Today we started late from Canak hotel as we certainly took our time savoring the suite that we had and was on our way at 1045hrs. We had to stop for fuel and because of the amount Tuah gulped we were given 6 glasses with compliments from Shell, and they were quality ones too. Then we had Tuah hosed down and for free except that we thought since we couldn’t carry the glasses we might as well give them to the guy who did the hosing down.

Our next stop was the ancient city of Troy some 30kms from Canakkale. Finding it was not difficult but the first sight of it was a disappointment. The entrance cost was 34 YTL which included 4YTL for the car. We drove to a deserted car park and Alison managed to bungle her entry ticket and someone had to come out from a shack to let her in. The first thing we saw was the Trojan Horse which was constructed and placed near the entrance in 1974 which resembled nothing like the one in the movie, which I thought looked more realistic.

Once we got to the actual site, it became more interesting. The site was first discovered by Frank Calvert (consul and collector of antiquities) who had identified that the mound of Hisarlik was of artificial origin and had carried out some small scale excavations there in 1863 and 1865. It wasn’t until a wealthy merchant Heinrich Schliemann ( ahunter of archeological treasures) who had intensive reading of Iliad became convinced that Homer’s Troia or Ilios was to be found to the south of Dardanneles Straits in the 200 x 150m mound of Hisalrik (the castled place). Excavations began in 1871 -1894 in nine campaigns even after Schliemanns death and today is carried out annually in the summer months with financial assistance from Turkish Min of Culture, Daimler-Benz AG and James Ottoway Jr of New York in the hope that the cultures of Troi would be preserved as a legacy for future generations.

It took us more than an hour to walk around the ruins and that was rushing it a bit and although it was passed lunch time when we left, we decided to skip lunch as we had a big breakfast. Adrian of course wanted to nibble at something and polished off the cake left over from yesterday.

We continued our way towards Izmir on various road surfaces most of which were uneven but fortunately without pot holes. At Ackcay we stopped at a Carrefour and had a lot of curious onlookers admiring Tuah. An elderly man, with good command of English and his wife approached us and invited us to his home which we had to decline. He left the invitation open for the next time we are in the area giving us his address and contact numbers.

Due to an accident, we were delayed and arrived in Izmir at about 1930hrs and as usual Alison was getting nervous as we couldn’t find any accommodation. I was getting annoyed when we finally spotted a hotel and was asked to make a decision whether to stay or otherwise, but made the decision I did, for the sake of keeping the peace.

The hotel was not in exactly at the centre of tourist attraction and unfortunately all the eating places around it were either closed or closing. We had to take a cab to go and eat and it turned out we were not far from the more fashionable area. The taxi driver stayed with us while we ate and I chose the perfect dish of lamb shis. He even bargained for us on the bill and obviously happy to be of service when we paid him 20YTL instead of 26 YTL showed on the meter which he had kept running.