Blue bus 30 lira. At the next town it stops. We are told to have a cup of tea and take the yellow bus. Through Google translate and lots of gestures it is established that is several hours wait and we should have a cup of tea. OK so we have the tea.
Phoebe negotiates 1300 lira for a taxi.
The taxi goes the wrong way. Back to Eceabat. Through a lot of hand waving and google translate we establish he's got to buy petrol.
On the way down we see lots of police. At one point we come across a coach trying to do a U turn and traffic on both sides backing up. Our taxi driver deftly deviates up a side street. This takes us on a cobblestone back road through the village. Eventually we make it back on the "main road".
At one point a grip group of about 6 puppies block the road. We slow and pass. Through the back window I see them running after us. Sad.
We make it to the Helles memorial. They are getting ready. A man on a ride on mower. A couple of police with dogs. It looked like they are familiarising the dogs with the site.
We negotiate another TRY1300 for the taxi driver to wait an hour and drive us home.
We are looking for Tasman von Stieglitz. Eventually we find him on the top part of panel 206.
Having looked at the memorial and once again pondered the huge numbers who died. 20000 English and a few hundred Australians on the Helles memorial. In the distance I could see a Turkish memorial complete with a huge Turkish flag. They lost 100's of thousands. More than the allies but they defended their homeland. Respect on both sides.
We go back to the taxi. We take some photos of the taxi driver. That was fun and personalises the connection and also is consistent with the friendly reception we've received by people in Turkey.
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