13 yo - Happy BDay Josh!!!!!

Organizing our son’s 13th BDay party this year had been more arduous than before.  I don’t know enough attractive locations here in Berlin that could captivate the interest of my 13 year old son, besides the Lasertag Arena. In addition, he’s now entering the “Terrible Teen” age and I’m persuaded that he would feel too old for cute partyware... I needed to come up with something fun,  original and memorable, but not too overwhelming for me.

After some hours spent searching for ideas, I came up with a reasonable plan: I told him to invite 2-3 guests of his choice for a special day trip to Tropical Island Resort, just 40 minutes away from Berlin. It is the world’s largest freestanding buildings (the world's largest single hall without supporting pillars inside), standing on an inconspicuous area on the way to Dresden.

It’s majestic: the shiny silver dome that soars over the landscape is so tall (107 m tall and 360 metres long) that the Statue of Liberty in New York (93 m) and the Eiffel Tower in Paris (322 m) could be in it.

It covers an area of the size of several football stadiums and the indoor pool is the size of four Olympic pools. One of the building’s sides is entirely covered by a transparent film to let the daylight in.

The hall accommodates gardens, swamps, lagoons, the world’s largest indoor tropical forest, sandy beaches with hundreds of coconut palms, a 9 story tall water slide, trampolines, climbing walls, race toy cars, and canoe, basketball, table tennis, and a castle build with more than 2.3 thousand Lego blocks, in addition to myriads of shops, restaurants, bars, hotels, tents, lodges, whirlpool, and even a hot air balloon.

Inside the hall, the air temperature never drops below 26 °C (79 degree Fahrenheit) and water in the pools has nice 28-31 degrees, so even the youngest can splash around at will.

The history of this monumental hangar is quite impressive.

It all started in 1938 when Germany began to develop the Brand-Briesen Airfield for the Luftwaffe's Brand-Guben Pilot Training School, the aerial warfare branch of the German Wehrmacht (unified armed force) during World War II.

When in May 1945 The Red Army overran the site, they created the first and largest military airports in the German Democratic Republic. 

The USSR stationed here the Su-24 Fencers, a type of land-based strike aircraft capable of being configured with nuclear weapons. 

In addition to its function as a military airport, the site also served as an airport for state visits: it was here that, on October 17, 1963, a Russian Tupolev airliner landed carrying the cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova and Yuri Gagarin.

With the reunification of East Germany in 1989/90, the Soviet Army agreed to return to the Federal Government of Germany all military bases, including the Brand Briesen Airfield. Shortly after, in 1998, a German company, Cargolifter AG, bought the former Soviet Air force base military airfield to use it as a hangar for giant airships.

The renovated hangar (renamed Aerium) took the commission of building the semi-rigid airship CL160, a super-heavy lift cargo airship, designed to transport very heavy objects and deliver them to difficult locations, such as mountainous or jungle terrain where traditional logistics would struggle, just as a “flying crane”. 

Unfortunately, none of this giant zeppelin was ever built since the company went bankrupt in 2002 and the hangar hangar fell into disuse.

Then, in 2004, the hangar was purchased by a Malaysan  company with the aim of building a year-round tropical paradise (a project initially considered foolish, given its location). That’s how it became this incredible theme park!

On arrival, we received a chip bracelet, pre-charged with enough money to pay for all the attraction and the food: it works as a credit card strapped to your arm such that you don’t need to carry around your locker key nor your wallet… Smart way to encourage spending money while in your swimsuit!

We entered the locker rooms (a maze made of thousands perfectly aligned lockers) and easily changed into our swimming suits. Presuming that 8 hours of unsupervised free time would be abundantly gratifying, we agreed with the boys to meeting at 6 pm. Unexpectedly, no one argued! Then we waved the guys good bye and we hit the beach!

During the day, we barely saw the 3 boys: they were busy exploring every single attraction in the Tropical World area. Occasionally we crossed our path while waiting in line for the water slides but that’s about it.

After a couple of relaxing hours, Giuseppe and I resolved to visit the Tropical Sauna & Spa complex:  here saunas of all type, massages, meditation, complete relaxation and tranquility (you name it!) welcome you. Of course, being this Germany, the attitude towards public nudity is way more relaxed than in USA. For instance, they specifically request to uncover yourself while entering the sauna:

The towels are mainly used to sit down and protect your bare behind. Of course, walking around nude in unfamiliar situations is not something we do on a daily basis but as soon as we entered the spa complex we saw dozens of buck naked adults, teens and kids relaxing in the pools, rinsing in the showers, sipping their drinks. No one paid too much attention to us, at least not more than a passing glance.

After our audacious experience into the nude, we returned to our normal clothed selves, we put our suits back and we reappeared in the ordinary world.

When we met with our now teenager kid and his two buddies, my beloved son showed me his fresh tattoo! 

Thankfully we set a limit on the chip bracelet charge! I can’t imagine how many other foolish idea he would have, if provided with an unlimited amount of money!  

“When the cat's away, the mice will play”...

Happy B-Day, Josh!

"Süßes oder Saures" – it’s All Hallows' Eve (Eve of All Saints)!

I started celebrating Halloween only since I moved to California, in 2005 but, thanks also to my son, I was very soon seduced by the this festival and its historical aim to overcome the most ancient fears of death.

I am fascinated by this ancient tradition, in which the spirits of the departed are celebrated. They are thought to revisit their old homes, stalking in procession through every street, stopping at the front doors lighten with candles, and they are offered goods and candies.

I like the tradition of Trick or Treating ("Süßes oder Saures", literally "sweet or sour", as they say here in Germany), when souling children proceed from house to house singing carols and reciting poems, such that a soul is delivered each time a candy is offered. Of course, I don’t eat any of the treats but I enjoy taking part of it.

Halloween is indisputably one of the most successful celebrations in South Pasadena. 

Thus, when we moved here, I feared that we wouldn’t be able to take part of this traditional festivity any longer. In fact, I learned that Halloween was not popular in Germany prior to the 1990s. The main reason appears to be the opposition of the Lutheran Church, whose tenets were against scary costumes, as well as fear of spirits, ghosts, and the devil. Reformation Day was established on October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg protesting the sale of indulgence.

I still find a bit contradicting the selling of Lutherbonbons, orange candies in wrappers bearing Luther's portrait)… 

But things changed so much in the past years! The festivity was introduced in this country in 1991, when the state cancelled celebrations for the hugely popular Karnival, due to the First Gulf War. 

The German Association for the Toy Industry (Deutscher Verband der Spielwarenindustrie, DVSI) was forced to look for alternatives because the economic losses were huge. But which one?

Apparently the US 435th Transportation Squadron stationed at Rhine-Main Air Base had already started, since 1978, an annual Halloween festivity at the Frankenstein castle, near Darmstadt (the one who is believed to have inspired Mary Shelley's novel). 

The popularity of this event (it is now one of the biggest Halloween festivals in Europe), the need for the Germans to find another festivity to boost their economy and replace their losses together with a campaign promoted by the DVSI, all together helped spread Halloween across Germany. 

Since then, the capital Berlin organizes quite a variety of events for this increasingly popular event: you can experience ghosts and special horror effects in a former air-raid shelter of the Berliner Gruselkabinett, or visit the Berlin Dungeon, watch a selection of horror movies at the Fantasy Filmfest…or just go out in the street and have fun! That’s what we did. 

We live in the Dahlem, a western neighborhood in Berlin, which was part of the American zone during the Cold War and is still known for its American residents. Due to the strong US influence, the popularity of this event is huge here: thousands of children roam the streets, ringing the bell at their neighbors and ask for tricks or treats. Kids and parents dress up as ghosts, wizards and mummified corpses. We decided that we wouldn’t miss the opportunity. Josh invited a couple of American friends: we carved pumpkins and the guys dressed up while waiting for the sundown. 

  

We even had an unexpected visit by some kids, dressed in costumes, who knocked at our door…

Then we went strolling around the neighborhood. The streets were filled with people parading as zombies, vampires, ghosts and monsters. The homes were fully decorated with spooky spider webs, masks and skeletons while pumpkins adorned most of the windows and front porches. Some owners even offered us Glühwein (mulled wine)! Of course, some Germans, manly elderly, reportedly complain of vandalism in association with Halloween "Tricks" (eggs thrown at the windows, fireworks put through the letterboxes), but luckily we haven’t witnessed any of this. It was a spooktacular evening!!!!