Their Name Liveth...

I was very sad to read in this morning's paper that under the new regime in Turkey, these words, attributed to Ataturk, have been "roughly chiselled off" the memorial to New Zealand and Australian soldiers at Anzac Cove, at Gallipoli.

The words read:
'Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives ... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours ... You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.'

It doesn't matter whether Mustafa Kemal Ataturk actually said the words or not; what matters is that the Memorial paid official tribute to, and showed genuine appreciation of, the roughly 11,500 soldiers from our two countries who died there in that terrible campaign in 1915.

I was lucky enough to be there in April 2015, a few days before the annual Anzac Day Commemoration ceremonies. Every year, thousands of New Zealanders visit the area, and pay tribute to our fallen heroes, those young men who never returned home. I found it an incredibly moving experience to be in that peaceful, beautiful place.

Lest we forget

Step by Step: Away

I got the idea for this post from that wonderful photographer, Steve McCurry. 

Of course, his work far outclasses any of my holiday shots, but I looked through and found a number of walking photos that I wanted to post. So many that I've divided them into this post - the overseas ones - and the New Zealand ones, which I shall save for another time.

"Walking . . . is how the body measures itself against the earth."

~ Rebecca Solnit

Santa Margharita, Italy

Taormina, Sicily

"Architecture limits where one can walk,
but the walker invents other ways to go."
~ Rebecca Solnit

Syracuse, Sicily

Parma, Italy

"All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking."

  ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Parma

Parma

"Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction"

 ~ Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Capri

"The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms."

~ Thích Nhất Hạnh

Cinque Terre, Italy

"Anywhere is walking distance, if you've got the time."

~ Stephen Wright

Ankara

Bolivia

"There is nothing like walking to get the feel of a country.
A fine landscape is like a piece of music;
it must be taken at the right tempo."
  ~ Paul Scott Mowrer

Athens

"Step with care and great tact, and remember that Life's a Great Balancing Act."

~ Dr. Seuss

Barcelona

A Stranger...

Some stranger photos for Carmi's Thematic Photographic 261 

(hastily, in the middle of marking exams...)

It's me (It is I) who is the stranger in their midst, now I come to think of it :)

 

Carpet salesman, Bursa, Turkey

A family fishing while waiting for the Inter-Island ferry, Wellington

 

More fishing - Tauranga harbour

Children on the lakeshore, Wanaka

Lake Wanaka, with ducks and pier

Travel, travel

Over at Carmi's blog, Written.Inc, people are posting fantastic travel pics for this week's Thematic Photographic theme.

Travelling is one of my very favourite things, so I found this topic rather daunting. I have so many photos - where should I go with this? 

I spend my working days with teenagers, and so eventually I decided to go with travel shots in which I've taken children and teenagers. Some I've posted before, some I haven't...

In 2005 I was lucky enough to take a group of students  to Shanghai. 

The Chinese exchange group came to New Zealand for 2 weeks, 

then about a month later we went there for 2 weeks. 

School was very different -

But McD's tastes the same wherever you go:

By the time we left to come home, the kids and their billets had become  good friends, 

and there were some very tearful farewell huddles:

In 2010 I was in Greece.

I was delighted by this beautiful bronze boy in 

the National Archaeological Museum in Athens

My favourite kid shots from my trip to Turkey are this one in Istanbul  

of a little boy celebrating his circumcision day:

and this group of children at the Mausoleum of Ataturk, in Ankara:

Italy, 2011. This is the Fontana del Panthon, in Rome

and I love the expressions in this school group photo in the Naples Museum

A little girl on Capri

and a less fortunate child, in a shed of other relics, at Pompeii

One of my all-time top 10 kid photos - two cherubs, in St Peter's Basilica in Rome

 

Lastly, two more school groups, one waiting to enter the Duomo, in Milan:

and the other in Vernazza on the Cinque Terre:

Hope you enjoyed some of my kids-around-the-world photos. 

Bon voyage!

Thematic Photographic 214: Grounded

Thematic's theme this week is "Grounded". When Carmi's brief said the photos had to include some ground, my thoughts went straight to the region of Cappadocia, in central Turkey.
Here, people still actually live in houses in the ground and hills, as they have for centuries.

I was lucky enough to go there in 2010, and have always meant to do a post about it.
It is one of the most interesting and spectacular places I have ever been to.

Houses, churches "shops" are all built into the ground, mostly on hillsides but also in valleys:

This was the entrance to a public toilet:

It is a very popular tourist attraction, but it isn't spoilt;
the feeling is one of fascinating strangeness,
and there weren't many people around when we were there:

I would love to go back, and do the balloon trip I (stupidly) didn't

 go on when I had the chance...

Visit written.inc for more grounded posts

Rear views

Late as usual...

Here are my "taken from behind" pics for TP 209:

Changing the guard at Ataturk's Mausoleum.

Ankara, Turkey.

 Kids messing about at the harbour. Tauranga, New Zealand.

 A boy and his dog:

A favourite photo of my grandaughter, aged about 18 months:

 

My son walks ahead of me down an alley in Barcelona: