DM

So weird, there's a tobacco/magazine shop that put a poster in their window, announcing that from now on they will accept D-Mark (that was superseded by the Euro 5 years ago) again.
I heard in the news a while ago that there are still 14 billion D-Mark owned by people who didn't change this money into Euros!

Registry Office Dudweiler

Dudweiler, that used to be Germany's biggest village, is now an official part of Saarbrücken.
It still has an own town hall and a registry office with some of the prettiest lamps I've seen around. Cute little dragons... =)

Sun Conures

These are some more animals from the zoo that I was absolutely fascinated of. These parrots are called sun conures, relating to the gorgeous colour of their feathers.
Here is some information of a breeder I found on the web.

Jaguar

This is the cute jaguar from Saarbrücken zoo. I love big cats!

HuKo

Our mayor tries to keep the city nice and clean.
One thing that helps doing this are the HuKo-facilities along the river bank Staden. HuKo means Hundekot (Dogshit) and provides little plastic bags that dog owners can use to remove the pooh of their doggies. Unfortunately, not too many people are using these. =(

Youth Centre

This is Dudweiler's youth centre, looking like an old mansion from a Hitchcock-movie. =)
Youth centres here are really important to prevent kids from getting on the wrong tracks, in cooperation with the town, they offer a lot of projects, care and help for them.

Balloon

Angie and I decided to let a balloon fly in the big place in front of the theatre.
You should have seen her cry once she realised that the balloon is not coming back to her... =)

Roses

Another one from carnival, today is "Aschermittwoch", the official end of the "season".
I liked this pic of a costumed lady who gave flowers to the party people...

Zoo Kids

Today, the Saarbrücken zoo had a special event for children. If they arrived there in a costume, they didn't have to pay the entrance fee, and they could take part in the "animal olympics".
There were 5 disciplines, including spitting like a lama, jumping like a kangaroo, running like a cheetah, standing still like a flamingo, and playing vet. Afterwards, there was a guided tour through the zoo. Great fun for the kids!!! (My sis is the tiger. =)

Rosenmontag

Carnival Monday (Rosenmontag) in Saarbrücken!
This is what it must have looked like today downtown, but since my sis and I are ill, I had to take a shot from yesterday's procession.

Carnival Procession

I went to Saarbrücken-Dudweiler today with my little sister Angie who visits me for one week.
They had a big carnival procession there, which is a parade of carnival club members. You'll have dancers, orchestras, all kinds of dressed up people and these guys - probably the most important ones in their club - the Elferrat, 11 guys all wearing those funny hats who are the "parliament" of the carnival club. They organise events and processions like these.
The fun thing about those processions is (especially for kids) that most of the parade walkers throw candies or other snacks into the audience (you can see two packets of crisps flying towards me here).

Piggy Graffiti

This is a close-up on one of the graffities on the Saar bank.
I will use the cute piggy to welcome the Chinese New Year from here! Good luck from Saarbrücken!!!

High Water Mark

At the Saar bank, there is a mark at Wilhelm-Heinrich-Brücke, showing the high water mark from 1993. In this year there were "century high waters" all over Germany.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find the actual number of metres for this mark, but the news said that the river got 3 times as strong as usual. I found some pictures from back then here.
High water is always very critical for my town, because the whole centre of town will be flooded. This year, luckily it wasn't critical yet.

Lions Don't Exist!

Wow, today I found out news that shook my world - lions don't exist!!! They're nothing but humans in a lion skin, as this picture from the dressing room at the gym reveals. One of these "African animals" (I'm curious who made that story up) was not careful enough and left it's outfit behind...
I'm sure you're just as shocked as I am about this sensational revelation.

Happy Valentine's Day

Hello everybody, from all my heart, I wish you a HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!
I hope you have a great day and you can enjoy the day with something sweet (like those cakes from a local bakery... or your sweetheart?!).

Praying...

Another picture from Perspektive 1, I hope I'm not getting on your nerves?
But I had to show you the statue that welcomes you when you come into the bar, it's prying for good wishes as I have been told, and people who enter put money on his head and his arms/hands to have their wishes granted.

Ad Wall

Some houses have big painted adverts that can stretch over the whole wall.
This one is an old advert for Morsch Men's Fashion that is located in Victoriastrasse.

Door Ornament

Another pretty door ornament that I've seen downtown. It didn't have an indication of how old it is, but I would guess roughly about 100 years. Below it it says "drücken" (push).

Save the Mice!

Since I share my flat with a natural born killer, I often have the chance to save little mice.
This cute one survived tonight's attack, I put it under a plastic cover, took some pictures and put it back into the garden. How can my cat be so evil to kill these cuties?

Road Constructions

Half of the road to my working place is basically non-existent at the moment. It's fun to find a new way into the building every morning. =)

Lye Rolls

I wanted to show you the result of me trying to make lye rolls (for the first time) today, a very German sort of pastry that is supposed to be turned magically into nice, round rolls while baking... well, you see my version here. =)
But I can calm you down: they taste lovely. (Lye rolls taste like salty soft white rolls, like pretzels actually - It's the same dough.)

Snowflakes

Whoopee, it was snowing again today. The downside was, that it was wet snow that didn't last... =(
Still, nice to see. I love snow!

Internet Booth

Wow, there's one thing I haven't noticed before... a public internet booth where you can surf the web for some cents. The service provider is Deutsche Telekom.
It's surrounded by two Telekom phone booths.

Jenga

I was telling you about the games you can play in the bar "Perspektive 1".
When we were there, we tried their gigantic Jenga (the game where you have to remove wood cuboids from a large stack of them - hmm, hard to describe shortly =).
This is Nils who pulls a cuboid from the bottom and now carefully places it back on top (yes, the tower lasted!!!).

Wir fünfzigen

Yes, thanks to some very creative brains here in Saarland, we have THE line to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Saarland: WIR FÜNFZIGEN (WE'RE FIFTYING)... We might have our famous Karlsberg beer here, but I vote against drinking this in the advertising agencies! =)
Anyway, this is a nicer line on a beer mat: 50 years Saarland. Great that you're here.

Empty Branches

The trees look cold and dead just now - scary somehow.

Carnival

It's carnival time in Germany!
The Saarländers are not as mad about it as other people in other German areas like Cologne or Mainz, but still there are many parties and balls around our area. For interested party people: Our carnival "battle call" is "Alleh hopp!".
A hairdresser downtown had the cutest decoration that I had to show you.
Have a great time dressing up at carnival!!!

Theme Day: Something that Annoys

It's Theme Day time again, yippie!
This time, we decided to show the world something that really annoys us in our town.
One thing that makes me really angry here, is that we (as the capital of our federal county, just to mention that) don't have a proper swimming pool in town.
There is one close, but it is just for wellness swimming. The university has one, but most of the time, sports students have booked it (there are two time slots for other students only, 7am until 8am on Tuesday and 12am to 1pm on Thursday). And for other pools, you have to go out of Saarbrücken (which is no fun without a car, believe me!).
For me, who grew up living next to a proper lake, this is just horrible and MOST ANNOYING!!!

So here is the poster hanging on the entry door of the former pool downtown (yes, there used to be one), telling the people that the pool is closed since 2001. Aaaargh!


Make sure to visit all the other annoyed people around the world... =)

1. Porto (Portugal) 2. Stayton, OR (USA) 3. Albuquerque, NM (USA) 4. Tenerife (Spain) 5. Greenville, SC (USA) 6. Dubai (UAE) 7. Evry (France) 8. Jakarta (Indonesia) 9. London (UK) 10. Sequim, WA (USA) 11. Buenos Aires, (Argentina) 12. Seattle, WA (USA) 13. Minneapolis, MN (USA) 14. Stavanger (Norway) 15. Joplin, MO (USA) 16. Nelson (New Zealand) 17. Milano (Italy) 18. Singapore by KeropokMan 19. La Antigua (Guatemala) 20. Nottingham (UK) 21. Singapore by Zannnie 22. Budapest (Hungary) 23. Not Strictly Seattle, WA (USA) 24. Bandung (Indonesia) 25. Vantaa (Finland) 26. Hyde (UK) 27. Madrid by Dsole (Spain) 28. Oulu (Finland) 29. Saarbrücken (Germany) 30. St. Paul, MN by Carol (USA)

31. Sydney by Sally (Australia) 32. Tokyo (Japan) 33. Kyoto (Japan) 34. Trujillo (Peru) 35. Shanghai (China) 36. Rotterdam (Netherlands) 37. Chicago, IL (USA) 38. Nice (France) 39. Naples, FL (USA) 40. Hong Kong 41. Santa Clara, CA (USA) 42. Quito (Ecuador) 43. Cottage Grove, MN (USA) 44. Paris (France) 45. Manila (Philippines) 46. Brussels (Belgium) 47. Auckland (New Zealand) 48. Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) 49. Sydney by Nathalie (Australia) 50. Houston, TX (USA) 51. Mumbai (India) 52. New York, NY (USA) 53. Anderson, SC (USA) 54. Cherbourg-Octeville (France) 55. Cheltenham (UK) 56. Constanta (Romania) 57. Nantes (France) 58. Adelaide (Australia) 59. Tucson, AZ (USA) 60. Maple Ridge (Canada)