Gallipoli, Troy, Dance Party...more Turkey adventures!

(weird font sizes and spacing again...oh well, I'm over it.)


I still have a lot of Turkey adventures to go! So...here goes another day of exploration!


Tuesday we were on the bus and off for a new city. Welcome to a week of living out of a suitcase and spending no more than two nights at each hotel. 

The morning was mostly spent on the bus. We spent a little time sleeping, but the “bus committee” was cute and organized little games that we played throughout the day. We played the picture-sentence game (I really don’t remember what it is actually called). We had another game where they played 15 seconds of 20 different songs and we had to write down the name of the song and the artist. We had Ann Marie on our team, so we were really good. We had to have a tie breaker with another team...and I won it for us. “Summer Nights” by Rascal Flats. I love me some country! Our amazing prize was that we got to go to the front of the line at bathroom stops...ya, you’re really jealous right now. With this many girls, the lines for the bathroom are always long...so the prize is funny, but semi-legit. But we never ended up using it. Plus, it’s really not that big of a deal to wait in a bathroom line. At one point in the day we even made up a little “flash mob” dance. It was pretty entertaining. Our goal was to whip it out as soon as we passed the other classes bus...but as soon as we actually did pass the other bus, we passed them so fast that it didn’t quite work out. It was actually kind of humorous how hard we tried for it to work, and how fast we were past the bus...opportunity gone. 

The bus buddies!

The first real stop for the day (other than a few bathroom stops) was Gallipoli. In World War I, the British tried to capture Istanbul at the Gallipoli peninsula. The battle lasted about eight months with many casualties on both sides, and eventually the Allies withdrew. The site is a memorial made by the Turks, to the British that had sacrificed their lives on Turkish land. It is a neat place, and probably the most gorgeous cemetery (the bodies aren’t actually there, but there are headstones for specific people). It is right along the Aegean Sea, and it is covered with flowers. It was neat to stop and reflect on those that had lost their lives, and to think of each of those people as actual people with families and people that loved them. It was also neat to see some of the actual bunkers that the Turks would have hid out it. I could not imagine living in one of those! So tiny and claustrophobic. Why can’t we all just get along? :)

We hurriedly left Gallipoli, and our whole bus drove onto the charter that took us to the other side of Turkey...I believe it took us from the Europe side to the Asia side. For some reason, it was kind of a funny experience to me. But we did it leaving and we did it going back into Istanbul...otherwise you would have to go all the way up and around the country.

After some more driving...we arrived in Troy. Troy had some cool ruins, a site that “Achilles killed Hector,” but the most memorable part was climbing into the large Wooden Horse that I guess was used in the movie Troy. I’m not really sure. But it was fun! 

Sometimes Pam and I like to be twins. We both own, both of those dresses. Woo Target!

Just being Achilles real quick

If you squint your eyes...I am the second from the bottom right.

After Troy we were off to our hotel for the night. Don’t even worry...our hotel was on the beach! It was way fun! We had some time before dinner so a lot of people swam (it wasn’t super warm, but I think most people wanted to swim, just because we could), we walked along the little pier, and just chilled at the hotel. We ate dinner at the buffet at the hotel (I think these hotels had all-inclusive meals...because we ate a lot of meals at our hotels).

Just a little modeling.

Some aspects of this trip just made me want to go on a relaxing, warm vacation. Probably because it is that time of year...and being a tourist is more tiring. We were at some nicer, beach hotels...but it wasn’t super warm...and we didn’t have that much time to just lay out in the sun. I understand why my parents always go on tropical vacations. More relaxing...and warm! Hey parents...Hawaii in August? hahaha.

The most exciting part of the night was when it go dark the hotel set up a bonfire for us...and let us have a dance party! (It was a pretty small hotel). So, we spent hours dancing...it was the most epic dance party. Dancing...on the beach...with a bonfire...in Turkey. Ya, it was definitely way fun and unforgettable. I was so surprised that the hotel allowed that, but they loved it. One kid in our group kept getting us to follow him, so we would all just follow his dance moves, and the hotel staff loved it! They even recorded us and would ask us to do it again! 

It was a fun night! Definitely the best night in Turkey!