September 15, 2025 - Istanbul to Canakkale, Turkey

We were up and on the bus about 8:15 this morning. Traffic in Istanbul is crazy and does not seem to have any rhyme or reason to it. We started down one street and there was too much traffic coming toward us - and cars parked along the street - so the bus driver BACKED UP over two blocks and went down another street to get on to the highway! All of the drivers honk at each other, too. There is no way I could drive here!!!

Soon, we were out of the old part of the city and heading toward Canakkale and the city of Troy. We went past many smaller communities and areas that were farmed.
There were several large forest fires in Turkey earlier this year and we drove past miles and miles of burned trees.

At our bathroom stop along the way, we saw this beautiful cat. The markings were so unusual, I think we all wanted to take it home with us!

We even saw lots of wind turbines.
We drove along the Sea of Marmara to the town of Gelibolu, Çanakkale where we caught a ferry across the Dardanelles Strait. We had lunch at the Gelibolu Restaurant while we waited to catch a ferry to cross the Strait.

We split the sea bass and had a cheese rollup. Both were delicious!


The afternoon drive continued to Troy, one of the most famous ancient cities in the world.

This is NOT the original Trojan horse from the stories of Troy, but we took our picture in front of it anyway.

There are 10 layers of Troy which show more than 3000 years without interruption and
allow visitors to see the civilizations settled in this geographic region where Anatolia, Aegean, and Balkans meet. The earliest settlement level is from the Early Bronze Age, 3000-2500BC. Troy was continuously inhabited changing from Roman to Byzantine until the 13th century AD. Later, Troy lost its importance as a result of political changes in its period. Because of its location near the sea, Troy has always played an important role in terms of the commercial and cultural connections of the civilizations that ruled here with other regions because the settlement controlled the passage from the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea.

We saw several large vessels called "amforia" in Turkish, used for food, wine, and olive oil storage.

As we walked through, we could see the different levels of the buildings. Some were constructed with stones only, others with mud blocks.


Some of the altars are in the picture above and a stone path below.

This was an amphitheater below.

Due to its mythological, historical, and archaeological importance, Troy was declared a Historic National Park, along with its surroundings in 1996. In 1998 the site was included in the World Cultural Heritage List.


After visiting Troy, we continued on to our hotel. We had a nice view from our room out to the sea. Tobey and I took a walk along the boardwalk before dinner, then called it a night after a long day with a lot of "seat time" on the bus.

Tomorrow we are off again at 8:00am, so goodnight!