DAY 22: Çanakkale 1 (Turkey)

*I took plenty of photos again today.

You can see them in the YouTube video, but please also check out the album via the link below.

On Day 22, I woke up before 5:00 AM.

This is my first day off in Çanakkale.

Today, I’m heading to the ruins of Troy. Embarrassingly, I never knew that the ruins of Troy were actually in Turkey.

I’ve always loved Heinrich Schliemann’s *Ancient Passion* (a book about his excavations), which I read back in high school—perhaps this is some kind of destiny.

Once I return home, I plan to watch the films *The Odyssey* and *Troy*.

There is something about the ruins of Troy that stirs the imagination.

A cat enjoying a feast of mackerel this morning.

In a park by the Atatürk Bridge.

Minibuses depart from beneath the Atatürk Bridge, but I arrived about an hour and a half early.

I’m used to killing time, so I decided to wander around the area.

I’m taking this bus to the ruins of Troy—it’s about a 30–40 minute ride from here.

For me, taking buses or trains in a foreign country feels like even more of an adventure than traveling on foot.

When I travel by running, everything is under my own control; but when I have to rely on others for transportation, it adds a certain thrill to the experience.

After a 40-minute bus ride and purchasing a ticket for 1,500 Lira, the first thing that greeted me was the Trojan Horse.

It seems you can even go inside. Check out the YouTube video below for more details.

Then, I followed the pathways to explore the ruins of Troy.

Ruins are, for the most part, just places filled with earth and stone—yet they are far more than *mere* earth and stone.

There is something truly profound about witnessing evidence of people who lived and breathed here some 5,000 years ago. If our descendants were to come across the remnants of our current lives 5,000 years from now, what would they possibly think?

Even though I had researched beforehand that the ruins of Troy and the museum were in different locations, I got so caught up thinking about the return bus schedule that I ended up boarding the 11:00 AM bus!

I gazed longingly at the museum from the bus window, but oh well—seeing the ruins and the Trojan Horse was enough for me!

In a way, perhaps my mission in Çanakkale was to see both Trojan Horses.

Here’s a photo of a cat I found at the ruins. It looked as if it were saying, "I’m the one guarding these ruins, meow!"

After returning to the city of Çanakkale by bus, I went to check out the other Trojan Horse, located in a park by the harbor.

This one was actually used in the 2004 Hollywood film *Troy*, starring Brad Pitt.

For some reason, I’ve always been drawn to massive monuments like this.

I did some shopping on the way back, then returned to my room for lunch—finishing off some leftovers I’d picked up as takeout yesterday.

Taking photos is all well and good, but organizing them afterward is quite a task!

I’ve been working hard on making videos every day, but my channel is still struggling to reach 1,000 subscribers.

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Distance traveled today: 0 km

Total distance traveled from Istanbul: 497.5 km

*Click here for photos taken today.

*Click here for the video playlist (please subscribe and hit "like"!).