Looking at this thread, I never really responded to:
So Deborah - where and when are you going? Enquiring nosey minds want to know :-).
I did say:
In a few days I'm traveling to Turkey for two months. But before that is Ocean Grove.
Turkey is one of the few things on my bucket list - the last will be crossed off when I go to New Zealand in January. But Turkey has been a dream. Because so many of the men in my family went to the first world war, I wanted to go to the Dawn Service at Galipolli in 2015 for a number of years. I also wanted to see the archeology and textiles of Turkey, as it is the source of the Euphrates and was thus part of early civilization. The Australian Government held a ballot (raffle?) for the dawn service this year, and about 10 times as many people in the ballot as there were places (about 10,500 will be at the dawn service). I was lucky to get one. So I am doing everything I have dreamed of doing there. It is terribly unmustachian as the dawn service will be one long queue - you have to arrive at the first check point by 2:00am to get through, and there are several check points. I guess they are really worried about terrorists, and Turkey has been having more of late than previously. It will be tourist high season in Turkey (possibly the peak of 20 years) as an enormous number of Australians and New Zealanders will be there (huge numbers of people are going even without tickets to the service itself, and many tours are putting together their own service for those who missed out on the real one) - so everything will be more expensive than usual.
WOW! Everything about that post! The draw for who gets to go, the 2am check-point, your big dream coming true!!!
I never "get" people wanting to go far away to "see" something, because my body doesn't care about that, but I 100% get the desire to stand in places one's ancestors stood, touch the things they touched, etc. That, my body/mind/soul totally grasps, and it's the one element remaining that still gets me interested in travel. (Previously it was learning languages, immersing for months in any one culture, etc.)
Congrats, deborah!!! I'm really excited for you!
Wow Deborah, that sounds like a really amazing experience. I'm looking forward to hearing about it after you get back.
But I never reported back. And I've done more travel since.
Turkey was just amazing. I did a battlefield tour (you had to be in a tour group to go to the Galipolli commemoration), and it was really good. We went to where the British and French battleships were sunk by the Turks (this preceded the land campaign) and had maps that showed us exactly how it happened. We went to many of the war cemeteries, the landing sites and the sites of major battles. One of my relations was in charge of the withdrawal when they left, and I saw where all of my different relatives had fought (there were about 20 of them). Then I went to the tourist spots in central Turkey - and underground city, the churches carved into the rocks (a UNESCO heritage site), the fairy floss Roman health resort, and Ephesus (another World Heritage site). Then I went to South East Turkey - and it was absolutely AMAZING - the enormous stone heads at Mt Nemrut, Gobelki Tepi, Mount Ararat, all the places around Van, Ani... and I left just two weeks before places I had been started to have bomb attacks, after being at peace for about 10 years.
Then I came home, went to Perth for a week and visited the Pinnacles, the beaches, the caves and forests of south east Western Australia and the stromatolites, went to Victoria, and then on my second overseas trip. LA, the canyons and Indian sites (including Mesa Verde), and Ecuador - Andes, Amazon, Galapagos, Quito including a few Inca and pre-Inca ruins.
I am soon going to western Canada and Alaska for a couple of months, but in about a week, I will be going to Alice Springs, and will hopefully visit some of Uluru, Watarrka, Kata Tjuta, Lake Eyre (which has water in it again) and Anna Creek Painted Desert.
My New Zealand trip is actually next year rather than this.