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Published: June 20th 2009
As we climbed the mountains into the Black Forest we were stunned by its beauty and clearly so was Jonesy as he overheated and stopped midway up the mountain to take in the views himself - hahah! Great start hey!? Even better was that something was leaking from Jonesy.....so on the roadside Vince got down and dirty under the car. Vince taste tested the suspicious fluid and came to the conclusion that the sweet nectar was most likely water mixed with anti freeze in the oil. So after tirelessly working on pulling the rock shield away from the base of the engine, Vince was filthy hot and frustrated due to a single stubborn nut and bolt not coming undone. Before too long the mystic powers of fate brought a kind German cyclist to Jonesy’s door step...for him only to reveal that he too has a Mr Jones sitting in his drive way at home - what are the chances? He spoke fantastic English (hardly any Germans do!!) and in an instant confirmed Vince’s suspicions that this model of Kombi’s historically overheat (damn German watercooled technology). Turns out that the water tank was leaking from built up heat pressure. So what is
the solution to this problem i hear you ask? Answer - sweat our butts off. Essentially Jonesy was telling us that if he has to be hot, so do we. Basically off we drove heaters blasting full bull to divert heat away from the engine - only to witness the temperature gauge drop substantially. The moral of the story Jonesy doesn’t DO hills!
After cooling Jonesy down, and heating us up, we drove remarkably peacefully through the Black Forest. First stop was Shiltach for a quick lunch break at 3pm! Shiltach is a quaint fairy tale little town, with beautiful houses, running streams, pretty shops and ducks (what is a cute town without ducks!). After the stressful hill climbing earlier that day we chilled out at Shiltach for a while. From Shiltach we drove to Triberg - only to accidentally drive past the worlds biggest cuckoo clock. Lucky we saw the swarm of tourists so we could stop to see it. You wouldn’t think you could miss the worlds biggest cuckoo clock - but at first glance it really does just look like a house! It was definitely worth the wait and i was well impressed with the wood
cutting man, beer drinking man, dancing maids and lots of other little wooden critters jumping around the clock.
We stopped off for a night in Triberg so we could get up early and do the hiking trail nearby to Germany’s highest waterfall.....hmmm obviously Germany doesn’t have many waterfalls cause it was only about 150 metres over several sections, so any one point was at the highest 15 metres. Oh well it was a very fresh nice morning walk and going so early we managed to sneak in without paying - woo hoo! From Triberg we made our way to Tittisee, stopping off at the other “worlds biggest cuckoo clock”. And yeah if you’re thinking what we did, how can there be 2 worlds biggest, surely there is only one! Anyway this one cost money to get in to the backyard to see it!! How ludicrous is that, just to see a clock! Vince and I had none of that, so off we walked to the road just across from their backyard to have a peek. So come 11.30 everyone was holding their breath waiting for the magical cuckoo clock to sing dance and put on a little show (as
cuckoo clocks do). Well it was absolutely hilarious, this massive cuckoo clock poked out a tiny little bird that went “cuck - oo”, it was the saddest sounding clock I had ever heard! Then the little sick bird went back in the doorway and that was it! Everyone in the yard was so disappointed, they were all looking around at each other as if to say “is that it.... WTF”? Meanwhile up on the road Vince and I couldn’t stop laughing, it was a crack up. And best of all, they all paid to see it and we didn’t - hilarious!
We then drove to Tittisee to stop at a campground for some much needed rest and rejuvenation. Did the usuals, washing, charging cameras etc, had a ride around Tittisee and then headed to Frieberg before our flight to Istanbul. Once again it was another nice little German town that we explored drank beer (again) and most importantly in our last stop of the Black Forrest, we had Black Forrest Cherry Cake...FINALLY!
We arrived in Istanbul at around 3am - nice and tired! And after waiting in our transfer shuttle for one person whose flight was delayed for
suz with her clock
at last Suz has got to see her damn clock.... he he, all i heard in the car for 1 week was "when are we gonna see the massice cockoo clock?" he healmost an hour, we finally made it to our windowless dungeon room in the hostel at about 5.30am. We only managed to sleep until about 10.30am as Vince was itching to get out and see the sights. The first stop was the Grand Bazaar. It definitely was a lot cleaner than we expected and no where near as much hassling as expected either. After wandering around for about an hour we came across a “lovely” man selling shisha and tea. We chatted to this “lovely” Turkish man for about 10mins and Vince was keen on making a few purchases, so the “lovely” man asked us to sit down and have apple tea with him. After chatting about his work, products, family etc he was trying really hard to sell us everything he had!! By this time about half an hour had passed....Vince got up walked over to one of the boxes and tried to read it and couldn’t! His vision was blurry, his legs were weak and his heart was racing. I was still sitting down when Vince yelled at me and grabbed me and started running. “Suz we’ve been drugged run!” As soon as i stood up i could
feel it too, it was really scary. Being stuck in the rabbit warren that is the bazaar was quite frightening too. Lucky for us we got out easily enough and onto the main street. After scoffing a kebab and loads of water we got back to the hostel still feeling the effects of the “tea”. Very sadly apparently this is a common occurrence in Istanbul these days. The hostel owners had a big sign up about it telling tourists to beware. Bascially there are people called “Casanova boys” who meet you in the street, bars, pubs...anywhere really and drug your drinks. They do this so they can either a) make you feel really good and therefore persuade you to spend money or b) take you to a bar where they make you pay the bill and in a drugged state you have no choice or c) worst case they drug your drink where you pass out for 2-3 days and they take all your belongings. So........first start to Istanbul for us wasn’t the greatest. Lucky enough it only lasted a few hours and by 5pm we were feeling ok.
Day 2 we were determined to have a good time
and keep our wits about us - no more drinks from anyone and only closed drinks from shops (e.g. cans of coke!). We started off at the Blue Mosque which is beautiful outside and in. Definately recommend going in. From there we went to the Basillica Cistern, which is an underground area filled with ancient columns built hundreds and hundreds of years ago. It is filled with water that was brought from neighbouring towns which was used regularly in the summer and also during times of siege for the city. I would recommend seeing the cistern it is really amazing and has a lovely atmosphere about it.
After wandering the shops and little street markets we headed back to our hostel for lunch. The Orient Hostel is great, and if you are looking for a fun, great vibe place to stay i would suggest the Orient. The staff were genuinely lovely and I got to use my Turkish that i had been learning for the last year on people that appreciated it! We cooled off with an ice cold beer and lunch and then headed out to do the bus tour of Istanbul. It is a great way to
see the city and the guided tour is defiantly the best way to go. Istanbul really is HUGE, from start to finish around the city took about 2 hours. So by late afternoon we were back to the hostel for bbq buffet night, belly dancing show, free shots and waterpipe. The hostel was packed and it was a great evening. Surprise surprise the belly dancer picked Vince as one of her little dancers to take on stage with her. He did fantastic though - he really knows how to shake that beer belly hahah just kidding - but seriously i think he might have found his new calling! As you can imagine the night got messy with lots of beer, shots and waterpipe. We meet 2 other Aussies (Angus and Anna) and had a fab night with them. Ended up wandering the streets with them at about 3am, after our big night all we wanted was to find a nice kebab to soak up the alcohol. But not one single kebab shop was open - i swear at that time anywhere else in the world you could get a kebab, but in the homeland of kebabs nothing!!
Day 3
and we were off to qualifying for the F1. Waking up with little headaches and going to sit in the 32 degree heat was maybe not the best idea! The atmosphere at the track was awesome and the sound of those cars is really unbelievable. Watching them live is so much better than on TV! The speed and sound is so much better. Day 4 was race day! We soaked up some more of the vibe at the F1, set ourselves up with our litres and litres of frozen water and drinks and enjoyed a great day of racing. First highlight of the day was the driver parade (where all the drivers stand on the back of a truck to see the fans) which goes around the whole track. When they came past us Vince was flying the Aussie flag furiously. Webber looked over and did a double take upon seeing the Aussie flag then gave us a big wave! We felt like his private little fan club - pretty sure there were no other Aussie flags anywhere! Come race time, it was a little bit one sided as to who would win - Button was killing it the whole
our cuckoo clock purchase
these things arent cheap thats for sure... it is bound to drive us crazy with the cuckooing every half hour when we get home to Brissie time, but 2nd and 3rd were chopping and changing. Pleased to say Webber did awesome and managed to give us a mighty 2nd place. It was a pretty good race, but would’ve been nicer if it had’ve been a tighter competition for 1st place. Come the last parade lap (where the cars all come round in order of placings) Webber drove past the area we were and we again flew the flag furiously and this time he gave us a big air punch salute! It was AWESOME - great feeling!
Day 5 we walked along the sweltering Istanbul coast line where all the old Turkish men were sunbaking next to the water and the women were fully covered with their head scarfs etc - nuts. We followed it along until we got to the Spice Bazaar, which is pretty obviously filled with all kinds of delights including millions of spices, Turkish treats (Turkish delight, baklava etc), meats, cheeses and the list goes on! We indulged in some Turkish delight to take back to Jonesy with us - but didn’t go overboard, too much beer and Turkish delight makes Suz and Vince chubby hahah. After sweating to death through the
bazaar and the streets we took a boat cruise up the Bosphorous. It was so lovely and cool on the boat and all the sights along the Bosphorous are worth seeing (but note if you ever decided to cruise the Bosphorous only do the 1.5hour cruise, apparently the 5 hour one gets a bit boring!) Unfortunately after the cruise it was time to head back to the hostel and pack for our flight home. All in all Istanbul was great (after the shaky start it actually ended up being quite fun!). Although we did eat kebabs almost everyday and if i never see another kebab again it will be too soon! We will definatley be going to another F1 also and all you guys at home will be coming too - Melbourne anyone?
Next stop Switzerland and then onto the French Riviera!
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