Best of the Wurst!

We left the house for Berlin last Saturday at the ridiculously early hour of 4:30am (!) in order to make the most of our May Day long weekend. When we arrived in Berlin we were tired but excited, we found our hostel relatively easily despite bus strikes as I had stayed there before. We checked in, stored our bag in the left luggage room and made a bee line for the TV tower and Alexanderplatz. We had been blessed with an amazing day and thought what better way to kick start our time in Berlin then high above its skyline within the TV Tower. Unfortunately, the entire population of Berlin had, had the same idea and after 15 minutes of not moving in the line we felt our time would be better spent wandering down to Check point Charlie before our 3pm walking tour.

At Checkpoint Charlie we took all the standard pictures, had our first currywurst and read most of the information displayed around what had originally been the death strip before heading to Hackerscher Markt for our 4 hour walking tour. Our walking tour was amazing (despite one very annoying New Zealander who couldnt help asking mundane, pointless questions), our tour covered most of the significant sights of Berlin including the Muesum Island, Bebelplatz, Gendarmenmarkt, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitler's Bunker, The Holocast Memorial and ending at the amazing Brandenburg Tor. At the conclusion of the tour J and I rolled around the corner for a quick happy snap at Reinstag before starting our walk back to Hackerscher Markt where we had a traditional Berlin dinner; pork meatballs for bec, and another currywurst for J. We then headed back to the hostel bar where we washed down our meals with some good ol' fashioned draft German ale.

The next morning we had a bit of a sleep in (finally bec won one!!!) and headed out to the east side gallery at around 9ish. There we were treated to the 1.3km stretch of the wall decorated by artists from around the world, particularly favourites (despite the graffiti) were Test the Best and The Kiss. Afterwards we headed to the Checkpoint Charlie muesum where we learnt all about the escape attempts and J was able to satisfy his passport stamp fetish by paying a few euro for all the stamps from the time of the wall. We then continued on to the Topography of Terror Muesum before returning to the Holocast memorial for some pretty inappropriate photos. From there a quick tube ride saw us travel to the last preserved section of the death strip and visit to the DDR muesum, where J got to sit in a Trabi car and see some boobies in an exhibit without any explanation! We then ended our busy day with a few beers at Bec's beloved ampleman bar before eating the most amazing steak at a Berlin chain known as the blockhouse.

We rose early on our final day in order to make our 9am breakfast reservation at the Reinstag restaurant, only to arrive, be seated and then ignored! I blame J's jeans! Hehe. However, making the reservation did help us to skip the enormous queue of people waiting to enter, something a strongly advise you do if wishing to visit the Reinstag. Afterward, we headed down to Pariser Platz for breakfast and contemplated what we would do for the rest of the day. In the end we decided to visit Postdamer Platz via the Holocast memorial and finish with a leisurely cruise of the River Spree. We spent our last hour in the sun, drinking Berliner's at ampleman bar, what more could you want?

At checkpoint Charlie (West Berlin side)

First of the wurst.... ;)

At the Brandenburg Tor.

Being silly....

Us at the east side gallery - Test the Best is the artwork!

Inappropriate photo from the Holocast Memorial

and another.

Out the front of the Reinstag

Inside the glass dome of the Reinstag - Can you spot us?

Bec at Ampleman Bar! I tried desperately to get J to buy me one of these deck chairs, but at 40 euro and the difficult task of getting it home he won that argument!

Lest We Forget

We arrived in Istanbul late Saturday, we had a quick induction with our loopy-lou tour guide, dropped our bags and went to sniff out some local Turkish ale. After managing it across the road and to the corner we came across a pub with some friendly locals. So friendly in fact that they even took me on a spin around the local area on their motorbike, an excellent idea whilst tipsy and without travel insurance. We also spent some of the night hunting out a kebab stumbling across a hashish bar where many a parlour trick were performed and we went up in smoke like cheech and chong!

The next day we had a city tour of Istanbul, which included visits to the Blue Mosque, Hippodrome, Topkapi Palace and the Underground Cistern. We spent our free time in the afternoon wandering and shopping in the labyrinth that is the Grand Bazaar as well as drinking in another pub watching some very interesting attempts at driving. We then spent the night held hostage upon a Bosphorus Cruise where we were subjected to some pretty bad dance music most of the night. However all jokes aside it was fantastic to make some new friends whilst travelling down the strait that separates Asia and Europe!

Day 3 saw us travel 5 hours to Gallipoli where we visited all the memorable sites including Kabatepe War Museum, Anzac Cove, Chunuk Bair, Lone Pine and some of the remaining trenches. We were surprised at the small size of the commemorative site and appreciated visiting these locations without all the crowds. We then spent another 4 hours on our bus travelling to Ayvalik, our sea side resort for the next two nights. The next morning we left for Pergamum, were we discovered the Greek acropolis including the Temple of Athena, Temple of Trajan and theatre cut into the hillside. We returned to our hotel for a Turkish style BBQ, a dip in the pool complete with water slide and a cold beer from our makeshift esky. Very quickly the night turned into morning and just like the previous day we ended up in the "packed out" discotheque boogie-ing the night away.

After much pestering of our guide to be amongst the first at Gallipoli including threats of leaving without him, we departed Ayvalik bright and early. We made our way to the commemorative site stopping at Troy for a quick whirlwind visit, and while it was nice, it was as one tourist was overhead saying 'just rocks'. However all our nagging and racing to the site seemed pointless when we arrived at Gallipoli at 1:30pm only to be told they would be not opening entrance until after 3pm. But, somehow through pure luck, faith or chance we managed to sneak in and found that we were the 3rd bus to enter the site and literally had free picks of the grass. After much debate we found our home for the evening and rolled out the sleeping bags preparing for the hard 16 hours ahead. Being at the dawn service is something words and images do not capture, as cliched as it is, it really needs to be seen to believed. As the last post is played, the national anthem sung and you look up at those sharp, terrifying cliffs that 93 years earlier many sons, fathers and husbands were pointlessly forced to climb you are overcome with a wave of emotions. Many a tear was shed at this moving ceremony and the proceeding national New Zealand and Australian services at Chunuk Bair and Lone Pine, respectively. We both feel fortunate to have made the pilgrimage to Anzac Cove and it is safe to say it is something we will never forget.

I was wrapped in the Blue Mosque!

Where east meets west. J and I at Topkapi Palace lookout that views the strait connecting Europe and Asia.

Us at the Beach Cemetry Memorial

At Lone Pine.

In the trenches at Chunuk Bair.

J and I's tags for entrance to the commerative site, we were 144 and 167 (respectively) of 10,000.

Bed for the night...

Sunset over Anzac Cove

Dressed in Australia paraphernalia (and the rest) from head to toe and I was still freezing, although minus 3 overnight will do that to you!

Cold and tired after the Dawn Service at lone pine.

We've haggis a great time!

Ok, so the posts a little late... sorry about that. I have been sick in bed most of the week without the strength or motivation to lift my head so we're a little delayed on this Scotland post. You will have to forgive me, anyhoot... I'm on the road to recovery and excited to tell all you avid readers about our thrilling week in the land of Scots!!!

Our trip started with a 5ish hour train ride out of London and along the coast hitting into Edinburgh at around 2 in the afternoon. We found out hostel relatively quickly and strolled along the Royal Mile towards the impressive Edinburgh Castle. Where we foolishly purchased an audio tour each and no sooner had we collected them were we offered a free guided tour, oh well! We wandered the Castle learning all about Mary Queen of Scots, James VI and I (of Scotland and England respectively) and all the scandalous details that any good Castle endures during its reign. We concluded the day with a pretty standard hostel dinner and a ghost tour of the vaults where J was treated to a little spanking from our guide and had Bec scared out of her mind the rest of the evening!

The second day we tried (and tried ... and tried) to collect our car before lunch, but despite our efforts we were told to come back around 2ish, so we opted to head to Holyrood Palace and the Scottish Parliament. Both equally amazing in their own right, I'd show you the pictures but due to a small camera fault most photos were deleted... but we wont go into that. In the afternoon we jumped in our car and successfully navigated our way to St Andrews. J spent the afternoon admiring the old course and Bec stood baffled as to why one big stretch of grass had captivated Jarratt so. We raced around to the ruins of the Cathedral and Castle and within 2 hours had efficiently 'done' St Andrews and both agreed we'd set off early the next morning for Balmoral Castle.

Soaking up as much of St Andrews golf course as he could, the next morning J ordered breakfast and marched us down to the R&A for one last happy snappy. Afterwards we jumped in the car and headed out to Balmoral via the Grampian Mountains where Bec proceeded to go mental at the amount of snow, as I'm sure you'll appreciate when you look over the video we have uploaded. Balmoral was amazing in the sense that you walked around going "Who lives like this?Oh right, the queen... whoops" but without the snow I don't think it would have been half as spectacular. After a Venison Burger at the Queens Cafe we made a beeline for Inverness and the Battlefield of Culloden, passing many a snow-covered Highland Cow along our way. Culloden proved to be quite an insight into Scottish history and really triggered great interest in us both to find out more. Afterwards, exhausted from a long day of driving we headed to our modest accommodation for the evening, Culrain Castle (!!!!!) Little to say, i was a bit excited! :) Despite being an amazing building and everything I hoped for, amazing big gates, atop a hill and... haunted... We had a great, well lit sleep!

Day Four saw us head to the Isle of Skye via Loch Ness for a brief session of Monster Watching! Both Loch Ness and Isle of Skye proved to be very picturesque, with amazing gorges, beautiful mountains and sweet little boat houses hugging the shoreline. We spent one relaxing night there and then headed back to the main land via the Skye bridge passing Scotland's most romantic castle, Eilean Donan. We continued on our way to Oban stopping twice along the way. The first was at Fort William, home of Ben Nevis (Britain's tallest mountain) where we followed the Ben Nevis lookout road all the way to the end, continually quizzing each other with "is that it?' as we went. Upon arrival at the lookout we were told that "you can't see Ben Nevis here because you're too close and other mountains hide it from this point" Of course you can't, how silly of us to think that we could actually see the Ben Nevis mountain from the Ben Nevis lookout point (?!?!?!!). Our second stop was at Glen Coe, the home of the most famous clan massacre in all of Scotland. When we finally reached Oban we were welcomed by a strange little hostel owner and his dog and two wonderful glasses of Oban's finest scotch whiskey! All in all a good day was had.

The next morning we played bargy bargy for breakfast in the kitchen of our hostel and then headed out to Kilmartin Glen. The birthplace of Scotland... and the finest examples of ancient standing stones and cairns! However, since these are off the beaten track (literally... you need to navigate through paddocks to get to them), there wasn't your normal plethora of fellow tourists to snap a picture for us, so we resorted to timer photos... and boy! did we have fun with those! (As you can see by the evidence below) Afterwards, we dropped into Glasgow for an obligatory whirlwind visit (as we were not impressed with the place in the slightest) and ended our day cooking dinner in an amazing Stirling apartment and watching Braveheart!

Stirling proved to be an amazing place in the world, full of medieval features such as castle gates, city walls and cobbled streets... but more importantly host to the historic Scotland weekend and in full support for free entry to all its attractions and sights (yay!), taking full advantage J and I headed straight to Stirling castle and then on to the Wallace Monument before ending at the field where the Battle of Bannockburn took place! We ended our day in the city walls (pub) drinking Scotland's finest and eating some Haggis!

Our final day saw us racing back to Edinburgh to recreate some happy snaps that had been earlier deleted, rolling through the Scottish history Museum and listening to how Whiskey is created on our Whiskey Experience tour! We strolled onto our 3:30pm train at about 20 past and within 6 hours were home, unpacked and in bed! You gotta love London......

Tomorrow we're off to Turkey and cannot wait!!!! But enough about us... how have you been? :P

Jarratt at the 18th hole of St Andrews Old Course

Us at the first hole of the Old Course at St Andrews.

In the excitement I may have forgotten to put on my jumper... maybe that's why I got my cold (tee-hee)

Snow-covered Highland Cow

Our intimate castle accommodation, with J and our transport for the week in front.

On monster watch at Loch Ness.

At Scotland's most romantic castle, Eilean Donan.

Us at Ben Nevis, (we think) its the one peaking out from behind covered in snow!

Oh what a feeling! Stone Circles! Defying gravity through the magic of timer photography.

At Stirling Castle's Gates.

Stirling Castle's lookout over the Royal Gardens.

Great Scot!!! That's a lot of snow!

Viva-la-France!!!

Well as much as I hate to be cliched Paris truly is a magically romantic city which J and I were fortunate enough to spend the Easter long weekend break in. We departed from Kings Cross St Pancras bright and early and I have to say I was very impressed at the efficiency of the whole eurostar train ride! When we did arrive in Paris a whole two hours and 15 minutes later we took a quick metro ride to montemarte where we checked into our quaint hotel. A lovely establishment with plumbing that ran straight through our room but had a location that could not be beaten; around the corner from Moulin Rogue and down the road from Sacre Coeur. We dropped our bags and made a beeline for the Pantheon, where we visited the crypt and saw the burial places of Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Marie and Pierre Curie. Afterwards we headed out to the Lourve for our obligatory visit stopping at Notre Dame along the way. We spent an amazing hour and a half in the freezing wind to climb to tower and look out high above the skyline of Paris and see the most amazing gargoyles. We finished the day with an amazing dinner, including an entree of snails, at the base of the Eiffel Tower, which was amazing!

The next day we woke early and headed out to the magical land of Disney, much to J's reluctance. At Disney we visited all the themed lands and rode rides including space mountain, peter pan lift off and Indiana Jones's Temple of Doom. However, was very disappointed that the small animated children for Australia in the "It's a small world" ride were merged with New Zealand and only given a brief cameo appearance in the ride. We ended the day watching as sleeping beauty's castle was lit by Mickey and Minnie to celebrate 15 years of Euro Disney.

Easter Sunday saw us head out to the Palace of Versailles, the home of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Where we were shocked by a 3 hour line wait to purchase tickets for entry into the palace. We instead opted to buy tickets to a guided tour which saw us skip the line, pay a little more, but allow plenty of time for a relaxing stroll of the gardens and an amazing picnic of cheese, chocolate, cake and red wine! After our tour we headed back to central paris to prepare for our 8pm show at the Moulin Rouge. The show was amazing! A real highlight was the older UK couple seated to our left who 10 minutes in leaned across and whispered to us "Did you know it was topless?" and "I've never seen so much TIT in all my life". At which point Bec nearly spat out her mouthful of free champagne all over them!

Our final day was spent visiting the Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Eylsees, Napoleon's tomb and slowly made our way up to the Eiffle Tower. When we arrived the top level was shut due to an incoming electrical storm so we spent time taking a few photos. We then opted to head back to montemarte and visit Sacre Couer before heading to Paris Nord for our return train ride to London. But pictures tell a thousand words so heres a few ;) from our trip...