Went to the Gallipoli Pennınsula today and dıd the whole tourıst thıng. Fırst thıng that struck me about thıs was the cost. Seven hour Gallıpolı tour wıth guıde ın prıvate bus… 58YTL!!! Now this is the dearest optional activity on the whole goddamn tour. Dearer even that a full day sailing in the Mediterranean – figure that out! They obviously have a captive audience in visiting Aussies and Kiwis for this particular tour – I mean who the hell would come all this way and then not go??? Feels a little like they are relying on the emotional pull to make you over look the ridiculously exhorbitant price. Grrr…. the Anzac House place where the tours are organised from treats you like a walking wallet too …. so double Grrr on that one!!! 🙁
Anyway, predictably all the Aussies on our tour all signed up for the trip. Our guide was excellent, I didnt catch her name (yes a woman! how refreshing!) but she was informative and had excellent English which counts for a whole lot on these things. We went to all the different cemeteries and memorial spots and saw the beaches at Anzac Cove and Suvla Bay. Quite a few things seem to have changed…. when we were here in 1995 the Penninsula was just recovering from the 1994 bushfires which destroyed a lot of the area, but now it doesnt seem so barren – a lot of the vegetation appears more established, the trenches are not so easily discerned due to the trees and the memorials seem likewise more formal with gardens etc. We were there from midday until early evening and it was quiet and sobering band just as moving as I rememember it.
Anzac cove…
Only blight on the day was when our guide, Karen (who was along for the trip today – has been to Gallipoli before 7 years ago – Karen isnt in the habit of going along on the tours with us but she decided to today) decided at one junction to engage us all in a bit of ‘eco-tourism’/ Yep that is right… just as we got to one of the really moving stops of the day – the Anzac trenches where all the worst of the action actually occured, and I guess the site of the true sacrifice, courage and mateship of the Gallipoli conflict… our dear Karen decides to hand out garbage bags and gloves so we can all ‘participate’ in helping clean the place up for 20 mins!!! I was stupefied. What a decision to make on our behalf. So rather than contemplating the site for the atrocities and braveries seen there… we were guilt tripped into emu-bobbing the place for a while. At first I was a little stunned and donned my glove and went in search of rubbish and cigarette butts like everyone else… but then realized that she was creating a lasting memory of that place that was decidedly NOT what I wanted to take away from there! And then I got angry… really fucking angry. How dare she rail road us like that? Sure its a nice gesture but what right does she have to determine that we should all need to have our memory of the ANZAC trenches intermingled with rubbish collecting! Fuck that and fuck her! I threw my glove in the rubbish in disgust and went to find a quiet spot to spend quietly contemplating where I was instead. Mind you the being pissed off bit stayed with me for at least an hour and I didnt trust myself to talk to her for some time. There goes any thought of tipping her at the end of this trip!
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