For anyone who needs to check out of Turkey in Canakkale that is on a sailboat, you do not need an agent and wear walking shoes. Step 1 is to find the harbormaster. Go a block up from the main street in front of the waterfront and look for the fortress like door with a giant anchor out front. Don’t be shy and go right in. He will give you step by step instructions on what to do next. A trip to the bank to pay 8TL to get out of the country is necessary. I can tell you Step 2 is to get on the C-11 bus and go to Kepez. The bus will take you to the hospital which is as far as buses go and then you much walk down the hill for about a mile, past the tomato field, and to the left. When you get to the gas station in front of the water turn right and walk around the abandoned looking building. There is an office with “Polis” on it… go in there. Make sure to have your passport and transit log ready. Everyone must be present and smiling and the man that will help you will be very efficient and know exactly what you need without even having to ask. A few stamps and photo copies and we were sent on our way to walk back up the hill to the bus stop. If you are lucky, like we were, some nice couple will pull over and ask if you want a ride. Get in the car and get the ride up the hill. Step 3 is to go back to the harbormaster’s office for him to stamp and sign things there. Step 4 is to walk to the Custom’s office which is located at the end of the waterfront past the ferry docks and in front of the museum’s mine sweeper still floating in the water. A stamp is needed here and the stamp apparently travels from office to office and is watched like a hawk in case someone decides to take it with them? So get the stamp, another photo copy, and you are done!
The outing on our final day in Turkey was to the city’s fortress where the Army and Navy Museum is located inside. When we got there, we learned it was closed on Thursdays… oops. But the garden was free to walk through so we decided to do that.
This is the world, and Dad and I are pointing to Turkey! I wore my Ataturk t-shirt around Canakkale and got a lot of compliments which made me smile. I’m not sure when else I’ll be able to wear it, not in Greece for sure, but maybe I’ll be able to sport it in the states.
The castle was built by Mehmet the Conqueror in the 15th century and was used as an actual military base until the 1970s. It’s still surrounded by a military base, but has been opened to tourists for the small fee of 4TL to go and see some of the military memorabilia that has been stored there.
These were HUGE anchors and actually pretty interesting. They only have one side that actually loops out to dig into the water. They were used on ships that had nets of some sort so this way the other side didn’t get caught in the net when it was being pulled up.
The museum inside of the castle was technically closed. For anyone who wants to visit the museum is closed on Mondays and Thursdays (of course we were there on a Thursday) but the garden is open. This is the garden. It has lines and lines of old missiles, cannons, mines, and other miscellaneous war leftovers.
Like I said the museum was supposed to be closed, but there was a special tour group going through and they left the doors open. We wandered through, honestly not sure if it was part of the garden or not and found a woman who said because she opened the doors for the special group we could go ahead and tour too as long as we didn’t take any photographs. The inside of the castle was pretty cool and the displays showed various bullets, guns, and sharp pointy things used during the Gallipoli campaign.
In the Fodor’s guide book everything that was mentioned from a good restaurant to things to do said “Offers a great view of the Dardanelles”. We lived on the Dardanelles and had a better view than any restaurant could provide, but after reading about it we kept quoting it and giggling. This is Mom and Dad enjoying the great view of the Dardanelles from a museum park bench.
This is the London Café, which is in our opinion the best sandwich in Turkey. Dad and I had stopped here one our first trip through Canakkale and then returned on this one. Mom and Dad tried the fried chicken that is advertised on the first night and I stuck with the durum, a chicken wrap with the doner chicken, lettuce and tomato. We ate there three times and each time got a bigger sandwich because they were so delicious.
This is the owner who speaks good English and was always very happy to see us and find us a table. The doner meat shown in the photo was the juiciest and best meat ever. He said on weekends they go through an 80 kilo (about 160lbs) of chicken doner and over 500 loaves of bread in a day. Next door was a place with an almost identical menu and nobody stopped there while his place was packed with people every time we walked by.
This is how travel planning works on the Pipedream. Pick a page, put it on your head, and if it balances then it’s a good place to stop. I wish it were that easy.
For our last Turkish meal, we decided to go all out and go to a real restaurant. Fodor’s suggested the Yalova Restaurant and we knew where it was so we chose that one. After trying all sorts of mezes or appetizers such as a green salad and grilled egg plant spread we moved on to steaks and Mom got a sea bass. Our steak had a good taste, but wasn’t much to look at. Mom’s fish was both and she really enjoyed the puzzle of eating a Turkish fish. It was a great night and of course, we had a terrific view of the Dardanelles.
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