rose's random rambly writings

Here's a post I'd forgotten all about...
I wanted to show you some of the stuff on the somewhat weirder side I saw on my vacation this summer.
Even though it's been a while, and this post is really late, some of these things still make me laugh...
Top left: This is part of a poster advertising a waterworld just outside the city. I think if you're advertising for family friendly aqua fun, you might want to use something else than two older guys. Especially in that position, and with those looks on their faces!
Top right: A sign I saw while walking home one night. It says "Brown swimming pool". I don't know about you guys, but a brown swimming pool doesn't sound very tempting to me!
Bottom left: This one cracks me up every time. This is the side of a rather big building. The line you see is filled with spikey things to prevent birds from sitting on the line, shitting down the wall (a birdshit protector, if you will). The rest of the wall was completely clean, but right here... well you can see for yourself!
Bottom right: Mental pastilles. If I tried them? No, I didn't dare .

Top left: A sign on the entrance to a bakery. No fat dogs allowed, if they are wearing muzzles and chains.
Top right: Another sign. This one on the entrance to a clothes shop. It has the usual "No eating", "No smoking" and "No dogs" figures, but it was the last one that made me giggle. No farting! I went into the shop, and tried to promp just for the heck of it, but no luck .
Bottom left: This door has two adresses. I wonder if they get twice as much post...
Bottom right: Last but definitely not least - the scary child eating clown ! This stood outside a game hall. People strapped their poor kids to its tounge, put some money in a slot and it turned into this insane clown swing with a blinking nose! I bet there are tons of kids scarred for life after their vacation!

Here's my second attempt to post this.
When I had posted this earlier, I noticed there were four instances of the post saved. Believing that the one on the top would be the last, most updated, one I deleted the other three. Of course, the ready, published post wasn't on the top and so it was deleted .
I couldn't find it in the cache either, so I had to write the whole thing over again
Here goes...

First of all, I must admit I wasn't very sorry for leaving this country.
This is the view from the airport as I was waiting to board the aircraft on what should have been a nice, sunny summer day in July:
However, my mood switched swiftly as I set foot in Rimini in that boot shaped country further south in Europe. As I landed in the evening, I decided to postpone the martini search and decided to go out and have a drink instead...

During the next couple of weeks I...

• ...got a chafe from a pair of my flip flops! I didn't even know that was possible!
  
• ...took a bus to the world's oldest sovereign state. Extra bonus points to the whoever can guess which one that is...
  
• ...was amazed over the number of items with pictures of despots sold in said state. I mean, selling wine and beer with pictures of Hitler, Lenin, Che, Mao... not to mention all the items with Mussolini and some of his catch phrases. That's just not a gimmick anymore . If anybody has an idea what that's all about, please let me know as I'm really wondering.
  
• ...slept on what shall only be know as the concrete slab hereafter. I woke up every night, numb on the side I was sleeping on. One night I woke up on my back, having lost all feeling in both my hands !
  
• ...switched stupid concrete slab to a one-room suite in a really cool design hotel in the old part of the city. I slept like a baby there .
  
• ...bathed many times in the ocean. Funny waves .
  
• ...once again had to realize that my school Italian isn't good enough for longer conversations, but it does make it a little easier to be understood.
  
• ...saw lots of people riding on electrical bicycles and now I want one too!
  
• ...wondered whether there were more doves or Russians there.
  
• ...stumbled upon a market in the city one night. It was pretty cool - like a flea market mixed with arts&crafts. Among other things, I noticed there was a booth selling furs. It was 28° out and I wondered who on earth would want to buy a fur. Especially on a hot midnight in August .
  
• ...took a train to Ravenna - once the capital in the Western Roman Empire. This was the one day it rained, but it was still a nice day with lots of walking around/sightseeing.
  
• ...ate lots of heavenly ice cream!

These things didn't make me less observant, though. Keeping my eyes open made me find a poster of a Martini circus that was coming to town (unfortunately I didn't manage to take a picture of it), Martini bicycles and Fiat Sartinis (obviously a bad mis-spelling ) among other things.
But lo and behold! Searching does pay off, and on the last night I finally found it!I rewarded myself with an appletini :yum: .

Of course, all things must come to an end and when I got back... well... it sort of felt like the circle was closed. Weather wise, that is .
There really isn't much to say about the second part of my vacation. It rained the whole time, and the most exciting thing that happened was when a couple of deer ran out in front of the car while driving on a narrow mountain road on a dark, rainy night.

In a way it's good to be back, though. I missed you and I'm eager to see what you've been up to .

So... I had to do a post about my latest trip to Berlin before Zaphira came back from Hamburg.
About time then .

Even though this was my fifth time in Berlin, I did some things I have never done there before...Left: I had a currywurst. It didn't taste curry at all.
Right: I had a beer bigger than my head in a biergarten.

Another thing I had never done before was visiting Potsdam - the Preussian kings' residence:Left: Sans Souci
Right: Neue Palais
We were there for hours, just walking around in the enormous park. No need to say, I'll have to visit indoors too the next time I go...

Berlin is a hotspot when it comes to culture. This time around, I had some very different musical experiences:Left: One night, I went to a Balkan Beat concert in the famous Kaffee Burger - a place that looks like somebody's living room. And it's about the same size too.
Right: The night after I got free tickets to the Berliner Philharmonie. As it happened, it was a Norwegian contemporary orchestra, Asamisimasa (no, I don't know them personally), who performed that day. I left during the break (), but it was nice to see the interior of such a famous place.

I don't have much to say about this, except I seem to love taking picutres of Alex, the TV-tower that got its pet name from where it's located - Alexanderplatz.Even though it's just a ball on a pole, I think it's a fascinating photo object that almost never turns out the same way on my photos.

And here are some weird "sightseeing" shots Top left: Oberbaumbrücke. One of the landmarks in ex-East Berlin. Looks like something from a fairytale, doesn't it?
Top right: Interior from the Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz. Potsdamer Platz was once a busy square, but when the Berlin Wall was built, it was deserted and practically became no man's land. Nowadays, they are re-building the status the square once had with, among other, the Sony Center. There is a brick road along the path that once was the wall.
Bottom left: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche - sometimes referred to as the rotten tooth due to the severed top. It was bombed during WWII but this tower and some of its interor still stands. They have built a new church in connection to it, and the old building is a memorial hall.
Bottom right: On May 1st - Labour Day - I happened upon a celebration on Brandenburger Tor, and what else could I do than have a drink to celebrate my hard labour?

I'll leave you with a panoramic photo of one of my favourite places in Berlin - Gendarmenmarkt:I like just sitting here, looking at people and the beautiful surroundings. The place has two cathedrals (the French and the German) facing each other with the Concert Hall in the middle.

Of course, these are only some of the things I did during my seven days but I hope you enjoyed the tour anyway.

Whenever I visit my old hometown, I like to stroll around Västra Hamnen (The Western Harbour).
Back in the days when I lived in this city, there was nothing here. Or rather, there were no houses. Then, in 2001, the European Housing Exhibition (Bo01) was hosted here, and the first steps towards building a new residential area by the sea had begun.
Now, there's a promenade running along the seafront and some restaurants and cafés, living up the place even more. Perhaps too much, some of the residents would say. It isn't funny having hords of people sunbathing right under your balcony, I suppose...

Did I mention the sea? See, the brilliant thing with Västra Hamnen is that it's situated right by the seafront, yet it only takes few minutes to pedal yourself to the thickest city center.
I guess if I ever move back (and honestly - this easter was the first time ever I thought the thought) this is the area I'd love to live in .

Also situated in Västra Hamnen, is Europe's second tallest residental building, Turning Torso. It rises 190 metres (263 feet), has 54 stories and 147 apartments.
I could see myself living in the top cube, but I would hate it if the elevators suddenly wouldn't work!

I guess I don't have to worry about that, though. These apartments are luxurious, and the rents according to that. On the plus side, external window cleaning is included in the rent .


It's not only the sea and city center that is easy accesible. From Västra Hamnen, you can see over to Denmark on a clear day. If you walk for a few minutes to the central station and get on a train, you can set foot on Copenhagen Central Station half an hour later .
See the bridge in the background? That's the Öresund bridge that connects Sweden and Denmark and makes that swift travel across the sea easy.
*sighs* Maybe one day...

Some of you might remember one of the bridges I've featured here earlier.
For the first time this winter, I visited it again, and got a little bit depressed when I saw what it looked like now...
...so tonight I'm packing my bags, with the intention of heading further south tomorrow morning.
Seeing all the great spring posts around the community has made me longing for spring even more, so I decided to go meet it. I'm not going very far, but at least I've heard the temperatures are much nicer there .

Athough I will have internet access, I will be more off than on during the next week.
Take care, and try to behave .