july: surprises in hinterland.

my grandmother and grandfather had decided to celebrate both their birthdays in a small village called laucha, which is situated in an area near the city gotha you could easily call urban hinterland. it's always as if you enter a place where time has stopped for quite some time or at least it goes a little slower.

my grandparents came to the party with an old trabant, which is the epitome of ostalgie ( a word that derives from east and nostalgia - which basically means that there are things that make you nostalgic for old times back in the german democratic republic. yes, there are things that are still loved dearly and by which people are still extremely fascinated by. you can call it outdated or sticking permanently to the past, but it's actually quite nostalgic and quite a nice way to commemorate the old times. to forget the past, is also to kind of forget yourself. for me, everything vintage and historic is important, because that's where your roots are. oh man, did i start philosophizing again? ) laucha is really small, there are only about 500 people living in this tiny village. there is nothing much to see here, except that there still were a few surprises! an artist's house was sitting right next to the restaurant we were celebrating, full of wood figurines and statues and brightly painted doors! it was a sight to behold. in the back of the park there's also a little lake where we found little frogs, ducks, geese and a few idyllic places to photograph. even though it rained really heavy in late afternoon we managed to spend some time outside and just enjoying the quiet surroundings.

himmelblauer trabant - sky blue trabant. that's the stereotypical model, and also the model everyone wanted to have. there's a song by sonja schmidt as well, a very cheesy iconic folk song.

very sleek and easy design.

the artist who lives in the beautiful old house next to the restaurant is a creator of playground equipments. spielart seems to be a really great and one of a kind company, everything's made of natural materials and you can sense that a lot of love for details went into the creating process. they have a nice website ( even in english! ) where you can take a peek at their catalogues! i loved the whole house, you could find little figurines everywhere and in the drive you could also marvel at one of their playgrounds.

this door was my personal highlight! who couldn't resist a wooden cat door?

tiny idyllic ponds in the park.

and a bigger lake. lots of angler people surrounded it.

beautiful ducks. these are not typical ducks that you can find naturally in the area, some of them were indian runner ducks ( the ones with the long neck ) and some other ones, that i couldn't identify. ( the ones with the light brown neck and speckled coat ).