Ostsee camping trip

A group of friends and I went up north to the beach resort near Ostsee. Its on the Baltic sea so not a super warm Mediterranean type place but still good. Its a little colder (still tolerable) but the beach is huge and very shallow. Its a long curving coast with a few little towns along the way. The full coast spans the German-Polish border and is quite built up in areas. We stayed away from that and followed Linsey's directions to a wild area with long grass and forest behind us on the beach to setup camp.

We took two cars and drove up from Berlin. Along the way were hundreds of wind turbine farms and a few solar farms.

We arrived late in the afternoon and setup camp before it got too dark.

After scrounging for fallen branches, we got the fire started. Some more impressed with the sky than the fire construction:)

Not bad for a bunch of city slickers.

Liam had the bright idea to put tea candles in sand pits and cups to light the camp area.

Idyllic little vacation hamlet nearby. VERY clean place. Every stick and twig was manicured into place on the roofs.

Survivors of the night and the attack of the 50 foot mosquitoes.

  The far western end of the peninsula used to be some sort of military base with an air strip, u-boat base and perhaps a launch site for buzz bombs. Now its fenced off and a nature preserve, much better idea.

  Over all a great night and a relaxing time star gazing and fire watching. After the morning dip and breaky we packed up and walked about 2 kilometres down the beach to the small town and had lunch at a rather posh Italian place. Linsey and I tried our luck ordering iced coffee... seems to be a foreign concept here. We got a cup of espresso and a glass with ice cubes. Not what we had in mind mate.

Until next time.
AJ

Berlin's 775 Geburtstag (Birthday)

In 2012 Berlin celebrated its 775th birthday. That age depends on when you consider Berlin to have been founded but the first documented mention of the town of Cölln in 1237 is considered a dependable date. However the oldest church still standing in Berlin (Nikolaikirche) celebrates its 800th anniversary this year.... and I come from Canada which began its formal existence in 1867:)

  A number of events were happening in the city and I went to see a fire performance around the old city centre. At the same time, the Titanick street theatre group had a number of performance areas in Alexanderplatz where they created medieval versions of the “beyond” as well as interpreting the nightmare world of Hieronymos Bosch and Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. I found this next to the French fire performance troupe, Compagnie Carabosse. I didn't follow what the theme of these performances was at the time so to come across this was interesting, surreal and curious.

I need to brush up on my Dante I think.

  Across the platz was an amazing looking fire and water creation with someone dressed in a large head dress. By the time I got over there it had finished unfortunately. Below is the stage with water cannons and fire mortars around.

 After the performance.

  Part of the fire performance area was in a large field next to the Berlin Dom. There were numerous furnaces with funnels operated by performers who would send giant fire balls into the sky.

Strings of fire pots.

A mechanical array of fire pots. It raises to this position and then unfolds down to a large circular shape.

  Titanick was interesting but if I knew the theme I'm sure it would have been better. The Compagnie Carabosse performances were visually great, I hope to see more of them another day. -Andy