Cannakale Sept 23

To Galipoli September 24

Cannakale was a lovely seaport town and we enjoyed our evening there. After our dinner at the very nice hotel we all went for a walk along the seaside promenade and then up a market street. I needed a toothbrush so we wandered around for a while and found one.

I walked into a store that looked somewhat like a small drugstore and quickly found the area where two kinds of toothbrushes were sold. Immediately a small boy (perhaps 10 yrs.) was at my side, ready to help me. I told him in English that I would like to buy 'this' toothbrush and what is the price. He whipped back to the counter (where his dad was busy with 3 other customers) and picked up a calculator and pressed 4 for 4 turkish lira. I said okay and gave him 5 lira. He went to the counter with the toothbrush and put it in a bag and brought it back to me now saying that the toothbrush was 5 lira. I cajoled with him saying I think it is only 4 and he showed me 5 fingers and I showed him 4. He finally conceded and gave me my change. It was such a totally Turkish salesman thing to do and he was so cute about it. A minute later he was back and trying to talk me into buying toothpaste.

Lots of people were out enjoying the evening air and sitting at sidewalk cafes sipping on drinks. It was a very comfortable feeling to be around there.

At 8:30 a.m., after a lovely breakfast in perhaps our nicest hotel, we are once more in the bus and 5 minutes later at the ferry dock where we cross the bay and will again be on the European side of Turkey.