Gallipoli

Where we stayed – Crowded House Hotel


I had been looking forward to this part of our trip for some time, so I was pretty excited to arrive in Eceabat. Eceabat is a sleepy little village which is on the Gallipoli Peninsula side of the Dardanelles, so it has the best access to all sights I’d been longing to see.

Beach Cemetery

We choose to stay at the Crowded House Hotel and I’m so glad we did. Ziya (the co-ower) is just superb. Dallas had been complaining of having a sore ear for a couple of days, so we asked Ziya if there was a doctor in the village we could possibly see. Not only did Ziya take us to the nearby medical centre (which was free by the way), he also came with us to see the doctor to translate for us, and then took us to the pharmacy to get the necessary antibiotics. He then helped us arrange our tour of Gallipoli and our next bus tickets. All of this happened within 30 minutes of us arriving at his hotel… His hospitality and efficiency was just AWESOME!

Pretty self-explanatory really.... ANZAC Cove

The next day we along with 6 Aussies joined ‘Bill’ a local guide on a tour of the Gallipoli battlefields. I learnt more about the Gallipoli campaign in the 5 hours we spent with Bill than all my years at school. He was so informative and it was great to also get a Turkish point of view on the war. It was a pretty emotional day, but one that I will never forget.

The legendary John Simpons grave

Ari Burnu

Chunuk Bair - the main New Zealand memorial

ANZAC Cove

Poem by Ataturk

Lone Pine - The main Australian memorial

Chunuk Bair - the main New Zealand memorial