Gum-ball machin -step by step...

The streets of Berlin are full of them (but you might not notice them right away, cause they bland perfectly, and almost invisibly, with the enviroment.) In case you see one and want to use it: my step-by-step guide will save your day!




1. "First, find a 10´, 20´or if your really spening...50´EURO cent."



"Make sure you find one that fits the coin whole. This can sometimes be a challenge..."

2. "When the coin you want to spend is on its place, start turning the wheel underneath it. Oh, but watch out, sometimes you have to use some muscle power here. Reason: it might not have ben used for a while. So don´t feel bad if you can´t do it right away, just press a little harder, and you will be all right."


"Here you can see an example of how it´s done:"

3. "And now the exiting part! The Machine starts to "rumble". "Oh no, have I activated a hidden bomb!", you think? Don´t worry :-) "



"Soon the machine will give you something like this!"

4. "And now, all you have to do is...."



"Enjoy!"

Berlin is soo retro!

Oh my God, I am so tired.

And its not so much the case that Berlin is a big city and everything is very new. Its soo retro here! I´m back to the 80´s! (Or is it the 60´s or 70´s?) And its a lot of fun, but also a little bit tiering.

So, I must admit..., the first thing I noticed when I came here was its uglyness. Im sorry... But, its not that beautiful here. The buildings, the people...no. Beauty is absent. But then again, I have suddenly started to notice something new. The fact is, that I have now started to notice some beauty behind this ugly surface, AND SO: Berlin went from just being ugly (...!), to become a really cool retro city, that really interesst me! I mean, how many times do you see coca cola in this own bottle with its own eticket? Glas bottle off course... And, I´ve also seen a wending machine for gums here yesterday. You know, those old machines that you used to buy gums from when you where a kid. You put in a coin, and you have to turn the little metal wheel around, and then: out comes a round gum ball in some neon-80´s colour. (Im going back there to take a photo today!) And I think most of you would agree with me that, no, that wending machine is NOT beautiful. It is quite ugly acctually. However, when everything has this style, it really gives the whole of the city its own facinateing look, I think. And I must say, that I find it al, and the city itself, more and more interessting every day.

I also went to the memorial kirch here the other day. It was bombed during the last days of Hitlers capitulation, and the city of Berlin has never restored it. It stands there just as bomed as it was left in 1945 today. And I asked my landlord about it, and he said that it was two reasons for the decisionmakers of Berlin not to restore it. One reason was that the city of Berlin really was in lack of cash... Understandably. The other reason was acctually that the city decided that they wanted the kirch to be as it was, in memory of the ones that suffered during the war. And so, instead of restoring it, they build a new buliding on the side of it, that does not have the building style of the kirch at all. It was build it the 60´s (and... it looks really really ugly).

Nevertheless, there is so much history in this city. It almost litteraly screams of the past happenings here.
And I am going to listen really closely in the next few days. For these screams are so loud, you might not hear them strait away...

Wish me lots of luck for my Berlin days to come!