İntrepİd

İ'm half way through my week touring northwestern Turkey with İntrepİd, and going mad over an unfamiliar keyboard - Turkish has two İ's, and the dotless one (ı) is in the position of the dotted one which alone apparently will look like an i to you. Anyway, we've spent a day in İstanbul, a good half day in Galipoli (where, a friendly young guide told us, two empires ended - British and Ottoman - and many new nations were born - not just Turkey and Australia but even Russia, for whose 1917 revolution Gelibolu took credit), a morning in the ruins of Truja (Troy), a morning in Ayvalik (historically Greek but now Turkish) and an afternoon cruise wıth endless fried sardine-like fısh. Tomorrow it's off to Selcuk and Ephesus, then Pamukkale and Hierapolis... When İ'm less pressed for time - İ've three more days ın İstanbul at the end - İ'll try to post some pictures, and might have sorted through my feelings about the Turks and the storied land they now call their home.