Day 38 Istanbul and Anzac Cove
The DP docked on the Bosphorus, directly across from the old city. We were a group of three couples who decided to explore the old city together. First point had been to convert some money into Lire. The ship's passenger service area converted $AUS into lire. We caught the local tram to the Sultanahmet which saved us walking up hill and some in our group caught the tram back to the terminal. Cost of tram one lire coin each way. You buy a disc to enter the platform buy using a coin in a vending machine next to platform.
We travelled 4 stops before alighting from the tram, and then headed over to the Blue Mosque. There are heaps of men who wish you to engage them to guide you through the Mosque. One chap started off at 30 Euro for the group, and then ended up with 2 Euro. He said the money paid the entry fee into the mosque. Of course we didn't engage him as we already knew there is no fee into the Blue Mosque! We had to take our shoes off and were given a plastic bag to carry them around. Once inside this superb interior we could see the thousands of blue Iznik tiles' decorating the columns, walls and ceilings, the floor was richly carpeted in a red theme. This is where the men kneel to pray. Fortunately we were there before the 11am prayer service; otherwise we would not have been able to enter.
We walked thru to the St Sophia but the line-up was fairly long and we needed to change our money to get in. 15 Lire entrance fee. We spotted a money changer not far from the entrance and converted my Dhs (leftover Dubai money) to Turkish Lire. Instead of going to see St Sophia, we walked across the road to the Grand Cistern (10 lire entrance fee) and walked down the stairs to see the underground water storage supported by 336 beautiful columns, built in the 6th century.
After a Turkish coffee break we walked to the Grand Bazaar and down to the Spice Bazaar. The Spice Bazaar is close to Galata Bridge and just across the Bosphoros to the ship's terminal. Paul and some of the others caught the tram back; however Brian and I walked back across the bridge and arrived back only a few minutes after the rest of the group. Paul crashed when we got back to the ship, he slept from 6.30pm to 5.30am, only to get up once during the night.
I put in an early morning wake-up call for 5.20am so we would be at the Anzac Cove Dawn Service. The ship's trumpeter played a great selection of tunes including the last post and revelry. At 10am the DP was virtually stationary, about 100 metres off Anzac Cove, whilst the Passenger Choir sang a section of songs including Amazing Grace and Waltzing Matilda. Several retired service personnel took turns giving a speech or poem and 2 various ministers/fathers said a prayer. A wreath had been ceremoniously laid (dropped into the water). We were quite moved by the service and well, I ended up I in tears as my Grandfather was an original Anzac.
Moving, emotional, sad, respect.
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