Speaking of fish – rumour has it, there lives a wels catfish at Schlachtensee, which also likes to eat Dackel (dachshund) every one in a while.

The story says that granny walked her Dackel at Schlachtensee, then little Dackel went for a refreshing swin and never returned – I kid you not. There are also reports of where a wels catfish ate a swan, and a swan is in general bigger than Dackel.

(The picture was taken by Lucas van der Geest and is GPL-licensed.)

You often hear that the people of Berlin have special “funny” names for distinctive buildings of the city. There are many examples like Erichs Lampenladen (Erich Honecker’s Lampstore, because of the extraordinary ceiling lights that used to be inside) for the Palast der Republik, Langer Lulatsch (long beanpole) meaning the Funkturm, Tele-Spargel (Tele-Asparagus) for the Fernsehturm, Schwangere Auster (pregnant oyster) for the Haus der Kulturen der Welt and so on. Tourist guides and tourists seem to love those hilarious names but actually you never hear someone from Berlin use those terms. I can only guess why… Those names are just so damn idiotic!
Some might be made up by yellowpress journalists, others by touristguides or guidebooks. So if you care about your good reputation and don’t want people to know that you do not know much about Berlin and that you are not a “real” Berliner just DON’T use those names!

Tags: berlin

When people come to Berlin, you are naturally stuck with site seeing and one of the questions which always pops up is, “Did he (JFK) really say, I am a jelly-donut?”.

No, silly. He did not.

In fact, “Ich bin ein Berliner”, which sounds more like, “Ik bihn eyn Berlinr” when you are American – despite the obvious heavy accent – means “I am a citizen of Berlin”.
John F. Kennedy could have probably just said that, but by using German he emphasized his relation to the city of Berlin and its peculiar situation – the East-West devision by the Berlin wall and the city being around by East-Germany.

So much for an urban legend which is just wrong.

Tags: Berlin, urbanlegends