The Ballot - Greeks, Turks, Last Post and those Marbles

[amaroo]

It is a FF site



..........

 

[amaroo]

Big day today. Tour of Troy in the morning, then we start the journey through the security checkpoints to Anzac Cove and the Dawn service.

Troy http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/849









Troy was very interesting however, it was so overrun with tourists - we were happy to leave.

 

[amaroo]

On the way back to Eceabat we saw Flying mermaid cruise ship.



Back at the hotel waiting for our turn to leave - we had our own personal sniper! Friendly guy. Happy to pose for photos and have a chat.







After passing the first checkpoint this was the main drop off area ... 3k walk to the next checkpoint.

The first of many queues!

 

[OATEK]

Back at the hotel waiting for our turn to leave - we had our own personal sniper! Friendly guy. Happy to pose for photos and have a chat.

That reminds me of Hong Kong in the 1980s, when we had an armed guard on each floor who sat near the Lift/Stairs. But you have taken it up a notch!

Glad your sniper wasn't needed in the end!

 

[amaroo]

We left the hotel at 4pm, arrived at the drop off at 5pm, started the 3k walk at 6pm.

Nice view at the drop off area



The entrance to the service site (IIRC checkpoint 4)



We arrived and found seats around 7pm







The stands were quite full when we arrived - the last group arrived around 3am

 

[amaroo]

It was a long night!

They did a great job with the entertainment - live bands/music/choirs and interesting documentaries.



A familiar face

 

[amaroo]

Dawn!









The service was beautiful - a very special privilege to attend!

 

[amaroo]

After the service we were held in the stand for around 1.5 hours ... We then slowly made our way up to Lone Pine. The walk was around 3k.

 

[QF WP]

It was a long night!

A familiar face

View attachment 47744

They were a bit unkind calling him that

 

[amaroo]

They were a bit unkind calling him that

hahaha never saw that - good one.

 

[amaroo]

After another security checkpoint we entered Lone Pine ... the kiwis had another couple of k's to walk before reaching Chunuk Blair (their Lone Pine).









The service was very moving and brought to an end the Australian ceremonies. Although the digniaries still had the Turk and Kiwi services to attend.

The arrangements for leaving Lone Pine was poorly handled and took a shine off the excellent management that went into staging the 100th.

We were lucky to be on a bus relatively early (4 hours after service ended) however, we still had to pick up the kiwis in our group, head back to Eceabat to collect luggage and then bus it back to Istanbul (a 5 hour drive)

The queue of buses on approach .... taken as we were leaving around 4pm.

 

[amaroo]

Apart from the long bus ride back to Istanbul our Gallipoli tour has come to an end. Walking/driving/cruising around this battlefield - you get a real feel of the waste and utter brutality of war!

The Turks did an excellent job defending their homeland!

 

[RooFlyer]

Have finally caught up after being out of internet range for a while. Very envious.

 

[amaroo]

Around 1am Sunday we pulled up at Sultanahmet Istanbul - three bus loads of tired zombies disgorged on to the pavement. Unbelievably, RSL tours were totally unprepared for the logistics of transferring 150? passengers from a large bus > small bus > hotel.

After 20 min of inaction, we'd had enough and hailed a taxi ... call to the hotel, hand phone over to driver and we were set. Directions/location confirmed, we left the chaos behind us.

At last - once again we were independent travellers!

Park Hyatt Istanbul -Park Suite King

 

[amaroo]

Steam shower After 40 odd hours of queues, cold, buses, waiting, more queues, sitting, walking - a steam shower was a gift from the Hyatt Gods! Yes, at 2am I had a bloody beautiful, relaxing, therapeutic steam shower. Bliss!

 

[amaroo]

Just love FASA!

This trip has earned the 4~, 1060SC and 83,727 QFFP each + only 80SC shy of another 8,000SC bonus. Our June JASA BNE-SYD-SIN-BNE will secure the bonus points and WP until Mar 17 :mrgreen:



[TABLE="class: basic, width: 760"]
[TR="class: underline1"]
[TD]05 MAY 15[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]POINTS ADJUSTMENT
QF 002 FIRST LONDON/SYDNEY[/TD]
[TD="class: figures"]-[/TD]
[TD="class: figures"]34,100[/TD]
[TD="class: figures statusCredits"]420

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: underline1 alt, bgcolor: #F9F9F9"]
[TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]04 MAY 15[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]CONGRATULATIONS! LOYALTY BONUS[/TD]
[TD="class: noFigures, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]-[/TD]
[TD="class: figures, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]8,000[/TD]
[TD="class: figures statusCredits, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: underline1"]
[TD]04 MAY 15[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]POINTS ADJUSTMENT
QF 508 BUSINESS SYDNEY/BRISBANE[/TD]
[TD="class: figures"]-[/TD]
[TD="class: figures"]1,850[/TD]
[TD="class: figures statusCredits"]40

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: underline1 alt, bgcolor: #F9F9F9"]
[TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]02 MAY 15[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF, align: left"]QF 002 FIRST LONDON/SYDNEY (ANY SEAT AWARD FLIGHT) BOOKING REF[/TD]
[TD="class: figures, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]-[/TD]
[TD="class: figures, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]0[/TD]
[TD="class: figures statusCredits, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]0

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: underline1"]
[TD]01 MAY 15[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]QF 508 BUSINESS SYDNEY/BRISBANE (ANY SEAT AWARD FLIGHT) BOOKING REF[/TD]
[TD="class: figures"]-[/TD]
[TD="class: figures"]0[/TD]
[TD="class: figures statusCredits"]0

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: underline1 alt, bgcolor: #F9F9F9"]
[TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]27 APR 15[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF, align: left"]BA 679 BUSINESS ISTANBUL/LONDON
391[/TD]
[TD="class: figures, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]1,561[/TD]
[TD="class: figures, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]1,952[/TD]
[TD="class: figures statusCredits, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]80[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: underline1"]
[TD]21 APR 15[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]POINTS ADJUSTMENT
QF 001 FIRST SYDNEY/LONDON[/TD]
[TD="class: figures"]-[/TD]
[TD="class: figures"]34,100[/TD]
[TD="class: figures statusCredits"]420

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: underline1 alt, bgcolor: #F9F9F9"]
[TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"][/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"][/TD]
[TD="class: noFigures, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"][/TD]
[TD="class: figures, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"][/TD]
[TD="class: figures statusCredits, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: underline1 alt, bgcolor: #F9F9F9"]
[TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]16 APR 15[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF, align: left"]BA 632 BUSINESS LONDON/ATHENS
375[/TD]
[TD="class: figures, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]1,500[/TD]
[TD="class: figures, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]1,875[/TD]
[TD="class: figures statusCredits, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]60[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: underline1"]
[TD]16 APR 15[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]QF 001 FIRST SYDNEY/LONDON (ANY SEAT AWARD FLIGHT) BOOKING REF[/TD]
[TD="class: figures"]-[/TD]
[TD="class: figures"]0[/TD]
[TD="class: figures statusCredits"]0

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: underline1 alt, bgcolor: #F9F9F9"]
[TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"][/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"][/TD]
[TD="class: noFigures, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"][/TD]
[TD="class: figures, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"][/TD]
[TD="class: figures statusCredits, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: underline1"]
[TD]16 APR 15[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]POINTS ADJUSTMENT
QF 513 BUSINESS BRISBANE/SYDNEY[/TD]
[TD="class: figures"]-[/TD]
[TD="class: figures"]1,850[/TD]
[TD="class: figures statusCredits"]40

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: underline1 alt, bgcolor: #F9F9F9"]
[TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]14 APR 15[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF, align: left"]QF 513 BUSINESS BRISBANE/SYDNEY (ANY SEAT AWARD FLIGHT) BOOKING REF[/TD]
[TD="class: figures, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]-[/TD]
[TD="class: figures, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]0[/TD]
[TD="class: figures statusCredits, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]0

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

[QF WP]

Yes, you must be heartbroken with those SC adjustments amaroo . However will you go on . Looking forward to the London stay and QF2 trip details as well...

 

[amaroo]

Yes, you must be heartbroken with those SC adjustments amaroo . However will you go on . Looking forward to the London stay and QF2 trip details as well...

Pity about the devaluation for the BA flights. With this FASA + the upcoming SIN JASA we'll both be 30 SC short of the 1,400 mark .... suppose I'll have to pull the wallet out and top it up

 

[amaroo]

Delicious PH breakfast - perfect after 4 days of less than desirable tour food.



Before long it was time to checkout and head for the airport.

IST was in a state of absolute shambles! The TK incident the day before was still being felt - this resulted in a new traffic record for IST Istanbul Atatürk Airport breaks its own traffic record

Istanbul’s main international airport, Atatürk Airport broke its own traffic record on Sunday, April 26 2015 when a total of 1,338 planes took off and landed. A day earlier on April 25, one of the airport’s runways was closed due to an emergency landing of a Turkish Airlines plane bound for Milan.

A Turkish Airlines plane returning from Milan made an emergency landing in Istanbul on Saturday after one of its engines caught fire. All passengers and members of the crew were immediately evacuated after the Airbus 320 landed. Due to the runway closure, the number of landings and take-offs was 1,097. The next day, however, the airport broke its October 4, 2014, traffic record of 1,326 landings and take-offs.

It was a major effort just to enter the terminal let alone checkin, C&E and security. We were going to guest Gogo65 into the lounge however, time evaporated along with any lounge visit. As soon as we arrived airside, our flight commenced boarding.

BA679 CE (J) IST-LHR

 

[amaroo]

Busy travel day!

6 behind



12 in front