Swedish Guests

In Paris, Katherine and I found a few friends our first night in that god awful 'Friends Hostel.' This past week, they happened to pass through Berlin and while Katherine was in Vienna with her girlfriend Anna, I showed the new friends around Berlin (the abandoned amusement park and the Sowjet Ehrenmal) and Potsdam. The decrepit and deteriorating amusement park offers few clues to its state of disrepair. Signs all around announce "Privatgrundstueck" and rusting rides and overturned dinosaurs are pretty ominous. One could think of a few stories to explain it: the fall of the Berlin Wall, a mini Tilt-A-Whirl Chernobyl, a polizei raid...

Fact is, the best story I've heard is the one that's said to be true: The former owner imported a lot of the rides after the fall of the wall from all over the world. One of those rides happened to be a Ferris Wheel - from South America (location unspecified...but does it matter?). Apparently pieces of the Ferris Wheel were inspected by customs in Germany. Apparently they found cocaine hidden within. The owner was arrested and went bankcrupt while the park folded.

Annikas and Emelie left rural, western Sweden around two months ago for a train tour of Europe and Berlin was their last stop. They're 22 and have known each other since age 7. This was somewhat of a discovery trip for them. I see my own trip to Berlin in a similar way as well (at least sometimes), and it was a provoking intersection. In terms of traveling for an extended period of time I could really see the advantages of having a partner in crime. We spent a few days just relaxing in parks and a few nights checking out the kneipen (bars) in Kreuzberg (Barbie Deinhoff's, Sofia, etc). It was nice being a tour guide here and Berlin is pretty much known to me now. Even though we only hung out for a week I already miss lazing around in the sun, talking about Swedish vs. English and the best ways to travel. They left at 5 a.m. this morning and I spent the day in the park with my books and a beer.