It is a warm german summer day. The hot air makes me lazy. Still I have gotten myself out here, on a quiet road on the countryside, a small day trip away from Berlin. While walking, I pass this woman taking lovely care of her old east german car; the trabant. The car has seen brighter days, but it is still in good shape. The owner couldn't let go of it I guess. Just trash it like most people do with their old cars, before they buy their next new baby. This car, however, is not like all other cars, its different. It is a trabi. In the DDR, most people had to wait up to 15 years in line to receive one because of production shortages. It was also the only real option if you wanted something faster than a bike. All this made the ownership and the ties to it stronger, even if Its performance was satisfactory on its best. With its smoky two-stroke engine, it was simply an obvious looser compared to vehicles of the west. Anyway, out here in the fields those considerations have less importance now. The plastic body of the vehicle is something that doesn't deteriorate easy, and its blue color will probably stay shiny for more years to come. The flowers in the engine room as well. As I get home, I read somewhere that 3,096,099 trabants were produced in total. A very accurate number. I wonder if there are even thousand left on the roads these days. Probably thousands more are used as gimmicks or rolling tourist attractions, while countless others just rests buried in random places, or are made into ironic monuments of the past.