Day 8: Ampel Man, Urban Gardening, and one Oppressively Hot Day

So today was very full and exhausting. We have a million things to figure out for the next couple of days and an early morning tomorrow to catch the graffiti tour so this is going to be mainly a picture dump day. I hope everyone's fine with that. Below are a few pictures of where we're staying because it's another magical space filled with strange German sprite people who flit in and out and sometimes eat food, I think.

 This is a cute cat at one of the neighbors' places. We decided to go check out an old airport that's walking distance from the apartment. It was reapproppriated by the city and turned into a public park, which is a super interesting idea in terms of finding space in a city where, by definition, you have very little space. A portion of the airport has been turned into an urban garden. I had no idea literally anything could be a planter but check out the photos below to see what the people of Berlin have recycled.

 It's a bicycle repair trailer.

 There were bees and butterflies everywhere, which made me happy. Even the ratty birds with torn feathers and holes in their tails had a brief respite here.

 There was a lady with a couple of dogs and many puppies. Shortly after this picture, I watched her pile all the puppies into a wheelable crate and walk off with them. They're all about six weeks old and impossibly cute.

 It's an airplane in an old airport. Ha, ha.

 We cut through another park on the way to the city center and found this cafe in the middle of the park. You can sit down and have a nice cold beer on a hot summer's day like today was. Perfect.

 Then we stumbled on the Berlin Wall and went to the little museum there. It was overwhelming and interesting.

 This car is too German to function. You can't see it in the picture but the side of the door has stolen symbols from Volkswagon and Mercedes and there's a little DE sticker on the door. These people take national pride to an entirely new level.

 In front of the British consulate, making a British pose.

 In front of what we decided was the Russian consulate, making a decidedly Russian pose.

 Then we found the Ampel man store/cafe. Ampel man is the little walking symbol in Berlin and people are OBSESSED with him. All the swag below was found in this one store devoted to this little guy. It's a little precious and a little crazy and very cute.

 This is a statue of Frederick the Great in the middle of the street. We had to brave some dangerous traffic to get any closer but there it is. We suffer for art, after all.

T

 There were some musicians in front of the Berlin historical museum, probably trying to lure people into what I'm sure is a supremely boring place.

 Then we found some people making t-shirts out of sewer grate patterns. This reminded me of China. The t-shirts were cute but expensive so we just took pictures and moved on.

Another Ampel man store with these out front. Again, sorry about the lack of detail but I need to sleep. Tomorrow, I promise there will be more of a post and less of a bunch of pictures crammed together. Goodnight!

Maria