My favorite houses in the Tierpark are the patchyderm-house with its elephants, rhinos, maatees and sloths and the predator house with its huge free-flight-hall in the center. Here you can walk around freely while you observe the bats that fly over your head and land in the branches of the palm trees.
This Ruffed lemur liked Selma´s backpack a lot and didn´t let go of it at all - maybe there were grapes inside or other nice treats?
It was a beautiful afternoon in June, so Ute and Claudia of my homeopathy course and I decided to visit the Tierpark. Martin was sick, so we took Milli along together with two of her friends, Selma and Zoe. The kids love the Ruffed lemurs! They are extremely curious and also a bit hoggish, so they jump on people when they smell their lunch packages. Milli is bugging me for a couple of years now and doesn´t give up on the idea of me getting her her a Ruffed lemur as a pet. But I´m actually perfectly happy with Karl-Gustav and Fips and don´t really beleive that a lemur would make a great pet.
More Berlin views from the water - on top: again the Federal Chancellery (Bundeskanzleramt) and below the "House of World Cultures", or better known as "pregnant oyster". And below you can see naughty little Milli who was working on a new hairstyle for Martin while we were all waiting for our food at the restaurant...
From the top to the bottom: Bode-Museum, Reichstag, Bundeskanzleramt aaand Nele & Milli on the boat!
While there are confirmation or communion celebrations for christian kids, the non-christian Eastern German version is a ceremony called "Jugendweihe" = "youth dedication", which is organized by humanistic organizations. Well, and this was Nele´s Jugendweihe which we celebrated in the famous Friedrichstadtpalast here in Berlin. On the middle picture you can see all of my roommates as well as Elisabeth and Nele´s grandparents. After the oficial ceremony we took a boat trip on the Spree and then visited a restaurant to get something to eat.
The European Soccer Championchips seemed to inspire this car´s owner to paint his automobile in German-Turkish colors. Kreuzberg is the district with the highest rate of Turkish residents in Berlin. It´s a very alive, multicultural place and you can find a lot of nice little hippie shops and ethnic restaurants here.
Everyday views: the TV tower at Alexanderplatz with the World Clock in front - one of my most frequently used meeting points in the city. Below you can see the typical East Berlin street lights, the "Ampelmännchen" as well as a view of Wörther Straße/ Prenzlauer Allee. Wörther Straße leads to Kollwitzplatz, where you can find many restaurants and bars, as well as a playground and many little shops aaand, not to forget: the "Saunabad" in Rykestraße!
We could have easily spent the whole day at the natural pool & the waterfalls, but unfortunately, we had to get down the mountain because our little 4-day-hike was over today. But it was definitely the coolest finish of our trip that we could have wished for! Water to abound!
Yeay, we found water!!!! It was aaawesome to swim in this natural basin in the morning sun.
It´s really relaxing to hike with Julia and Betty. They´re so much fun and totally easy-going. Well, unless you try to take pictures of them:) Unfortunately, they live really far away from Berlin, somewhere in southern Germany. All the more it´s so great that we managed to meet for this hiking tour!
The sun flooded the sky with golden light, we sang songs at the fire, had a gorgeous meal and sat on the rocks until nightfall, watched the birds circle around the mountain tops and then crawled into our cozy warm sleeping bags.
There is nothing in the world that can substitute a morning in the forest. You hear the birds awaking, slowly the sun rises and nature prepares for a new day. So I stick to Eleanor Farleons lyrics for a Cat Stevens song: "Praise with elation, praise every morning, god´s recreation of the new day"...
We found a cave! It was completely dark in there, quite cold and a little bit creepy, too. But really exciting!
As soon as dawn came up and within seconds, Julia was as fit as a fiddle and set out to pull us out of our sleeping bags. Nooo! It was so cozy in there and I wasn´t ready to get up at all! But finally, we surrendered. Betty held her morning meditation on a ledge while I was busy taking pictures and Julia started to re-light yeasterday´s fire, so that we all could prepare breakfast. Hmmm, organic granola with fresh fruit, what a luxury!
What´s this???! Some weird carterpillar graveyard? The structure measured approximately 25cm in diameter and was rife with dead carterpillars. Straaange!
Oh how I love to disguise myself as moss, mud, stones and foliage. But this time I seem to resemble some kind of forest bank robber rather than a tree...
