Spreepark

 

My marathon training plan has me taking it up a notch with 15km run around Treptower Park and Planterswald in the east of the city. I actually ran round a bit of it in my moving-house-internet-less days which is how I came across the abandoned amusement rides that I mentioned in an earlier post. Peering through fence which is overgrown with greenery, the rides look like they belong to a magical, but eery, fantasy land. There are rusting rollercoasters, swan-boats that seem to have triumphed over a T-rex now slumped on his side, and a huge ferris wheel that still peeks out from above the tree tops. In my previous post I said that the owner had taken some of the rides with him to Peru. I've since found out that he also tried to take them back to Germany, with 180kg of cocaine hidden in them, and promptly got jailed for drug smuggling.

Normally you can't get inside unless you jump the fence. But last weekend the park was opened for a weekend festival. The rides weren't working, but we were with our friend who used to go as a kid and explained how scared he was the first time he realised it was actually not within his Dad's power to stop the ride. With so many people around, it wasn't as spooky as when you peer into the 

woodland silence, but I did get to sit in the 

T'Rex's mouth without being scared it might spring into life. Also found this article describing the campaign angle to the festival - that income from the growing Berlin tourist industry should be more fairly distributed among the city, and that we need to reconsider capitalist lifestyles that allow no time for leisure. And I would definitely agree with that.