Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Schneeballschlacht

On Sunday there was a HUGE snowball fight in Görlitzer Park pitting my neighborhood, Neukölln, and the next-door neighborhood, Kreuzberg, against each other.
As we trekked through the snow from another delicious Berlin brunch we heard a loud roaring sound coming from the center of the park. When we rounded the corner, we saw a ginormous crowd of people with snowballs flying every which way in the air above!
We soon found our crew and were illuminated as to which side of the divide we should be fighting on, and dove right in.
War drums thumped in the background as wave after wave from the Kreuzberg side came up against our front line, yelling and throwing deathballs of snow and ice. Small children, dogs, and people in giant snowmen outfits cavorted in the death strip between the two sides. Occasionally someone would try a new strategy, like riding a sled down the divide, pelting snowballs as they sped by, or trying a double attack with one person on another's shoulders. While from a tactical perspective these were usually failures they certainly provided hilarity.
Some people had shields, some people had slings to carry snow or pre-made snowballs at an easy-to-reach level, some had intense winter gear like goggles or snowsuits. Me, I had gloves that stuck to the snow and managed to rip my jeans. Clearly I was ill-prepared.
Sadly I did not have my camera with me but I have taken some photos from the facebook event to give an idea of what is was like:

I think this sling device is why I almost went deaf in one ear after receiving a particularly hard snowball to the side of my head:





Berliners sure love their outdoor spaces...even in winter. Just this morning I had to wade through a bunch of little kids, their mothers clutching sleds, on the U-Bahn platform. Everyone uses these great old school wooden sleds with runners and I see them being carried on public transport all the time.
Off to Paris tonight!
Bis bald,
D.

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