Ampelmännchen in Berlin/ The old East-Berlin traffic light now all around the city

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The famous cute little figure is not only cute, creative and adorable, it is nowadays all over Berlin (and Germany)....The East Berlin Ampelmännchen (the little traffic light man) was crreated as a way to show better what should be done by red and green light and turned (from 1961 till 2005) into a cult! After the Berlin wall fall most of the East Berlin Ampelmännchen were dismantled due to unification reasons. Already in 1995 there were movements for saving East-Berlin traffic lights as part of East Berlin culture. The modern "little traffic light man" had their come-back in 2005: both to East and West Berlin.

 

What is even more interesting that even few other (West-)German cities installed some in their streets, for example Heidelberg and Saarbrücken. The reason for this the more appealing symbols and better effect on public. In 2004 the female version of Ampelmann, die Ampelfrau, was born. You may meet her on traffic lights in Dresden, Zwickau and Fürstenwalde...They make me smile, what about you? Any cute/ funny/ different traffic lights actors in your city/area/country we should know of?

Berliner Mauer: History& Art, 2 in 1 at the rest of the Berlin Wall/ at East Side Gallery

Today I simply have to start this blog entry with this cute Trabi graffiti...because I remember the Trabis from my childhood in Bulgaria. The uncle of my mum had one and we used to call it "the blue-eyed Trabcho", because its headlight rings were blue:-)))

23 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, from Oberbaumbrücke following Mühlenstrasse (direction Ostbahnhof) one may still see (big and long) piece of it. And by see I actually mean "sightsee", because this previously 140km-piece of concrete& limiting history has been transformed in an open-air-art platform.

 

 

After the fall of the wall in 1989 quiet some creative painting tookplace in 1990. Several artists have presented their works here. In my humble opinion this is one great way to keep this history monument in a nice& colourful way alive. The East Side Gallery has become already symbol of the city. Its a pity however that some works have been (partly) distroyed by some vandalism already.

The magical Balkan mountains in Bulgaria/ Вълшебната Стара планина

 

The charme of the Balkan mountain range called by us "Stara planina" (the "Old mountain" in Bulgarian) is extremely dangerous...Once you see it and/or drive next to it, you are simply bound to be impressed. And if you happend to drive along some of its 560 km length (from the Serbian-Bulgarian border through Central Bulgaria down to the Black sea) on a sunny day...then you will for sure fall in love with its beauty.

 

Last weekend I enjoyed for few hours its majestic and magical charisma. Thats why today I would like to share with you some of my pics and some of the panoramas I have created to help you imagine its breathtaking size and length.

 
The highest peak is Botev (2376m) and is located in the Central Balkan National Park (established 1991). The mountain gives the name of the Balkan Peninsula. Another interesting fact is that (according to wiki) "Balkan" comes from a Turkish word meaning "a chain of wooded mountains".