Boo hoo, a big plane ride to come...

Wednesday 11th of July

Boo hoo. Today is the last day of our holiday. We are now beginning to brace ourselves for the big trip back to New Zealand.

We have spent the last four days having a lovely time in London. Marty’s sister Ngaire and her husband Paul have been extremely kind and generous hosts and we have had a great time seeing the sites in London-town.

On Sunday, we went for a drive to Windsor and saw the castle (along with every other tourist in London, I think). We then had a genuine pub lunch and enjoyed a stroll along the lake at Virginia Waters. We continued out London pub crawl in the evening and went to a pub quiz not far from Ngaire and Paul’s house where we managed a respectable fourth!

Monday and Tuesday were spent exploring the city and I feel like I have spent two days playing Monopoly (Oxford, Regent, Whitehall, Bond etc…)! We successful negotiated both bus (yes, red double decker) and train and so are beginning to feel like locals. The real highlight of the last two days was a trip to the Tate Modern Art Gallery. It is the sort of place where you really could spend the whole day. Marty particularly enjoyed the current Dali and Film exhibition. I tried to go to the Globe theatre but unfortunately arrived right in the middle of a show which meant that I could see neither a play nor the theatre. I guess I’ll have to come back! Sadly, we forgot to take our camera both days in London, so I don’t have any pictures to show for it all!!

The weather in London has been much more like New Zealand’s (read: colder) so we are feeling like we are in the process of reacclimatising, although we hear that it has been really quite rotten in NZ. We’re certainly not looking forward to getting the winter woollies out again.

Anyhow, in 48 hours time we will (all going well) be back in New Zealand and looking forward to catching up on all the news. Thanks to all of you who have emailed and kept in touch… it’s been nice to have some contact J See you back in NZ!!!

xxxr

Holiday time in Berlin

Friday 6th of July

Our first stop today was Legoland (can you guess who chose that?). We should have known better than to go during the school holidays but somehow the days don’t mean much to us at the moment. I suspect that if you were 10, Legoland would have been great. For us, it was noisy and a bit overpriced. The model of Berlin was outstanding but there was not really that much else to see. I think this is the kind of place you should take a small child to in order to get the real effect.

The highlight for me today was the Berlin Film Museum. There was nothing wiz-bang about the museum but it was a thorough representation of the history of German film. The audio guide (free!) was also excellent and there were plenty of places to sit and listen to the commentary. At E4.5pp, the Film museum was great value and a fabulous place to spend a couple of hours in Berlin.

New digs in Berlin

Thursday 5th of July

Job number one today: find new accommodation. After one night in the Berolina Backpackers, we have booked ourselves into a more respectable looking place around the corner. It’s in the same area but at least we will have our own bathroom. The lesson from Berlin is that more, is indeed, more. We are only paying E5 a night more, but there is a world of difference between where we were and where we are. I can officially recommended Artim Hotel, Charlottenburg, Berlin.

I am feeling less smug about the weather today. It is RAINING in Berlin. This is the first time we have had rain (indeed, the first time we have been in temperature below about 28 degrees) since we arrived. I’d go as far as to say that summer in Berlin is more like summer in Wellington. This morning we did lots of walking and eventually ended up at the Berlin Aquarium- which made Marty very happy. We have also invested in a City Tour card, which we highly recommend. It costs E15 but allows you to travel on all transport around Berlin for a 48 hour period. It also gives you discounts on entry into some of the sites around the city. We have been making a point of riding the train lots so that we feel like we get plenty of value out of our cards J

The coolest thing we saw yesterday was Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin. The original church was mostly destroyed during WWII and the memorial church sits right next to the remains of the original. The memorial church is almost entirely built of coloured glass blocks and has the most amazing effect:

It seems I made a mistake

Wednesday 4th of July

I don’t want to sound like I’m showing off, but today I ate sorbet, in 30 degrees, overlooking the Mediterranean. Ok, so I am showing off, but it was pretty nice J Mum and Roger took the train to Italy this morning. It was sad to have such a short period of time with them but it was great to meet up in such a fab spot! I took the plane to Berlin this afternoon and Marty and I are now reunited.

For the first time on this trip, it seems that I have made an error of judgement on the accommodation front. In honour of the Berolina Backpackers, I have started a ‘Marty and Rochelle DON’T recommend’ section on this blog. On paper (or more particularly on the internet) this looks like a reasonable place to stay. In reality, to call it utilitarian may be being too kind. Marty went as far as to call it skanky. Berolina looks like it should be part of the old East Berlin and worse, is swarming with school groups. The towels are hand towel sized and the beds have marginal mattresses and squeak. And it STINKS! Oh, and we seem to be in the…. more ‘colourful’ (mostly red) end of town. It’s not pretty.

The French Riviera

Tuesday 3rd of July

Feeling more coherent today! We spent today on the most amazing outing. Jimmy and Mairelle are friends of Mum and Roger who live near them in Brisbane. They both grew up in France and make regular trips back. Mairelle’s mother still lives in Menton, near Nice and they happened to be over at the same time as us. Soooo… they took us sightseeing. Our first stop was the village of Eze. It is about 20 minutes from Nice and was a medieval village, carved into rock overlooking the sea. The village is now a mixture of luxury chateau (starting prices E400 per night), little shops and restaurants. While we were in Eze, we stopped for coffee in one of the cafes. It may well have been the most expensive coffee I ever have at E9. I think the only possible response is oo la la!! I choose to believe that we were paying for the magnificent view and the outstanding atmosphere.

Next stop was… MONACO! My best story of the day starts “When I was at the Monte Carlo Casino…”. Actually, that’s about all there is to the story, as you have to pay to get inside the Casino, but I thought the beginning was cool J The array of cars around Monaco (and especially the casino) was astonishing. They were the kind of cars that you usually only see in James Bond films and you never see in New Zealand. It seems that the cars are quite a tourist attraction- all around the casino, people were taking pictures of them and hanging around to see the next flash car to arrive. Roger had a great time playing ‘spot that car’.

Final stop of the day was Menton. This was a particularly nice stop as it was where Meirelle grew up. She took us to several of her favourite haunts and was able to tell us about growing up on the Riviera. For dinner, Meirelle booked us into a restaurant that used to be owned by her parents. She has very fond memories of playing in the little village as a girl. It was a gorgeous dinner and a lovely ending to the day. Jimmy and Meirelle were extremely kind and really showed us a great mixture of the tourist sites and the Riviera that the locals know. Thanks guys!!

Apple Strudel and me

Monday 2nd July

I have a confession to make. Today I had apple strudel for breakfast. I just couldn’t help it… In my defense, here are the mitigating factors:
1) My plane left Istanbul at 3:35 am this morning. This meant a midnight ride to the airport and several of the wee smalls sitting around at the airport.
2) I was in transit- I still had 5 hours before arriving in Nice
3) It was there! After two weeks of Greek and Turkish breakfasts (tomato, cucumber, bread, watermelon, olives, a boiled egg and bad Nescafe) I was craving a bit of variety in my diet!
So. Overall, today was a bit of a blur. The plane between Istanbul and my stopover (Cologne) was mercifully under booked so I had a whole row to myself. Even so, it was still pretty hard to get comfy. Mum, Roger and their kind friends Mairelle and Jimmy met me at the airport and took me back to the hotel for a much needed sleep.

After a snooze, we went for a great trip on a little tourist train.. saw some of the highlights of the central part of Nice and heard a bit of the history. Nice is very pretty and it was lovely to see the Mediterranean but it’s also quite touristy and quite pricey. It’s the gateway to lots of very exclusive parts of the Mediterranean and you know you’re in good company when you see Donald Trump’s aeroplane on the tarmac.

It was great to catch up with Mum and Roger and hear about their trip. They have really enjoyed their time in both Paris and Avignon.

Hoşça kalın, Türkçe

Sunday 1 July 2007

Well, I didn’t expect to get internet access for a while, but obviously I have… we’re still in Istanbul and have had an extremely pleasant day. Ngaire and Paul have gone in search of a beach (and Paul is hoping to spot a submarine or two) and we decided to have a low key day. Our flights are at 3am tomorrow morning, so we thought that a siesta (can’t spell the Turkish name) would be in our interests.

We ended up having several really interesting conversations during our morning stroll… First, we came upon Mehmet (from a shepherding family in Mt Ararat) and a fabulous rug shop named Tugra. Mehmet speaks outstanding English, partly because one day an American couple came into the carpet shop and bought $100 000 dollars worth of carpets. In the course of the transaction, Mehmet got to know the couple who then invited him back to the USA. They took him to the US Embassy in Istanbul, got him a 10 year visa and off he went. After living with them in Seattle for a while, they told him that his English wasn’t good enough, so they sent him to an American College for nine months. Great story, eh?

After we met Mehmet (which, by the way seems to be the Turkish equivalent of John), we met Jennifer (see previous entry). I have been really interested in the state of politics in Turkey and so it was great to talk to a foreigner about her perspective. The general consensus is that the current government is here to stay, but amongst the more educated people, there is a sense of concern about the current Prime Minister becoming the President.

Finally, we spent half an hour talking to our host, Elif, here at Marmara Guest House. She seems about 22-23 and her family runs the pension. She is, I guess, a modern Turkish woman: she learnt English at school; does not wear a scarf; and seems to travel alone. Once again, I asked about the government and it was interesting to hear that Turkey is undergoing reforms very similar to New Zealand’s in the 1980s. The government has been selling off state-owned assets and land is now up for grabs to anyone. Elif was saying that quite a lot of property in Turkey is being bought up by Israelis. I guess that you can understand how that could be a concern, given Israel’s relationship with its Muslim neighbours!

All in all, a great day hanging around and learning a bit more about Turkey!

We’ve now had our last meal in Turkey and are getting packed ready to head in different directions. I’m really looking forward to my 3:45am flight and knowing that I don’t get to Nice until lunchtime tomorrow (NOT!).

Hoşça kalın, Türkçe!

When in Turkey...

As I have previously mentioned, recommending things seems to be the way in Turkey. So I have started a "Marty and Rochelle recommend" section on this blog... See the right hand side of this page

Cos we said we would...

We have just stumbled into what may be the only western-style cafe in Old City. It is run by a very friendly Canadian lady who is trying to convert the Turks from Nescafe. And as the Turkish way seems to be to recommend, we promised to put her on our widely read ( :) ) blog... Therefore, when in Istanbul, you must visit Jennifer in the Java Studio http://www.javastudioistanbul.com/ just near the Four Seasons hotel and the Blue Mosque- Cankurtaran ah, Dalbasti Sok No 13- 34122 Sultanahmet
(Oh, and they have free wireless.... )