Wavy Staircase

I saw this beautiful staircase An der Trift today... I love the way it floats down the hill like a stream of water. (So much water in the last days... no idea why. =)

Swimming Pool

Haha, the first thing after the rain had finally stopped today was going to a swimming pool for me.
I went to the Calypso with my colleague, a modern indoor swimming pool with three slides, an outside saltwater-pool, two whirlpools, saunas and some more pools.
It was good fun and almost like a spa to us, we relaxed on every bubbling spot we could find. =)

Erm... Art?

In the middle of town, at the corner of Wilhelm-Heinrich-Brücke, I saw this container today.
Inside there is a collection of brownish/beige furniture and clothes, it looked like a weird merge of living room and boutique. Outside there is just a name "Mia Unverzagt" and the sentence "Darüber reden wir noch" (We're going talk about that.). For me, it was like a UFO, a living room beamed into the rainy and cold city.
I was quite stunned by its size (I guess 4x2x2 metres) and interior, so I checked a little paper saying that this container is an art exhibition. It seems that I've missed the actual event, I assume that the artist Mia Unverzagt (who does "social experiments") was living in there. I hope I can still catch her there, would be interesting to find out more.

Red Berries

Yesterday I was complaining about the rain, but today (even though the weather was still really bad) I saw what the water that we waited for so long can do. I saw this beautiful tree with its bright red berries on my way home, the water made it bloom much quicker than usual.

Rain Rain Rain

Back in Saarbrücken, and all I can see is this... mud and rain... and more rain... It's annoying and also, I've got the flu now, but oh well, I'm back at home with my cat and friends. =)

Dancing Queen

This picture of a Rumanian dancing group was taken during one of the international nights in my working place (Max-Planck-Institut für Informatik).
The group was invited to perform in front of scientists of the institute, and did a great show.
I loved her looking all happy while dancing, so here is my Rumanian dancing queen.

St. Johanner Markt

I still had this picture of St. Johanner Markt from earlier this year. Since I'm in Leipzig at the moment, I can't take new ones, so I decided to finally use it, because I liked the white fountain against the clear blus sky.
The fountain is THE meeting point in Saarbrücken, whenever people of all ages want to meet downtown, they'll just say "See you at the fountain at 5 pm."... you can always see lots of waiting people there. =)

Post Office

This is our main brach of the Deutsche Post downtown.
They send out the various packages, letters and postcards that are written by the Saarbrücken people.

Did you know?

• Sending a letter to Germany costs 0,55 Euros (international 1,70 Euros)
• Sending a postcard costs 0,45 Euros (international 1,00 Euro)
  
• A small package costs 3,90 Euros (international 12,90 Euros)
• A large one costs 6,0 Euros (international 17,00 Euros)
  

Tunnel Staircase

Do you still remember this creepy tunnel?
It's my way from home to downtown Saarbrücken, right through the area of the train station.
This probably even creepier staircase is at the end of this tunnel, at the exit towards Rodenhof. So, how sorry do you feel for me to use it every day?=)

Away

necrotech and I went to Leipzig today, to attend the Games Convention 2006 until Sunday (Purely for business reasons, of course! =).
This is the beginning of our journey by ICE (the fastest German train).
I prepared some pics for the next days, I hope you'll like them.

Old Tree

This is one of the older trees on the university campus.
I love the way those big trees seem to protect you from everything when you stand under the long branches...

Waiting...

I was waiting for the Saarbahn today, and was fascinated by the way the tram lines so calmy go down Mainzer Strasse, I just had to take a picture... =)

May I introduce...?

Thanks a lot for your votes.
You wanted to see the face of yesterday's mysterious cat, and here is the little guy.
His name is Cupido Morpheus Woodstock (called Pido) who's been with me for the last 8 years. =)
Since we moved to Saarbrücken, he became a real hunter, so here he is spotting his next victim.

Take a guess...

... there's a cat hidden in this picture. Can you find it?
My kitty was exploring the garden... If you want to see his face, vote YES. =)

Finally! Good weather!

Oh, I waited for this for ages... finally, we saw the sunshine again, and could sit outside in a café.
I really missed this, over the last weeks it was constantly raining.
This is the view from "Beaulongerie", a nice little baguetteria at St. Johamnner Markt. The golden-brown sign of the bakery will be gone soon, the shop is empty at the moment, waiting for someone else to take over.

Video Installation

Tonight I came across a (for me quite disturbing) video installation called "Das inszenierte Fenster in der nächtlichen Stadt" (the staged window of the nightly town).
Art students of the HBK (College of Visual Arts) developed a concept of using shop windows as screens for their video art that seems to show the inside of the room. The project will be expanded to many more windows in the next year (Nov 2007 - Feb 2008), so I'm sure I'll show you more of those then. =)
This one, at the gallery K4, showed giant people who seemed to be trapped inside the room.
I made two videos, that you can watch here (Video 1, 12 MB) and here (Video 2, 25 MB).

German Garden Culture

My neighbour is on holidays at the moment, so I took the chance to take a picture of his garden (which should actually be a garden for all the tenants here, but never mind)... I guess this is what foreigners have in mind when they think of German garden culture, so here's the proof that it's actually true. =)
He's a proud Bavarian who moved here (there are two Bavarian flags, the blue and white ones), since the FIFA World Cup he also put a German flag there. Then he has several bird baths and birdhouses (which is like a drive-in for my cat) and who-knows-how-many garden gnomes. At least it's always nead and tidy there, as it should be for a proper German. =)

Underwater

Haha, I totally forgot what I wanted to show you since the Saar Spectacle (even if the picture is not great) - believe it or not, this is a diving truck! A diving school from Saarbrücken (Gerusa) put this thing up and had two frogmen inside (whose fins you can see there). Not the most spectacular view I'd guess but a nice way of mobile diving.
Unfortunately, I have no idea how much water the truck contains or how thick the windows are and stuff like that, but I thought I should show it to you, maybe some of you see something like that for the first time as well. =)

Dixie

No no, this is not a post about Dixie Music, but about a much more useful and necessary thing in life...
A little cabin that will soon go online, that Paris Hilton obviously had sex in, and that most people know from going to concerts and festivals... a Dixie toilet!
Do you have them too in your country? Do they look different? This one was a new design for us, which I thought is quite cute actually (usually they don't have that picture on them and look brown/blue), so here goes the bit unusual picture for today... =)

Boat Clubbing

Remember I showed you the Schwimmschiff some days ago?
What I didn't know until a week ago was that the ship also has a night club one floor under the restaurant. It's called Luv Club, and since they had a Techno Classix Special yesterday, I went there with my best friend necrotech.
The music and decoration inside the boat were brilliant, unfoortunately, there weren't too many people to make you really comfortable, so I only danced at the side for a bit. So whoever reads this from Saarbrücken, move your asses to the boat, it's really cool down there! =)

Bowling

Some friends and I were bowling in the Bowling Arene Saarbrücken yesterday. Here's a nice impression of how close success and despair were that evening. =)
Personally, I won a round with 3 opponents and miserably lost one against 2 others... Still, one victory is more than I'd usually have, to be fair, I pretty much suck at bowling. But it's very good fun and I love the chatting and booing and cheering amongst the players, so thanks my friends for that nice evening!

Saarbahn

Oh, I realised I haven't explained yet why there's a tram picture in the header of my blog.
Saarbrücken doesn't have an underground system, but lots of buses and tram lines, going all over the town up to France (Sarreguemines).
There are 22 trams that are called Saarbahn, and they've been running here since 1997. Every day, about 40.000 people take a ride. This is a picture of one of the main stops at the train station.
Another mystery solved... =)

My Favourite Bird

May I introduce my favourite bird in the whole world to you? It's no fancy colourful bird, but a common house sparrow... I love their tiny legs, and the way they jump with them. =)
This is a female sparrow, waiting to get some bread crumbs in front of Burger King. Cuuuute! (Unfortunately, my cat likes them too... =( )

Against Flip Flops

After Danafaye's bumpy slippers-entry I found something to counter... =)
Obviously there's an underground organisation in Saarbrücken that is against the type of shoes, they put this poster on top of normal announcements downtown. Sparkler will love that, cause he hates flip flops with a passion... Maybe you can sign up to the club somewhere...?

I scream...

... you scream, we scream for icecream! =)
Icecream at its best - Volksfest style! Those sales booths on wheels are very common at German fairs. You get them for all sorts of food, usually icecream, waffles, cotton candy, but also Bratwurst, steak or fries.
Yummy!

Science Ship

This inflatable football is part of a ship called "MS Wissenschaft" (MS Science) that anchored some days ago in Saarbrücken.
2006 is Informatics Year in Germany, and the ship shows the synergy of computer science and sports. They have lots of interactive exhibits that you can use and discover, like some muscle vibration devices that are used in space to stop the astronauts' muscles from degenerating, paddle challenges (paddle machines connected to a computer measuring how fast you and your opponent are), table soccer against a computer and many more.
The ship was here for the last day today, but Nicola from Wiesbaden will have a chance to see the ship and take more pictures of it from August 14 to 16. =)

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Update: I've put some pictures from inside the ship on my picture blog.

Saar Spectacle

Since Friday, the Saarspektakel is going again, a big festival that is held annually in early August.
There are several stages and lots of stalls serving food and drinks, all set up next to the river. There is even a floating stage!
They also have several sports competitions of kayak, canoe and even running. This is a picture of the dragon boat race, which is not just about fast teams, but also nice costumes (I haven't seen so many though).
The teams do a short "sprint" from one bride to another, I'd guess that's a distance of 500 metres. The dragon boats have up to 20 paddlers, one who's steering the boat in the end, and one on top who's responsible of screaming to his team and drumming the paddling rhytm on the big drum. The boats have little Chinese dragons on their bow.

Old Bridge

I saw this old footwalking bridge today for the first time, it's in the Bürgerpark Area.
It looks skewed and not reliant to me. The sides are made of painted wood, that obviously tries to resist the colour.

German-French History

Almost 136 years ago, part of the Franco-Prussian War took place here in Saarbrücken and the surrounding areas. There was a battle taking place August 6th, when German regiments were fighting against the French coming from Spichern, a French town close to here.
The monument was build for the 7th ulan regiment (link to a picture from 1815), "Zur Erinnerung an die treue Wacht 1870" (reminding of the loyal watch 1870).

Wonderful Weird Plant

I was walking along campus, and there I saw this amazing pink plant.
Since I don't know a lot about botany, I thought maybe you could help me? Lots of you take nice pictures of plants in their garden and the wild, so it might be it came across one of these fellows already.

Theme Day: Self Portrait In My Favourite Place

Today's theme for us daily bloggers was to take a self portrait in our favourite place in our city.
Since I love water (always have and always will =), I decided to take a picture at the river Saar. Unfortunately, Saarbrücken has no lake to swim in, and the river is not too clean, so I'm just standing close to it.
Actually, I was lucky to take a picture outside, it was raining all day and just stopped when I took the photo. Otherwise you would have gotten a pic of me in bed, because that's by far my most favourite place anywhere in the world! =)

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There are many other cities that took part in today's theme day (unfortunately not all of them), so make sure to visit their sites as well!
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