Where Trabis sleep at night by jyokota

Where Trabis sleep at night

East German Trabis used for tourism, that is. There are stories and stories about how people waited years to get one, and once they had one, they used all available ways to keep them running.

I took a lot of photos today. All but two were of books used in my research. And the only two non-book photos I took today were on my bike ride home when I stopped to photograph this Trabi Parking Lot.

Love this photo! What cute cars! Love the "safari" one--stands out. Oh, and we have a friend in high school who is about to take a trip to Japan, and she started a blog. She is one of the teens who first inspired Kira to study Japanese. She's taking her third trip there now! When do you leave for Japan? http://janeclaireinjapan.blogspot.com/
June 13th, 2013  
@darylo -- I think these cars are nostalgic and appealing in their "cute factor" but they were a pain to keep running!

We leave on Sunday morning and Michael has set up a blog so we will post the blog address. We've kept blogs of our trips since 2007.
June 13th, 2013  
What a fun shot. Such awful cars, but they make such a great pattern and image. And you're right -- the cuteness factor plays a big part in what makes the photo work.
June 13th, 2013  
Fantastic photos of rather legendary cars.
June 13th, 2013  
Oh, the good old Trabis :-)
My parents used to have a Skoda, then later a Lada. We had luck, we didn't have to wait so long, because my father was in the army so he had certain privileges :-).
It wasn't as painful to keep them running as you might think. Technically they were as simple as a stick, so you could do a lot on your own if something went wrong. It was also much cheaper than now. For example, someone kicked a mirror off of our friend's car. It costed well over 400€ to replace it... :-/
June 13th, 2013  
@darylo -- the blog address is http://ethsjapantrip2013.blogspot.com but there probably won't be anything to read on it until at least Monday.
June 13th, 2013  
@taffy -- you can always see the patterns in our world! These were eye-catching as I rode my bicycle home from meeting a new friend one day.
June 13th, 2013  
@carolinedreams - yes, and they always bring a smile when I see them around town. I've read about their history and it's quite interesting!
June 13th, 2013  
@endrem -- I've heard that owners all knew how to keep their Trabis running and would even do repairs on their kitchen tables! 400 euros to replace a mirror?
June 13th, 2013  
@jyokota Don't forget to Hadouken too! ;)
June 13th, 2013  
@jyokota Yes, there are so many things in there nowadays: motors to move it and to clap it in, heating, light, etc. and of course the time to build it in.
June 13th, 2013  
I have never heard of the Trabis...but it is a cool shot.
June 17th, 2013  
Fab. We walked past here on our walking tour.Mt first memory of Trabis was on the Actung Baby U2 tour in the early 1990s. I saw them in Frankfurt and there were Trabis hanging from the ceiling with the spotlights in their headlights!
September 20th, 2013  
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