on the way there.

It took 5hrs on the bus to get there. We first visited Lone Pine- the Australian memorial and then Chunuk Bair - the NZ memorial. The whole area was huge and very beautiful looking out over the water it was difficult to imagine it as a battlefield even though the many trenches are still evident. We were then driven down to ANZAC cove where the boys and girls were separated and our bags were searched as well as some people receiving a pat down (only the boys got the pat and the girls were upset they didn’t get one). The girl’s line was massive, as the boys moved through quickly just like toilets! All the nice boyfriend waited for their girls to come through. (A HINT don’t wait, What you want to do is go and get a good spot on the grass. The ladies will understand). On our way in we were also given wristbands and a souvenir bag that had some ANZAC biscuits, booklets for the services, a badge, bookmark etc. We were there from about 530pm and we sat with Matt and Rebecca, Katrina and Steve, Jen and another NZ couple Matt and Hayley. We were not right down the front which we had hoped we would be but we were also not in the seats. We had our spot on the grass which is what we wanted. It got cold very quickly but we had brought many layers with us. We even zipped our sleeping bags together for more warmth. During the night Kieran and I probably only slept for an hour or so. We even managed to find Lloydy (Our Europe tour mate) in the crowd he was doing the same tour but for 9 days.

They had a big screen on each side of the site and every 30 mins to an hour a 15min documentary was on, as well as interviews of people from the crowd and messages from the prime ministers.

The Dawn service started at about 530am we had to watch it on the big screen from where we were as people were standing on the walkway below which blocked our view. The Dawn Service was nice, not as emotional as we had anticipated, it was also fairly short but it was very respectful. It was interesting to stand there while the sun was rising behind us over the sphinx (a rock formation) and to think back 92 years ago that the diggers would have seen the same thing but it would have been for very very different reasons.

After the service we had to wait 2hrs for the bus to pick us up and take us to Lone Pine. We did have the option to walk or get the bus, if you walked it would have taken 1 hr. (HINT: Walk, you will get their quicker and why not have a look at more of the landscape closer, we should have done this). By this stage I was very tired and had no patience left and was very annoyed- the typical tired Kieran for all those who have had the pleasure to meet her. Once we got up to Lone Pine it was packed (we should have walked) but we got a good position on the grass at the front where we were able to see, especially when we were all standing. The service was much more moving, especially when past war veterans stood up and the crowd acknowledged them for what that had done. After this service we were able to write a message in the book inside the memorial.

We decided not to go to the NZ service as it was half an hour walk and it started half an hour after our service finished and we probably would not be able to see much. The Kiwi service was shown on the big screens in the Lone Pine area Kieran tried to watch but kept falling asleep. I stayed in the pick up area (Johnston Jolly Cemetery) and had a sleep on the grass Kieran came back after a little bit and slept. After the kiwi service we were picked up by the bus and taken to the war museum which was very small but had some interesting pieces like a skeleton with bullet holes and bullets that had hit each other in the air and were stuck together.
On our way back to Istanbul we all fell asleep on the bus and had Burger King (over kebabs) on the way. We got back to the hotel at about 9:30pm (Long few days) but…… our rooms had not been cleaned so we had to wait till 10 which was very annoying as we were all SO tired. Some of the guys didn’t get their room till 11:30.

Monday 23rd of April

Day in Istanbul
Today we went to the Topkapi palace which had beautiful gardens full of Tulips (apparently tulips come from Turkey and not Holland as we all thought) as well as rooms filled with precious stones and elaborate jewelled furniture and weapons, the kitchens were massive but now displayed imported china. The palace was where the sultan used to live. Glen took a picture of the circumcision room as well as the sultan’s bed, big enough for his harem! We then headed down to the Hippodrome and also to the blue mosque. The blue mosque was massive and really nice inside. We had to take our shoes off and put them in plastic bags. We got to decide if we wanted to go find our own lunch or go as a group to a restaurant. We decided to go to the restaurant where it was a 3 course set meal. Again we had shish kebabs. At lunch we met Sarah and her brother. Sarah was also coming to Egypt, and just lives around the corner from us in London.

Later that afternoon we went on a cruise around the Bosphorous strait. It was a lovely day being on the water. Although the boat charged heaps for a beer and chips. The main thing we noticed when we first arrived to Turkey and even on the cruise was that almost every building had a flag on it and not from a pole but actually hanging out the window or covering up some part of the wall/windows.

That night we went out to dinner with Rebecca and Matt, Jen and also another couple we met Steve and Katrina who were also kiwis and Steve is also a nurse. We are sick of kebabs so most ppl had pizza, I had the calamari which was good (that’s me Glen).

Turkey Day 1 Sunday 22nd of April

London to Istanbul
We woke up nice and early for our trip to turkey, it was a 3:30 am wake up as we were on the 6 am flight to Istanbul. We had organized to meet Jen (our old kiwi housemate) at the taxi stand as it was too early to catch the tube to Heathrow. After a bit of a haggle with the taxi driver about the price we had been quoted and what he said the cost was now, we headed off to the airport. We made it there nice and early just in time for check in.

As we woke too early and had not had breakfast I was in the right mood for Macas breakfast (somewhat of a tradition I have before every big holiday, always have Macas breakfast) To my surprise and horror there are no McDonalds at Heathrow airport well none near where I was and I looked all over the terminal 1. The morning wasn’t going to good so far. Kieran and I ended up finding other food…

We made our way to check in and were on the plane shortly after, after sitting down in our seats I thought this is going to be an excellent 3 hr flight, I had exactly 0 mm of leg room I was fitted in perfect I had to spread my legs to get the food tray down. The people in front of us arrived and the girl who was in the seat in front went straight to put her seat back to go to sleep, I had to tell her that she could not recline the seat as there was no room due to my legs. I knew she instantly hated me and then she swapped with her partner. Every time they would move in their seat it would smash into my knee caps. It was a truly fun 3 hrs with everyone around me asleep and me upright watching a movie I had already seen.

When we landed it was off to get our visas so we could get into the country. With Turkish visas in hand we met up with our tour group. When we arrived at the hotel we got our tour details and found out there would be the meeting and party that night. We went to our room and had a nap, we were sharing a 3 bed room with Jen so she didn’t have to buy a single and it was cheaper.

When we woke we felt pekish it was time for dinner, not having had any lunch and only eating plane food we found our selves at 5pm starving. We headed up the street and into another hotel which served food. That and the man out the front was telling us how good their food was and the prices. As we were in Turkey we had to try some local food of - Shish Kebab! After dinner we went back to the hotel for our tour meeting/debrief where we were told about Turkey and the following days to come. We were also told about the welcome party and where dinner would be…..DINNER! We had already eaten they told us to get our own dinner in the book. In the meeting we got to see the other people who were on our bus, wouldn’t you know it the girl who was in front of me on the plane was in our group she must be thinking he better not be behind me on the bus. We went along to the party but didn’t eat we just went straight to drinking. Kieran drank extremely strong vodka and oranges (so strong she had to buy a can of orange juice to add to the drink so she could actually drink it!) and I had some local beers. We watched a belly dancer, who Kieran and some others didn’t think were very good and we were actually questioning if she was really a woman…. We also met another couple Matt and Rebecca who were Kiwis and Rebecca is also a nurse. There were heaps of people at the party who had all been broken up into smaller groups of their tours but there were definitely a few hundred of us in there! All Aussies and Kiwis