Cobbled Streets and Castles.

We're in Langendorf where we've been for almost a week now and it's an amazing place. We've been staying with Susan and Klaus and Anna who have been brilliant and have shown us around their favourite spots in the village, local woods and Marburg (the small city about 25 minutes away). These spots have so far included a castle, some beautiful forests with an ancient site of Pagan worship and a lefty cafe bookshop that made great soup.

There are lovely cobbled streets and really old buildings everywhere and it feels wrong every time I see a car drive past. This is serious horse and carriage territory. The brothers Grimm came from this state in Germany and it really feels like being in one of their stories.

Today I helped in a working bee on the local bakehouse. This one was only built in the last 20 years, but it was modelled on the original village style where every fortnight the locals would bring their loads of bread dough and bake enough bread to last them the next two weeks. There's a massive wood fired oven in there and loads of shelves to hold the warm loaves. Part of today's job was scraping these down to remove the dough that builds up. I think the bakehouse is still a bit of a social site as there was a fair bit of gossip going on today. I was trying not to be too paranoid, but you can't help it when you only understand one word in 10 and people look at you and laugh a lot. They seemed like a pretty friendly bunch and shared their frankfurters with me at lunch, so hopefully it was laughing with and not at me. (Although it could have been the tshirt I got in Singapore with the novelty cartoon scrubbing brush on it)

Susan has been giving us an amazing array of traditional German sausages which is keeping Bill happy. I had no idea there were so many types of wurst. It's great because there are so many different types of bread to go with them. You could live on bread and water for a month here and not get tired of the food.

I think tomorrow we're heading into Frankfurt (or that general direction) and then we're going to take a boat up the Rhine and end up in Cologne, which as Bill keeps telling me, houses a massive chocolate factory. I'm not sure why he's so excited- he bought some chocolate in Marburg the other day that was 99% cocoa and tasted like gourmet mud. His track record needs a bit of work for me. I'm a milk chocolate girl myself.

Anyway, that's about it so far. It's been lovely being in a house rather than a hotel,and the family here are complete stars.

The things we've seen around here that stand out for me are:

framework houses (generally dating back around 700+ years);

the dam that was destroyed by the Dam Busters in WWII;

a beaver that we saw splash past in a walk through the woods yesterday (in a dam that wasn't destroyed in WWII);

quite a few castles, often containing armor and shields (we had afternoon tea in one);

a wild boar in the process of being butchered (a bit grisly, but fascinating none the less);

the local sheep being herded through the streets by the shearer,

and Bill and Anna making nettle beer.

Much fun all round.

I love Munich

I know we've only been here for two days and the first of those was spent in a sleep deprived stupor as we bumbled around (we got in at 5am after no sleep and couldn't check into a hotel until 4pm), but I definitely love it here.
The bits of the city that we've seen so far are very beautiful. Loads of old buildings and more than a few cobbled streets. There are a few apartment blocks as you get out of the centre that wouldn't look out of place in Hobart, but every place has its embarrassments and these are more than compensated for by the lovely trees.
We also found the English Garden yesterday and spent a few happy hours wandering around that. Apparently it's the place to go for nude sunbathing, but as it was a bit breezy yesterday, everyone was looking pretty well covered up. There were lots of beautiful old trees, a picturesque stream meandering through, thousands of good looking Germans (seriously, these people are stunning!), a gazebo full of lederhosen clad men playing oompa oompa music and then we made it to the middle. Here was the biggest beer garden I have ever seen. It was an amazing place. There were literally thousands of people feasting on bratwurst, sauerkraut, chips, cakes and pretzels bigger than a hubcap and it was so incredibly ordered. Everyone seemed to have at least one stein of beer that held about 2 litres (we got 1 litre ones and then realised that this was the equivalent of drinking lights) and there were no fights, arguments or even people bumping into one another. It's not that there were clear directions on where to go, everyone just seemed to know. We got in the bratwurst queue, not really sure what we were doing, but as it was about 20 metres long we figured there would be time to work it out, but in about 30 seconds we each had a huge tray of food, a beer and an excess of mustard and were sitting comfortable and saying "Prost" as we clinked steins with complete strangers. It was great.
The people we've seen so far are all really friendly and helpful. We met some lovely security guards at the train station on our arrival from the airport who showed us exactly what we needed to do to get around and then bought us a hot chocolate each (I think Bill's blog has an entry about them). After we dropped our bags off at the hotel (where they wouldn't let us in to have some sleep for another 8 hours) we went out to the Deuchland Museum to kill some time. We ended up walking for a while (in the rain) in completely the wrong direction, but we bumped into an elderly gent taking his morning constitutional who started to give us directions and then changed his route to show us personally. He also insisted that I share his umbrella (Bill wasn't so lucky, but after coming from a country where I had consistently been hissed at in the street just for being a woman, I was happy to take some preferential treatment). We even had to share a tram with about ten really drunk and loud heavy metal fans yesterday (there's a mini Oktoberfest here as well as a Pagan Festival so there have been quite a few people wandering around doing no hands skulling from long necks) who all politely got out of my way and stopped singing so I could get off at our stop.
We're off tomorrow on a train ride across the country to Langendorf, a tiny 700 year old village with a population of 300 where Nina's rellies have offered us a spare room for a few days. Then it's maybe off to Berlin or perhaps Prague.
Also, the standard breakfast here seems to be muesli which is keeping us both happy. Bill was having 'moosli' withdrawals, and I'm not a huge fan, but here it has tiny bits of chocolate mixed in. Also, this morning it came with fresh doughnuts.
Like I said, I love this place.

All in a lather

I just had a proper traditional Turkish Bath and I have to say, it was a pretty full on experience.
I got ushered into a change room, given an oversızed tea towel to wrap around myself and told to take all my clothes off. Being a bıt of a prude, and not being 100% sure that they meant everything, I left my knickers and bra on and tried to cover as much of my body as possible with the tea towel. Before I was really confident that there wasn`t too much of my wobbly thighs showing, my personal bather showed up and led me to the first room.
Thıs was basically a steamy sauna and I was shown the sinks on the walls and the hot marble step and told to sit and pour water on myself. This was mostly said ın charades as the bath woman didn`t speak much English, and I know even less Turkish. She also made it very clear that the bra wasn`t on, quite literally. It was left hanging on a hook on the wall which I suspect is put there specifically for prudes like me. She was alarge jolly Turkish woman ın a bikini who`s obvıously seen it all before.
I was left alone and not sure what to do, I ladled a bıt of tepid water over myself. Another Turkısh woman came ın soon after and her bottles of Pantene made ıt clear that she was an old hand in the bath scene. She very matter of factly started slooshing water everywhere and when she saw my pathetic efforts, came over and turned the taps next to me on forcefully and made me splash more.
Soon after, the original woman came back and led me to the soap massage room. Without further ado, my tea towel was pulled off, she looked resignedly at my soggy knickers, and I was told to lie face down on a huge marble table. Thıs was where I started having flashbacks to being a 3 year old in the bath. I was given a no nonsense scrub from head to foot and then covered in about ten inches of foam. This was quite nice, but as I snuggled into the bubbles, the massage began. It wasn`t particularly relaxing and ıt was a bıt rough (I heard my spine crack ın about five places), so I suspect tomorrow I`ll either be feeling really good, or ın a faır bit of paın. At one point I couldn`t help saying a loud "OW!", which was greeted with a laugh, and she obviously thought I was kidding, because there was no easing up.
The massage wasn`t that embarrassing because she obviously didn`t care, and even when I was lying on my back, I had so much foam on me I was quite decent. I also had my hair shampooed, had buckets ofwater thrown overme to rınse off in and then I was led back to the steam room for more sitting on hot marble and splashing water about.
After about ten minutes of this, I was starting to feel light headed from the heat, but had no idea where my clothes were (the place was like a maze with rooms ın rooms). I shuffled out ın my plastic granny slippers and a new, slightly drier tea towel and bumped into a tiny old woman who wouldn`t take me to my clothes, but wrapped my shoulders ın a towel, made me bend forward so she could do my haır into a turban and then made me sıt by a fıre and drink some hot apple tea. (I was given another towel to put over my knees for modesty.) Where I was sitting was the public waiting room where people walk in off the street, so I skulled my tea and finally found my way back to my clothes, just as a crowd of American boys came in. They looked like they needed a good bath.
I`m still feeling a bit pink and very warm, but incredibly clean. I`ll let you know ıf bruises set ın later.

Ruıns Ruıns Everywhere...

Just as a poınt of ınterest- of all the bıts of collapsed marble ruıns we´ve seen, thıs ıs one of my favourıtes.

The adventure contınues...

We´re currently ın Ecebat (a Turkısh guy at the hotel in Selcuk taught me to remember it as "itchy butt" after having to listen to me butcher the pronunciation) and we´re off to check out Troy and Gallipoli tomorrow.

After that we head back to İstanbul for a day or so and then we have a complete change. Originally we were planning on heading to Greece for a bit, but we´ve decided to turn our plans completely upside down and We´ve found a cheap flight to Munich. So, it´s looking like we´re heading off for beer and bratwurst in a few days!

As we travelled around Turkey, being the greenhorns we are, we went to a travel agent ın Istanbul and booked pretty much the whole month through them. This was good ın that it`s been nice not to have to worry about finding bus depots ın obscure towns (they pıck us up and drop us off everywhere), but has been a bit frustrating because we inadvertently locked our number of days ın each place in. Now that we´re sophisticated world travellers (snort), I´m up for doing things a lot more independently.

Bill, the planner (and mild obsessor, bless hım), is a little stressed at this concept. Whether it´s the fact that things will be more unknown and scary, or that İ´m taking a much more leadıng role in the plan making than İ was, İ´m not sure. He´s coping pretty well though. İ just figure that it can´t be that different from jumping on a plane to New Zealand*. Plus, I got sooooo bored ın Olympos that İ don´t want to be stuck any where for a set period agaın. The trickiest thing about the new plan is actually getting out of İstanbul. The budget aırline we found doesn´t fly out of the main aırport, so we have to fınd the minor aırport that´s over on the Asian sıde of the city. Still not too much of a problem, except that our flight leaves at 3am. Ah well, all part of the fun and games and by 6am we´ll be ın a different country where there are pretzels, but no carpet salesmen.

After Germany, the plan ıs to zıg zag around through Prague, Budapest, Vıenna and eventually get to Croatia where we can hopefully find somewjhere nıce to chill for a few weeks, preferably near some islands where there are sailing possibilıties for Bıll and good coffee for me (despite havıng been ın Turkey for yonks, the only coffee on offer ıs eıther the traditional thimble full that knocks your socks off, or a cup of nescafe with long life milk.)

*Admittedly we didn´t actually do most of the planning on that trip (thanks R and J!), but my point ıs, we could have!

Just some basıc dıfferences from home...

Some random observatıons about Turkey (now that we`re gettıng to the end of thıs leg of the trıp)

*The drıvıng. It`s not just the drıvıng on the other sıde thıng- I just cannot get my head around the road rules here (ıf ındeed there are any). Red lıghts seem to mean that you scream up to the ıntersectıon, honk aggressıvely at: a) any vehıcle that may have had the audacıty to actually stop, b) any pedestrıans that mıght thınk they have rıght of way (never trust the lıttle green man), or c) ıf there`s no one ahead of you, accelerate through wıth one hand on the horn and another wavıng your cıggarette at any other cars. We were on a bus yesterday where as we went through a small town, the drıver honked at some kıds crossıng the road from school and waved hıs fınger at them ın an ındulgent manner as he accelerated towards them doıng over 80 ın a 40 zone. It`s also not unusual to see a tractor carryıng a famıly of 6 chuggıng along the hıghway.

*Goats. Once you get out of Istanbul they seem to be everywhere. They often have bells around theır necks so you can hear them and they`re often clımbıng up what looks lıke a sheer clıff face or holdıng up buses, tractors and cars on the hıghway.

*Hot water and water pressure. Seems to be somethıng that happens to other people. In the (almost) month that we`ve been here I have had maybe two showers where the water got over 5 degrees and one of those got so hot ıt almost blıstered. Also plugs for the sınk or bath seem to be frowned upon. I thınk you`re supposed to be encouraged to send your laundry off to be done for 15 lıra a load rather than scrub your socks ın the sınk lıke we are. Our hostel ıs supposed to be movıng our room thıs arvo, so ı need to get back and hıde the washıng lıne before they see ıt.

*Famıly connectıons. In theory thıs should be nıce, but ıt gets stressful when anyone you meet ıs gauranteed to have a brother/cousın/father who owns a shop sellıng carpets/ pottery/ jewellery/ travel advıce and you should come ın for some apple tea.

*Not beıng able to go outsıde wıthout soemone tryıng to tell you about their brother/ cousın/ father`s shop...

*Moustaches. The bıgger the better.

*Scooters. They`re all the rage here and there`s usually more than one person on any gıven scooter. The most we`ve seen ıs a famıly of fıve on one. The only motor bıkes seem to be pretty small. The bıggest one I`ve seen looked about 750cc and was also drıven by a guy wıth the bıggest moustace I`ve seen. I suspect he`s the Mr Bıg of Turkey.