Turkey A Land Of History, Culture And Cuisine

Cizgi was the cheapest car rental I could locate from the Istanbul International Airport and opted for an automatic Dacia Sandero to take on the impressive and well-maintained roads of Turkey. The highways are four lanes each way with an emergency lane. There are no potholes or uneven surfacing. The toll gates are automatic and one does not have to stop for the tag to be read. Apart from the highways, even the minor roads are surfaced and maintained well. Another feature is that the highways are grid-separated and have a maximum speed limit of 120kmph. Off the highways, speed limits varied between 70kmph and 90kmph.

-  Suresh Joseph

DAY 1

ISTANBUL TO CANAKKALE

360 KM

SOME OF THE roads hugged the coast of the Marmara Sea on the way to Gallipoli. The Gallipoli Peninsula, which has the Aegean Sea to its west and the Dardanelles Strait to its east, was a major theatre of war during World War I. The Gallipoli campaign handed the Allies a costly defeat and the Ottoman forces won a pyrrhic victory. They lost more than 1.2 lakh lives here. The Canakkale Martyrs Monument at the end of the Peninsula commemorates the participation and sacrifice of more than 2.5 lakh Turks. The Martyrs Monument overlooks the straits from the Hisarlik Hill. The monument, opened in 1960, is immaculately maintained. That in itself is a tribute to those who attained martyrdom for their motherland.

The Kilitbahir Castle was built in 1463 along with its twin on the opposite shore of the Dardanelles in Canakkale city, at its narrowest point to control and protect the straits. The bastion looks quite formidable. There is a ferry terminal within a few metres of the castle. Ferries operating between Kilitbahir and Canakkale almost every fifteen minutes during the day. That Canakkale is a student town is evident from the number of youngsters in the pubs and restaurants that dot the small town.

The vibrant, narrow streets are full of laughing crowds and slow moving cars. Hetal, homebaker from Surat and my business partner, and I got into a less busy restaurant and had a meal of meatballs, pigeon pea curry and rice.

Of course, bread does not have to be ordered in Turkey; it always appears at the table.

DAY 2

IN AND AROUND CANAKKALE

70 KM