OK..... the moment you have all been waiting for... (to the sound of a fanfare of trumpets)- after all these months of anticipation here is the English translation (yes, we managed to find it).
"Back in 1971, to celebrate passing my driving test, my parents gave me a 1952 dark-green VW Beetle cabrio. A real stunner. It had semaphores, an accelerator roller pedal and a starter button. Since there was no petrol gauge, I had to use a wooden dipstick to measure the fuel level. If I was running low (a not uncommon occurrence), I had to kick the fuel tap to switch to the reserve. One day, a Turkish friend invited my boyfriend (now my husband) and me to visit him in Istanbul. We didn’t hesitate for long before deciding to make the trip. During a precautionary service of the Beetle, we were advised against undertaking a journey of this magnitude in a 20-year old car. We paid no heed. We chose an idyllic route, taking the Yugoslavian coastal road, through the Montenegro mountains, then along the Albanian border to Alexandropolis in Greece, where we would camp for a few days in our tent. Our journey through the Montenegro mountains turned out to be a real adventure. After following a section that was clearly marked on the map, we suddenly found ourselves on an unsurfaced track. We were undaunted, but things didn’t turn out quite as we had expected. The track seemed to go on for ever. Not a village, a car or even a petrol station in sight, and our wooden dipstick showed that we were running dangerously low on fuel. After struggling along this rough track for 50 km this was the last thing we needed! The engine suddenly began to splutter and the car came to a standstill. My mood changed. My husband, remaining positive, had a look in the Beetle’s engine compartment. The oil-bath air filter was clogged up, thanks to all the dust. In the meantime, a group of men wearing turbans and carrying guns emerged from the neighbouring woods. We watched with great apprehension. I told my husband to get a move on. The filter was cleaned at lightning speed and, as luck would have it, we were able to continue on our way without having to make the acquaintance of these gentlemen. We made it to the town of Pec on our last few drops of petrol. As we drove in with the roof down, we were immediately besieged by hordes of children who jumped on to the Beetle’s running boards. Their hands were all over the inside of the car – in search of cigarettes, pens and sweets. We gave them whatever we had. We had survived this part of the journey. The Beetle gamely soldiered on until we reached Alexandropolis in Greece. Shortly after leaving Alexandropolis, the engine abruptly died and refused to start again. We finally managed to track down a mechanic, unfortunately he spoke only Greek but he did agree to take the job on. He wanted to connect a 12-volt battery to check the electrical system. We tried to stop him, since the Beetle only had a 6-volt system, but with a great deal of pointing and gesturing, he explained to us that there was no other way. So we let him. As soon as the 12-volt battery was connected, we noticed smoke coming from the headlamp switch in the dash. We had learned the Greek method of locating a short circuit. He installed a temporary switch and a new cable and the Beetle was resuscitated. We were ready to continue our journey to Istanbul. By the time we arrived there, we had travelled 3,500 km. Caught up in the Istanbul traffic, surrounded by old American road cruisers, the exotic sight of our cabrio proved a real head-turner. The trip home took us through Bulgaria and along the Yugoslavian “autoput” (a motorway in the former Yugoslavia). After a round trip of some 7,000 km, we finally arrived back home in Germany.
After 32 years, I decided to auction my Beetle on eBay. A Belgian collector won the bidding. He is completely restoring the car with original parts and is documenting the whole story, including pictures, for us on the Internet. I am happy to know that my beloved cabrio is in such good hands."
(c) Wee Jeanie Midnight Translations Ltd. :d
A good story Pascal, and a journey which I think you should repeat with the restored cabrio... 😎
Dave
"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading"