Day 4: Istanbul-> Canakkale

I don't know how to type the little doodle under the 'C' in Canakkale, so you'll have to use your imagination!
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The call to prayer woke us again and we were happy to find that breakfast was available before the advertised time of 7am and thoroughly stuffed ourselves, no other buffet may compare later!
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Our luggage and ourselves were loaded onto the bus for the 4 hour ride to Canakkale.
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Our room at the Kent hotel had been so nice, very modern. When we had returned to it yesterday the maid had cleaned and perhaps unrelated or maybe not our toilet stopped flushing. It did not miraculously fix itself after some hours so on our way out to dinner I stopped at the front desk to ask to have it fixed. I explained that out toilet wasn't flushing.
"What?"
"Out toilet is broken."
"Broken?"
"Ya it won't flush."
"Why?!" with the weirdest look on his face!
"Uhhh..." really?
Hahaha, so awkward! But he did call up to have it fixed, which it was when we returned later.
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Leaving Istanbul I marvel at the madness. There is no method here, traffic is without order as far as I can tell. Our tourguide told us that if we've a green, treat it as red. Tread with great care. The 'walk' light is even of a little green man running! On the roads, everyone seems to do as the please. The layout of streets and shops is without any sign of organization. Especially unusual is how shops appear stacked atop each other; second, third, fourth story windows crammed with manikins and merchandise. No wonder men work on the sidewalks to lure you in!Where is one to look first, everything is everywhere, and every space has ads plastered to it. It is disconcerting to understand none of these signs, I am lost in the chaos without the language to hold onto.
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2 hours into our bus ride we stop at a gas station. 1TL to use the WC (water closet, hehe). Pleen buys baklava and I get an Efes, turkish beer, to finally try, and a bag of mystery flavour chips. The bag has a picture of 3 spices, and tastes like Mr. Noodle powder. The beer is tasty, but nothing extraordinary.
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After more time on the bus we stop for lunch at another gas station. These places, like those we stopped at on our europe trip, are so much nicer than any I've seen in North America. I almost had a heart attack when approaching the WC, as another participant leaving the facilities asked us if we'd been practising our squatting! Oh no, I'm avoiding this as long as I can! But, relief beyond relief, there were both flushies and squatties, weird, eh?

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There was a nice bufe to eat at. (Bufe has two dots over the 'e', and means like the buffet restaurants.) I ordered the 'mix plate' as suggested by our tour leader, Selcuk (squiggle under the 'c', which makes it a 'ch' sound as opposed to a 'j' sound), for 5TL and a bottle of water. My meal seemed to consist of rice, a chickpea dish, some kind of meatballs, fries with grilled eggplant, a potato dish, and a stuffed green pepper that I gave to Pleen. It was all just ok. Pleen and I also had a tea, a cay (squiggle under 'c'), for only 50 Kurus (squiggle under 's' for a 'sh' sound) afterwards. And since everyone else seemed to be buying beer at the attached market, Pleen and I got a couple of Efes, in funky stubby fat bottles.
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After filling up, it was on to Troy! Very interesting learning the history of the real location, the legends, the discoveries, but the best part was being able to climb up into a trojan horse. Pleen and I were like kids clambering up the steep stairs/ladder, sticking our heads out the windows, posing for and taking lots of pictures. Extra fun and worth standing, walking in the heat of the day through the ruins. I was also excited to be able to catch a photo of a 'Trojan' squirrel scampering across stones and scaling sheer rock walls.

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It was time to hop on the bus and head to our hotel back in Canakkale, which we'd passed earlier on the road to Troya/ Troia (Troy). Our hotel is right across the street from the waterfront, like a fantastic sea wall with merchants selling cotton candy, roasted nuts, grilled corn on the cob, icecream, and various trinkets. As we pulled up alongside the building our tour guide Selcuk pointed out that we were just next to "Brad Pitt's Trojan Horse"; just down a ways on the seawall is the actual trojan horse model from Brad Pitt's movie "Troy", so cool! Of course we got pictures, though we couldn't climb into this one :(

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While strolling on the sea wall enjoying the view, the people, all the pictures we could take, along came a marching band/parade of men in costumes playing drums, horns, waving scepters with bells, and sporting magnificent mustaches, sparkly vests, curly toed shoes, and Aladdin pants. Apparently they are reenacting the guards of... something. Very neat, very unique music!

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It was time to have dinner, at the hotel. A buffet! Lots of interesting choices, I can't even begin to guess what they all were. It was pretty good, though nothing struck me as absolutely fabulous, so I didn't get a second plate of anything, unless you count my plate of dessert: one of everything! A cake layered with chocolate, whipped cream and cherries, chocolate pudding, and some kind of cookie soaked in honey. Everything here tastes fantastic soaked in honey!I totally forgot to take pictures of dinner, but did get one of dessert.

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After dinner Pleen and I went for a walk with Barb, Jenny, and Jayde. We stopped at a liqour store, though all stores seem to sell liquor... anyways I found some Tuborg! Four cans and a Tuborg beer glass for only 10TL, so cool! Everyone else bought a few drinks too. We had big plans, but after heading back to our rooms and showering, etc, we all proved too tired and retired for the night.