cottonwood, military spy bases, and nazi schools

I have been sick all week and then some with a nasty cold. I couldn't go to work and I basically had to stay in bed all day, which is pretty relaxing and fun for the first day or so, but after that it feel like a tedious form of punishment. So when Luke suggested another day trip this Saturday to Teufelsberg in Grunewald, it was all the excuse I needed to get out of the house.

Perusal our destination looked very clear on the map but when we got there, we wandered vaguely in the forest for what felt like hours before we finally stumbled upon this place. The steep path up was canopied by ethereal cottonwood and felt very much like another fairy land. We were the only souls about.

Finally we saw the white domes and knew we had found the compound. Hidden in the middle of this dense forest is Teufelsberg, an abandoned spy base built by the US military to keep tabs on the former GDR. If that weren't intriguing enough, it was built on top of a man made mound of old World War II rubble, and at the very base is a former Nazi technical college that was too hard to destroy so they just built up. As a result, they created the highest point in all Berlin (the better to spy on you with, my dear).

The site has been abandoned for years and in a vain attempt to keep people out, it is surrounded by three fences topped with barbed wire. These measure are still not enough to keep out vandals, tourists, and other interested parties who are not afraid to use wire cutters and the cover of darkness to get in and do some real exploring. There were hundreds of cuts, and repairs to the fence that it began to look like a piece of war rubble as well.

We walked around the entire fenced compound for a long time, but did not go in. Luke did some sound recordings of the canvas on the domes flapping in the wind. Birds were singing, the sun was out, and the cottonwood swayed in the breeze. It was beautiful.

I hope you have some adventures this weekend too.
xokimberlee

winter days soon gone

While everyone else has been cursing it, I still love this winter. But I get it: the relentless snow and cold, people shuffling carefully on icy sidewalks, chapped lips, layers, layers, and layers of clothing and forgetting you have a body under there, slush and hardened crusts of old dirty snow covering everything. I just haven't had a winter in 6 years so I am still holding on. Next year, I am sure I will be singing the same tune as everyone else.

This weekend the sun came out and everything started to melt into urban slushy soup. Maybe spring is soon here? I feel a little disappointed.

I know NZ is the opposite now; humid, sticky, too hot. Its hard to imagine from all the way over here but I will say it anyway: Keep cool everyone.

xokimberlee

candyland valentine

I have been too busy lately. Working overtime hours and doing a german class 3 nights a week. Some days look like this: wake up, ride the u-bahn, work 8 hours, ride the u-bahn, 3 hour German class, ride the ubahn, sleep 8 hours, repeat.

But its the weekend, so I swim to the surface and take a big gulp of air. Today looks like this, wake up, drink coffee, blog, go to the library, go to fabulous second hand store, knit, go to party. aaahhhhhhh.
that's better.

The above pictures were taken from a christmas market. I like to call this market "disneyland vegas christmas." Pure tacky, it stuck out like a giant glitterball in the middle of Berlin's tourist area. Going there was like wearing 5 pounds of costume jewelry and sucking on sugar cubes. and I loved it.

hopefully I will have better, craftier things to show you soon. (i have been knitting!)

xoxoxo
Kimberlee

palaces at dusk

a small winter holiday escape to the palaces of potsdam.

The flog rolled in and my breaths were puffs of icy crystals.

Not many people visit this place during the midwinter chill. Many times we were alone in this vast park, miles and miles of gardens and forest stretching before us. With no map for guidance we stumbled upon these enormous beauties like sleeping giants. they loomed above us in the haunted hush.

I was spell bound.

then the sun sank behind the hills leaving us utterly alone in the blue blackness. we were far from the entrance, a little lost and a little scared. Would we have to spend the night here among the sleeping giants?

I've always liked fairy tales.

xoxoxkimberlee

best of italy

Here are some of the 'best of' shots during our time in Italy last week. We spent most of the time in the lake Como area but my favourite part was our day trip to Venice where we were able to take in the charming scenery of this floating city and visit the Venice Biennale. ('a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice Italy...' wiki here).

We also spent a small amount of time in Milano and saw the famous Gothic cathedral and Galleria Vittorio Emanule II which houses some very expensive designer lables like Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and Versache, (not that I was buying, in fact I was too imtimidated to even go into the stores).

Even before I arrived home, I received a desperate call from work saying every teacher was either sick or on holiday, and could I come in extra hours and basically run the preschool? No problem, but since I am the very new, part time teacher and had only worked there for total of 12 hours, it was quite the leap. By the end of last week, I was very tired.

And this week we move house. again. phew! Life is a little too busy right now but I really can't complain. I am very excited about the new place, I really like my new job, and my new German course is really fabulous, but sometimes when everything is NEW and BUSY, all you want to do is curl up with a good book, and drink cups of coffee all day long, and do absolutely nothing.

Hope to catch up with all your blogs really soon!
xokimberlee