After arriving back in Paris (overnight train from Liechtenstein) we had one last night, then left early the next day for London on our last leg of our Busabout ticket. A night in central London near the airport bus station for Gatwick gave us some sleep before starting a busy travel day to Istanbul. 

 We arrived in Istanbul rather tired and aware that we needed to be up early the next day (and every day after that!) so didn't really look around Istanbul this time. 

We had used a Turkish travel agency to organize our travels in Turkey because it is such a big country and we weren't sure how to fit in all we wanted to do in such a short time frame of 1 week. However we still managed it on the cheap using local buses instead of a full tour.

The next day a 5 hour journey in a local bus took us from Istanbul to Eceabet which is close to Gallipoli. The trip wasn't without dramas. We were ready and waiting at 6.30 am in the dark to be picked up by a shuttle to take us to the bus station but it didn't arrive! When we eventually got to the bus station we had to catch a later bus and were worried that our ANZAC tour booked for the afternoon would be missed. However to our travel agents credit, they organized a special tour for us so we didn't miss out and delay our schedule.

The many sites of Gallipoli take about 6 hours to see, and we enjoyed having a Turkish guide who gave us plenty of info relevant to both sides. The scenic peninsula is now a national park, scattered with moving memorials to the dead of the various nations that fought there. While we tend to just associate the battle as being Australia and New Zealand Troops (and while the majority) there were troops from many nations including English, French and even Gurkha's from Nepal. We were quite pleased to come when it was not Anzac day, as they now get around 40,000 people for the ceremony!

In the evening the hostel we were staying at put on the movie "Gallipoli" and the mostly Aussie guests sat around, on the floor, watching and discussing what we had learnt during the day.