Kusadasi to Canakkale via Troy: Day 10 Topdeck Turkey Explored Tour

Today we begin day 10 of our Topdeck Turkey Explored Tour by leaving the port town of Kusadasi and head further north to check out the famous ancient city of Troy, we visit the Trojan Horse and spend the night in the costal city of Canakkale and visit another famous Trojan Horse. Canakkale is situated close to the Gallipoli battle grounds which we will explore on our final full day of the tour.

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16 September, 2013 – Kusadasi to Canakkale

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This morning we left our hotel in Kusadasi and started the long journey north to the ancient city of Troy which is located not too far away from our destination for the night, Canakkale. Today’s trip on the coach is pretty non eventful and our itinerary says that we will be visiting the ancient city of Pergamon with the main attraction being the Acropolis.

On the coach we are asked if we want to visit this site with our tour leader Tarik explaining that it is probably not worth the effort of visiting and paying the entrance fee when we are going to see Troy anyway but are free to visit if we wish. It is then put to a vote on the coach and no-one voted to go see it so we didn’t bother stopping.

Once we arrived at the site of Troy we paid the entrance fee which is done while we wait on the coach. We then all meet at the base of what is really the main tourist attraction of the site, a large Trojan Horse which can be climbed inside of. The best bit of advise for Troy is not to go in with high expectations, the site really is just a few ruins, some of which have been excavated while many of the ruins have been damaged due to the incorrect archaeological digging methods that were used when they were first discovered.

Troy is nowhere near as glamorous as the movies make the place out to be, but don’t let this spoil the experience as the most interesting part of the whole experience is listening to all the stories behind the history of Troy from your guide.

Troy wasn’t just one city, it was many different cities that were built on top of one another over the centuries. In fact, it is said that the city was rebuilt nine different times over its thousands of years of history, with the first version of Troy has been estimated to have been built in 3,000 BC. Troy VII is believed to be the city that was the basis around the famous story that we all know.

By late afternoon we headed off and it was a short journey to our hotel in Canakkale, where we would spend one night at the Grand ANZAC Hotel. Now that we were close to Gallipoli you can expect everything to have an ANZAC theme to it, from the hotels to even a company called ANZAC Car Rentals.

Tonight it was up to us to find our own dinner, today we ate lunch pretty late so no one was too hungry but we had been recommended a kebab shop that was just around the corner and it was really cheap at 3 Lira. Some of us went for a walk along the foreshore where the town has a large ferry terminal mostly taking car travelling passengers to the other side of the strait.

Along the shore is the Trojan Horse used in the recent movie adaptation of Troy, it was donated as a gift to the city after the movie was completed. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending what your preference is, Brad Pitt is not inside the horse waiting for you to find him.

Tonight was an early night back to the hotel and off to bed after strolling the foreshore and eating ice cream. Tomorrow is our final full day on the Turkey Explored Tour and today was our final day on the Asian side of Turkey. Tomorrow morning we catch the ferry to the other side of the strait back into Europe and explore the Gallipoli battlefields before heading back to where it all started, Istanbul.

NEXT: Canakkale to Istanbul via Gallipoli: Day 11 Topdeck Turkey Explored Tour

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