ÇANAKKALE HAS MUCH TO OFFER AS WELL AS THE GALLIPOLI WAR MEMORIALS
welcome to ch so this is Çanakkale, which is situated at a strategic and historically important place, the shortest crossing point of the Dardenelles and only about 200 miles from Istanbul, and it's for many years been a short stay destination for thousands of tourists who come here to pay respects and to see Memorials of the thousands of men who lost their lives at the Gallipolı campaign in the first world war. dominated by its castle and its ferryboat Port it has much more to offer than a one night stopover on a tour bus, the promenade is a social center for the half a million people who live here and it's been an important Trade Center for thousands of years linking Europe and Asia. so let's have a quick look around this important city, the promenade is busy all day long and especially in the evenings as people of all ages come out to enjoy the cafes and restaurants, there are lots of young people here due to the big universities, which have large campuses and this certainly adds to the lovely atmosphere of the place, and most people only see the promenade but there are lots of streets shopping streets going off from the promenade and with cafes and restaurants really lovely.,
you'll find the usual Street vendors here and of course all the franchise shops you normally find in a city, and the people here are very friendly, and they're pets and she's even got a tattoo of her dog on her arm. maybe due to the universities the people here are very Cosmopolitan , you having fun. Benetton yeah, you need a little dog, I can put the dog in here what a great idea. one speciality of Çanakkale is Helva and they do lots of different types here and this is this is one of the main streets that sells it, so let's go and try some, the basic ingredients of Helva is tahin which is sesame oil and sugar so this is Helva the speciality of Çanakkale. but here the specialty is adding cheese which gives it a moist and less sweet flavour. a little away from the prominade in the center of the city is a covered Market, this is a really big Market I think I've lost Trudie, there's also an Old Market here called Aynalı Çarşı but we found it was more for tourists, the further down you come you realize there's so much more to this Market.
as the sun sets here everyone comes out for a walkabout and the cafes and restaurants quickly fill up, the prices here are a bit more reasonable than most Resorts, and strangely enough waffles are very popular here. there are lots of hotels near to the ferry boat port and most of them have got restaurants underneath and they're nice restaurants too, there's certainly plenty of choice when it comes to food and there's no shortage of places you can get an alcoholic drink either. there's a few interesting old buildings, notably the clock tower is probably the most impressive which was built in 1897 by a wealthy Italian Trader, probably the oldest building is the castle of course which is now the Naval Museum and we'll have a look at that a little later. and most of the night life here in Çanakkale revolves around the clock tower and the promenade. and we found one thing in Çanakkale is the fish is really good recommended, so I've got the hamsi, what have you got, I've got sea bream which is çupra, your favorite, so this is hamsi which is like white bait, you can eat it whole actually hamsi, but um they do usually take the heads off.
there are two parks in Çanakkale one is about a mile out of the town to the north but the other one is a much more established part called The Halk bahçesi which is right in the center of the town and very popular with the youngsters. since September of 2004 there has been a new attraction in the center of Çanakkale. so this is the huge wooden horse they used in the film Troy and after they finished filming they donated it and it's here for you to see in Çanakkale square. the truva heykeli or trojan horse statue is the actual horse that they used in the Troy film of 2004 which starred Brad Pitt Sean bean and Peter O'tool, and this is probably as close to Brad Pitt as I'll ever get it was donated by Warner Brothers after the film was completed in 2004 but it's actually made of fiberglass and ways over 12 tons and I've got to say it's much more impressive than the one that's actually at Troy and it's ironic that most of the film was actually done in Malta not in Turkey the film and the have boosted visitors to this area and of course to the ancient ruins of Troy which are only 20 mi away from the city so this was the mockup of the original Trojan Horse um to be honest it was quite a sad looking mockup and they're redoing it I hope they make it better than it was before and there's some pieces of it I don't know really why they don't bring the one from Çanakkale the one they used in the film because that's a much more impressive horse we'll be looking at the ancient ruins here in Troy and its fabulous Museum a bit later in the video most people who visit Çanakkale whether on an organized tour or not come to pay respects to the solders who lost their lives in the Gallipoli campaign of the first world war there are 31 War Graves and memorials dedicated to the British Commonwealth soldiers and 50 to the Ottoman Turks who died here and almost all these graves are on the European side of The Dardanelle Straits the first Memorial we wanted to visit is the one dedicated to the Turkish Ottoman men who lost their lives in the war and the quickest way for us was to go to kilitbahir here on the ferry it's about £5 to go with your car one way and about £3 for the return and the system is computerized so you don't get a return ticket but they know if you're coming back the same day and you can get a fresh simit as well 10 Lira mind you of course you have to make sure you booked on the right ferry boat although the ports on the other side are not very far apart anyway you can take the to Eceabat or to Kilitbahir Kilitbahir is the shortest route well we're on board on board yeah it's a ferry boat I've got to admit it's very well organized and it doesn't take long and these ferry boats go quite often the whole trip takes about 10 minutes so we've got to go so we need to get back in the car come on Mick I didn't even have time to go to the toilet and we're going to go left we're going left well we just what you said I'm not quite sure where we're going to go very healthy I'm not quite sure where we're going to go from here okay well I was going to say follow that car left so this is the Çanakkale Şehitler Abidesi which is basically a memorial to a quarter of a million Turkish soldiers who lost their lives there are graveyards all over this area which is now a national park and we're going to go and have a look at a few of them now there are absolutely thousands of names all around this Memorial and um if you're interested in any family history of family persons that were lost in the War the British war Graves commission have all these names on a register and I think it's might even be on the internet now so sad thousands of names on the 25th of April 1915 the New Zealand and Australian armies landed on this Cove which is now called Anzac Cove this is a very moving plaque that Ataturk wrote in 1934 to the people who lost their lives here to the foreigners who lost their lives here and in fact the first time I read this it made me well up and it still does today when I start reading it those Heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country therefore rest in peace there is no difference between the Jonnies and the Mehmets towards where they lie side by side here in this country of ours you the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace after having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well they sent the youngsters off to war and never saw them again and of course most of the families haven't even had the chance to come here to see where they died this beach became the main base for the Australian and New Zealand troops for the 8 months of the Gallipoli campaign the British generals and commanders including some influence from Winston Churchill thought it would be easy to take the dardanelles and eventually Constantinople now Istanbul which would take the Ottomans out of the war but they hadn't considered the strength of the Ottoman Army headed by Mustafa Kemel Ataturk all the logistics of such a campaign through continued arrogance of the commanders this entire mission was a bloodbath and achieved nothing except a huge loss of life any tour of this area will probably include this Castle which is opposite Çanakkale on the European side so we've got here at just after 5:00 unfortunately to this Kilitbahir Castle it's closed because winter time here starts on the 1st of October and the last entry is quarter past 4 I thought it was still summertime look at me but we did find the bunkers interesting I think they're all connected under the ground I think there's tunnels to each one of these they would have stored all their ammunition and supplies in here for the guns which of course were were the protection over the Dardanelles to stop any Ships coming through right here is where the Cannons would have been bolted and just over that wall is the Sea of the Dardanelles but I actually am too short and the Seyit onbaşı monument to those who lost their lives loading the guns corporal Seyit actually survived and saved the day but for me the most interesting war museum is this one the Çimenlik Kalesi or the lawn Castle which is the main Castle in Çanakkale so we're at the Denis muzesi which is what we would call the Naval Museum if you like 200 Lira each to get in which is about £6 each but I've also had to pay 120 Lira to bring my camera in which is a bit unusual unusual may be but it was certainly worth it some of the artifacts they have here are really interesting and I've not seen objects like this in any other Museum this is one of the sea mines they would have used to try and destroy our British battleships entering the Dardanelles I Hope they've deactivated it well don't hit the prongs on the top there's a sign says no smoking particularly fascinating was the wreck of a submarine as you can see it was quite crudely made and I suppose that would have been full of some sort of explosives the central part of the castle houses lots of other artifacts and also some old video footage and an explanation of what actually happened in the war the town of Gallipoli or Gelibolu as the Turks call it which the war campaign was named from is on the European side and a little east of Çanakkale there's two ways to get over to Gallipoli there's a new bridge or the ferry so behind me is the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge which is 2023 M long it's the longest suspension bridge in the world it took 5 years to build it and it's part of the new Motorway system joining up Asia and Europe before this bridge the Akashi Kiyoko bridge in Japan was the longest but this actually spans an extra 32 M beating the world record it's 330 M High that's 1,096 ft and it was designed by Turkish and South Korean companies at a cost of $2.7 billion 205 lira the center of Gallipoli town is dominated by the ferry boat port and fishing boats it can be very busy with lorries sometimes when the fairies come in but the more you walk about the more interesting this lovely little time becomes so Gallipoli is are very typical Turkish town but there is one speciality here that they do which we're looking for which is fish soup but we can't find it anywhere and all the restaurants have told us that they only serve it in the wintertime so we found this lovely little restaurant anyway and we've had some lovely food instead how is it very nice and on one side of Gallipoli they've got a beach and it's quite a nice Beach it's probably full in the middle of the summertime and it's right next to the Hilton Hotel it was a bit windy that day and of course this was the beginning of October so let's have a look at what else Çanakkale's got to offer I was intrigued to know what was being sold in this shop um and apparently everything is Handmade by the women of Çanakkale some lovely things in here they've got a stadium a culture center and a huge mosque which is fairly new most people don't see this but there's a river going right through Çanakkale it's really lovely and it's got all boats on if you cross over the river you're going into Kepez quite a busy place and there's lots of shops and restaurants there too so as you can see the Çanakkale has got some huge shopping centers and this is one of them oh and I just found Trudie and what's Trudie doing I'm shopping for baby clothes it looks like you got an armful already and it was good that we came in here because that time is a great computer shop got myself a new Mouse cuz I dropped mine and broke it get yourself a snack or even a full meal there are some great restaurants in some of these places about 20 miles from Çanakkale is one of the most popular and famous ancient ruins this is Troy which was in a very famous Greek story in Greek mythology which a lot of scholars believe could actually be true it was basically a love story about Helen the wife of a Greek king being abducted by Paris of Troy although she actually loved Paris of Troy and this started the Trojan war around the 12th century BC in which of course the wooden horse was given as a present and the soldiers hiding inside open the gates to the city of Troy and let the Greeks in to ransack the city and kill everybody apart from the women apparently one important fact is this site is a few kilometers from the coast but the sea used to be right up here where this flat plane is you can actually see the sea in the distance so Troy was actually next to the Sea as you walk around the site you'll see that the ruins are from different periods in Time dating back to the 12th century BC right up until the Romans whether the story is true or not this place is is well worth a visit and the ruins are not spectacular but the museum certainly is this Museum's got probably the best collection of gold jewellery fine glassware and pottery that I've seen in any Museum in Turkey and with all the museums in Turkey there's always one piece that stands out it's not very clear but there's actually four levels to this Museum but there is a lift you can use they normally have a mock wooden horse here but it was being renovated in fact when I looked at what they were doing it looked more like it was is being remade pert Springs to mind so what about places to stay well there are some lovely hotels in and around the city as you've seen from the video but we stayed at this hotel this is the Troa Tusan hotel which is about 10 miles out of Çanakkale it's in a small resort called Güzel Yalı which in October was very quiet and mostly closed up we had a chance to relax a little bit around the pool the hotel had good facilities nice restaurant area and lovely staff it's got a spa and a pub the original owner was British and she insisted on having a British pub and there's also a quiet Lounge area which is mostly opened up in the winter I think the rooms could do with a bit of an upgrade but they were clean and had air conditioning and just below the hotel it's got its own little private beach which is fine sand it's a bit pebbly to walk into and at this time of the year which is like the 1st of October the water is pretty cold and there's a beach bar here too there's also loads of parking and it's open all year round so what's the best way of getting here well you could come on an organized tour of course or you can come on the national buses from Istanbul İzmir or Bursa the auto guard that's the bus station is a few miles out of the city of Çanakkale so you'd have to get a dolmuş or a taxi from there but they're cheap enough but the best way to come is probably by car so we drove up to Çanakkale from Fethiye which is about 400 miles and it took us 8 and 1/2 hours with a couple of stops and there are toll roads as well which are not expensive um we hired this car from a company called Pegasus in Çanakkale and it cost us £300 for two weeks which we didn't think was too bad you can also hire a car from the airport because you can actually fly in to chanak there's an airport there and you can fly in from Istanbul and hire a car when you get there so that's it from here in Çanakkale don't forget to like subscribe and hit the notification Bell so you don't miss where we go next thanks for watching
2023-10-28 06:26
