Crossing the Dardenelles

4 August 2014

We met at the conference center early this morning to load the nice coach bus for our trip to Mt. Ida. To get there we crossed the Dardenelles, and the point of departure was Çanakkale, or Gallipoli. The city has one side in Europe and one shore in Asia. We were crossing from Europe to Asia this morning.

There was no time to visit any of the memorial sites for this battle of WWI. Çanakkale is a busy point of departure. We had a lunch in a restaurant with a lovely view, and then the big bus drove onto the ferry for the 30 minute crossing. Ferries with cars, buses, and trucks of all sizes make the crossing every thirty minutes, seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day.

I have never been on a ferry that could handle so many large vehicles. I am not sure where there is a single one in the states.

Çanakkale has some monuments to the battle, and of course one to Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic who is pictured on all the money and has statues everywhere. There is no cynicism about Ataturk in Turkey, that I could detect, and I am not sure why there would be. Taking a country from a monarchy into a republic takes a strong leader.

The prodominant views out the window of the bus were of sunflower fields. There were many small towns with mediterranean style homes-- tall with terra cotta roofs. The majority of the homes had at least one solar system on the roof, and many had two-- one for water and one for electricity. The ridges had wind farms.


Yay, Turkey.