Bumbag Motel

February has been a quiet one on the camera front, with Cam busy and homebound with a lot of work to do, and Emma undertaking a leisurely lifestyle: baking cakes and making cards for birthdays, crocheting, and recently making my own bread with dad’s swiss bread recipe – YAY! Cam could be lured outdoors when the snow came, though it didn’t stay around long after the week of intense negatives (down to at least -20!). Got to a Berlinale film to see Two Little Boys, never imagined I would go to a film in Berlin that opens with a bogan doing laps in Invers – most excellent!

Saturday night brought the first for real snow fall this winter. It was still only light but a welcome reprieve from the grey days that have been a constant feature. Was glorious to stroll through its soft falling flakes and enjoy the calm and ambience it can bring. Yay snow – stay around for a while won’t you!

here we have Paul, Cam and I on Paul’s last night in Berlin. Paul has been gracing the city with his presence for the past 6 months and we have shared many a beer and tourist time together. Bis später Paul – all the best at architecture school in Wellington!

I finally went up the TV Tower that dominates the Berlin skyline! It seems that you see this pointy structure from anywhere in the city so that it was great to finally see what it sees – and as you can gather from Paul’s photos, the tower sees a lot! Above is a photo looking out east, from Alexanderplatz down Karl-Mark and Frankfurter Allee. Below we have the Star Trek like night view and Helle and I admiring the views.

On a cold, grey and attempting to snow day, Paul and I tram trammed out east to the Stasi Prison memorial at Hohenschönhausen. A Masters student led us through the former prison buildings providing us with a variety of stories about the interrogations that occurred there, and the use of fear, monitoring and control to keep control of the population. An interesting insight into the East.

Once again grey, cold and rainy for Nick’s last day in Berlin. The boys dragged themselves outdoors to explore Tempelhof airport/park where they saw a fox! Paul came round and we ventured to Prenzlauerberg with a brief and chilly Potsdamer Platz stopover  to show Nick the area. Then it was dinner at White Trash surrounded by an eclectic collection of paintings and gory posters, washed down with giant burgers, beers and a live band.

Cam and Nick met me after work and we navigated our way through busy train times to get to the Soviet Memorial in Treptower Park. The trees all look like bare bones in the middle of winter, grey and cold – but much warmer with no snow. Below are Nick and Cam when we were strolling through the memorial, and later at the ‘Il Casolare’ Italian restaurant in Kreuzberg, where we giant pizza dined  before moving onto ‘Franken’.

Cam’s brother Nick came to stay for the week, and they got out and about in the city to check out all the sites. Above is Nick on the ‘Oberbaumbrücke’ – the brick bridge that connects Kreuzberg with Friedrichshain. Below, is an out of focus Cam and Nick in front of the TV tower, as the self-timer decided to focus on a cyclist biking into the shot.

…at the top of Victoria Park ultimate fireworks carnage ensues. I remembered to take a video this year which you can watch here. We also set off our own fireworks further down the path – here we have Cam showing how it rolls, and  Guthrie also below. The darker photo is Felix looking on as it all unfolds – though he was also a prominent fireworks releaser. Tegan and I were more enthusiastic observers.