Yakkity yak

[amberdreams]

I'm in Berlin! It was very, very hot, but now it's rained and it's only normally hot. Well, you have to understand that I'm talking as a Brit who's used to summers where 25ºC was always considered a heatwave (before the global warming that doesn't exist), so you have to understand that recent temperatures home and abroad have been quite traumatic.

I'm looking forward to finding out who claims my two j2_reversebang pieces! I'm hoping to collaborate with madebyme_x on spncinema and she's doing the claiming because I'm here, in Germany, watching athletics when claiming time arrives later on. *is excite!*

If anyone's signed up for J2RB and isn't clear how to claim - check this out. As an aside, I hate that clicking on share now means you don't get to add a comment and it doesn't even show as an entry on your own journal. Just sayin' LJ.

Here's a Berlin picspam, just 'cause.

The reason Berlin's so green - they water everything, even cyclists! LOL

Brandenburg Gate

A memorial I don't recall seeing last time we were here - for the holocaust victims from the Sinti and Roma peoples.

Choked me up. It was beautiful and peaceful and fucking horrifying - as all things to do with genocides are. I don't understand. I'll never understand.


Then there was the Soviet era and their less than subtle war memorial - flanked by two tanks and big guns.

Away from the wartime memories (cold and not cold), hiding from the tourists and the sun.
Trying to draw the Reichstag - pen and ink, 30 minutes.

Happier things - meeting online fanfriend Angela for a picnic in Friedhof Heerstraße cemetery. Because, let's face it, there are few places more appropriate for a meeting with a fellow SPN fan than a cemetery, right?

And the main reason we're here - the European athletics championships.
Paul has to have a shot of him inside and outside the stadia, so here's his two obligatory photos. :D

Comments

[marciaelena.livejournal.com]

Looks like you're having a great time, even with the heat. Berlin looks absolutely beautiful.

Good luck with the claims! I hope you'll get good authors to work with. <3

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

It's busy but fun! And thanks, I know there are some writers signed up that I'd love to work with, so fingers crossed!

[madebyme-x.livejournal.com]

Eeeeeeee was just about to email you but I'll drop this here for now - we got our movie claim (there was a bit of drama as it was marked as spam, but the wonderful mods fixed it!!!) phew.

Love your pics and hope your enjoying Berlin and the European Championships.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

YAY! Go team Us!

[hugemind.livejournal.com]

Nice pics! I'm so glad the weather cooled down at least a little bit, the 35 degrees C was just too much. But at least Berlin's green. :) Hope you're enjoying your trip!

I was in Berlin with the hb and his parents in April and we went to that same stadium to see a football game. :)

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

This new fresher weather is SO much better... And I do like Berlin, though it's no Rome. ;)

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

Berlin is very much on my wish list. It has such a fascinating history.
Looks like you had a good time - that beautiful memorial would have exactly the same effect on me.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure fascinating is the right word... but yes! It's well worth a visit.

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

Wonderful pics, I'm pleased you're having a good time - I loved that you met up with a fellow SPN fan in a cemetery!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

IKR? Perfect setting...!

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

i totally forgot it was j2rb claims today until they'd been going on an hour and a half. >.< i hope your prompts got picked by writers who are fun to work with.

i'd love to go to berlin. i bet it's really nice getting watered while you're biking around in the heat. it sounds kind of wrong to say i'm glad they put up a memorial to the roma and sinti victims of the holocaust, but i am. i think a lot of times people forget (or just don't know) the nazis targeted other groups besides european jews, and it's not a terrible thing to be reminded. your drawing of the reichstag is really nice.

the soviets were not in any way subtle in their monuments, were they.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Both my J2RB prompts are still unclaimed... just sayin'.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad they've done a separate monument for the gypsies, like you say, so often forgotten. I hadn't realised their persecution by the Nazis started earlier than that of the Jews, or that their children had been experimented on by Mengele (the thought of that makes me shudder - why does that somehow seem worse than gas chambers?). It's one of those facts that I know (that it wasn't just the Jews, but also gypsy tribes and homosexuals) but it becomes much more meaningful when they are given their own story.

[herminekurotowa.livejournal.com]

Heh, we had very British weather last week, pretty wet :/

It's quite some time since I've been to Berlin. I can't count the visit three years ago since it really was for less than a day :DD October will be challenging because I'll have to consider a teenager's, a kid's and a sister-in-law's needs. At least we'll have three days.