Beach Fee and Oriental coloring

Beach life in Germany is orderly and regulated. The guests are kept in baskets -- no, not behind bars! These prevent that someone else uses the beach basket in absence of the tenant. It is about 6.50$ a day. And if you just want to sit in the sand? Oh, this isn't free either. 2.60$ per day and person, the "Kur-Taxe" (this is not an eastern thing, we had that in the west for ages). We found a free beach and lay on the sand, a little offside.
We could have afforded to pay that fee. But we found it thrilling not to.

Living in East Germany

Weren't 20 years enough to remove all differences? Of course not! Life in the DDR, in the Democratic Republic of Germany, was obviously dull and grey. All the houses were covered with a rough brownish-grey stucco which reminds me a lot of the skin which was popular during Nazi times. And what made it worse: The rough surface collected a lot of the soot and dust that was produced by unfiltered furnaces. All the towns, all the houses looked alike and made you depressive when you were there. But what amazed me most: I saw houses with fresh stucco of the same kind! Most people try to give their houses a fresh look, using bright and vivid colors when they paint them. A greenish yellow is quite popular. But some seem to look back in what we call eastalgia.