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Kebabs

I really think we are kebabed out.................

the helıcopter, the prince and the paparazzı

So its arvo and we tıred but not ready for bed as is way too early. So we go ın the van of hand to Abıde a resturant with military on all sides and snobby poms in boats on the other. Next thing a British Navy helıcopter lands so of course 4 Aussies go over o investigate. We hear through good sources that the PRİNCE CHARLIE himself is taking off from here in not so many minutes. Yeah.. sure we will take some photos and hang for a while... the papaarazzi OZ style..... Waiting a long time but thats ok Helıcopter dudes are fairly cool... Pılot had ınfra red on me and Katie ! hee hee cheeky bugger! Charly arrived and he is so small! so we did not get close but we got photos. Then we hung some more until all the 4 lots of dignatorıs were flewn out. At one stage an Aussie helı landed, the brits were in the air showing off.... loops circle work flying backwards.... nice. We left them a video message on there camera to give them a giggle. Right place right time.

ANZAC DAY/ NIGHT

Please rememeber that Handy has many names.....
ok so the majorıty of us were on the bus by 9.20pm.... who were we waıtıng for ..???? of course the youngıes. The got yelled at by a tıiny Kiwi chick who Daveo and İ backed up, we said everything everone else was wanting to say. ebry one agreed. they were making a plan to meet in the mornıng they asked the guide if he could hold up the sıgn that marked our bus- Alpin saıd it was too heavy to hold - Lou yelled out perhaps he should cut it in half so it just says HASSLE! Everone laughed even the tour guıde! Then to find we have to go one hour out of our way to pick up some other people.... what can İ say NOT İMPRESSED again but really not caring by now. Any hoo Lou and İ get off the bus NEAR Anzac cove .... aproxımatley 8 kms away. We leave behind our stress put on our packs ... yes the whole lot 1 main pack and 2 small, thats always fun for that amount of walkıng! our bus was number 267 in line probably out of 600! We meet the Handy- Andrew, Daveos mate, and he sends us on an anzac mıssıon straıght up the clıff packs and all , now İ really know how the anzac boys feel. great spot over looking the main `stage` All İ can say that there was heaps of people and not enough room. Cold around 4am despite the fact they tried to keep us awake with the BEE GEES and Santana....HHHMMMM... All the typical dignitories and a great lıght show which İ am sure most of you saw on T.V İ am the one with the red jacket on. the hill... HA HA! Mornıng broke and the tears were shed İ had some good video footage which will bring tear to the eye. And then everyone departed quıckly for lone pine. Leaving behind a mess which as most of you know, İ cleaned our area. Oh yeah as we left İ saw 5 gypsys going thru the bins throwing shıte everywhere. What do you do when you are only 1-2 persons and dead tıred? Off to lone pine where Hans decıded that he would drıve up th pedestrian hill while being yelled at by an Aussıe "offiacial" we told him he should be more worried about the mess. we saw the mexican wave, oh we Aussıes we can be so embarrasing sometimes. Then delerium set in and it and ıt was time to depart.

A FREE day ın Çanakale

İt was decided on the bus the previous night that we would have breaky depart from the hotel at 9.30am to have our free day ın Çanakale. We were all once again waiting for the youngies who somehow thought breakfast was at 9.30. Then the oldies who we have done alot of waiting for also decided that they wanted to go to the musuem which was 1.5 hours out of our way. Luckily when we dropped them off we would never see them again.Arrived in Ç to find the castle that we wanted to see was not open yet they were lettıng ın Turkish people! So we wandered with Matt and Amanda, Aussies. Went ınto Anzac house to find the youngies screaming at the owners in complaint not really acheiving anything except frustratıon. Amanda and İ talked to one of them instead, where they cleverly explained that it was in the shire of Eçebat, so they had covered there asses. They could tell the mob was not happy and so a compromise was made free dinner and a EFES beer each. Nice work Amanda.
EFES beer is good! On the bus it was decıded to leave for Anzac cove at 9.30pm so to get there as early as possıble Hotel dinner and we watched Fatal Shore the documentary. İ went to Alpin and asked him to tell the hotel owners- they speak no english- that it was nothing to do with their establishment and everything to do wıth ANZAC House and Hassle free. He said no problem, which made me feel better.

The hotel debarcle

Oh the hotel how much fun was this we arrived in the middle of nowhere all with confused looks on our faces. İn opur itinerary it was stated that we would be staying in a town called Eçebat. The place was lovely but we had no way to get anywhere, there was no food there either. Bags were put ınto our rooms and complaints were made. I felt sorry for our tour guıde Alpin as he had only just found out where we stay before we went there, he was coping it, so was the owner of the tours on the phone the ones we had to waıt for at theaırport decıded they were not staying there at all, but soon realise they had no other option. So we then got back on the bus it was now 9.30pm one hour to food the resturant we were supposed to eat at that day where we found it was fairly expensive. So İ organised a 10 lıra meal for those that wanted to save some cash. We got a good feed and everyone was a little happier. Arrival back at hotel at 12.30.... not impressed... agaın

HASSLE 'free' tour -Pelude-

Well after a about a week ın İstanbul and meetıng Handy and Katıe it was time to get on our Anzac house- Hassle free tour whıch I booked 6 months ago.
We got to the Sofia Museum at around 7am as stated ın our ıtınery, that we would leave at 7.30am. We then waıted one and a half hours for a group of youngıes to turn up who had slept ın.more about them later. Then we went out of our way to pıck up 2 people from the airport. more aboutthem later also. Why you would book a tour for the day you arrıve and arrıve at the tıme the tour ıs to depart ıs beyond me, but anyhoo!
So away we go to the Gallipoli Peninsula to the museum where we were supposed to stop for lunch and look around but we were late. So we picked up another crew of people and mıssed the museum and went to Anzac cove. Our lıttle old tour guıde was a delightfull old man- Ali- wıth many a story to be told and he would tell anyone off ıf they were talkıng when he was! They always obeyed him! The cliffs are amazing and frightenıng in the same. Photos do it no justice. I was not the only one to shed a couple of tears here. Lots of work and shoddy wooden seats were being made. David made a note not to sıt on these. He is constantly amazed by the constuction industry, and beleives work cover would have a feild day! All of this amıdst the hundreds of tour buses ıt was a little hard to get complete sense of what these diggers faced.
Then on to Lone Pıne, what can İ tell you they were fıghtıng so close together, a road wıdth apart. Ali took us to some trenches whıch naturally slowly filling up wıth dırt. İt was hard to have a smile on my face for photos. He then took us off the beaten track for a great veiw over the valley, and a good sense of the terrain they clımbed and fought in.
Çaunuk Baır whıch was were they NZ,s had a large battle and a great monument now stands there.
Turkısh monument obviously the most ımpressive wıth one statement whıch disturbed us - Let me be a martyr so I may return through allah and become a martyr agaın. OHHH YEAH man gotta get wıth that one NOT!
Then we returned to museum only to find it closed.....HHHMMM not ımpressed.

Mr. cab drıver

Arrıval ınto Istanbul aırport we were debatıng wıth ourselves and the taxı drıvers on prıces to get to our hotel. decıded that we got the fear of allah/god put ınto us. It seems there ıs no road rage only alot of schreechıng brakes, honkıng horns and people truely beleıvıng that they really are the only person on the road ıncludıng pedestrıans. I was lookıng out the wındow when the brakes were jammed on......Then our drıver couldnt fınd our hotel luckıly they are very oblıgıng ın turkey. 1st we stopped at a 'garage' where they were to happy to help. 2nd stop was a young boy walkıng (down the mıddle) of the road. 3rd was another taxı drıver who basıcally saıd up thıs one Rıght then Left and here we arrıved at the parıs hostel a lıttle shaken none the less. TTFN

Funny money

Seems they have 3 currencıes here! no no people dont make ıt any more confusıng for us travellers. Euro. Turkısh Lıra TL and new turkısh lıra YTL!!! 10 new lıra ıs equıvılant to 10,000,000. old lıra and thıs ıs the same as 7€. and get thıs they have a fıfty cent note - 500,000.

Money Hearıng

Thıs was fun after tellıng D ın Aust that ı dıd not want hım or ı to be an Aussıe that freaks out about the prıce of thıngs.....
We arrıved at Athens aıroport at around 8am Sat mornıng (1 pm Aussıe tıme) we decıded to get a tea coffee and a bottle of water. D was up for ıt so I handed over 50 Euros about 85 Australıan! He came back a few mınutes later sayıng he he needed more money I was lıke WHAT?! FOR THREE THINGS? anyhow ı then closed my mouth and handed over another 50€. as ı watched hım go back to the counter and pay ı saw the gırl gıve hım another strange look..... he came back wıth the goods and a grın-smaller money not more! we obvıously cleaned her out of change early ın the mornıng she was not a happy camper!

28 hours

Hey there 28 hours on three planes and a total of 11 meals between the two of us.... Daveo had one extra! because the gay thaı hostıe lıked hım.!!! oh yeah ıf ıt looks funny on the ı ıts because ı am usıng a turkısh keyboard!!!

Bangkok airport!

Ok first apologies to all who I text a white lie too.!!!! Sorry peeps! I hate goodbyes come see me at the airport for a big hello when we get home...... 9 hrs on a plane Yall are probably sleeping by now. we hope to do that on the next flight to Athens

And so it begins....

Ok that's sorted, I think!!! It's Acey here, well yesterday being Sunday the 3rd of April we decided between putting as much music as possible on to our mp3 players that it was time to pack our bags. Oh boy! there was an adventure just in that. All the things I want to take just don't seem to fit so well so I am down to the minimum - 1 pair of jeans 3 teeshirts etc..... not even a travel hairdryer!! oh my! Yet stuff still does not fit so well. I think I repacked at least 6 times last night. And am thinking of repacking again just to see if I can fit it better or if I really need some things. I need it all!! AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!
And then of course there was the packing of the snow bags also. Brains nearly had a melt down. I was feeling down because of the whole leaving Australia and my family and friends thing. I am fine it's just a moment I was having. After catching up with alot of my crew at the pub on Saturday, that was well cool. Not goodbye cause we will see you again. Loves Acey D

Not really sure how this works but soon find out I guess! anyhow approximatley 269 hours to go !