After completing my first eight photos of the Berlin Fotomarathon (see Part 1), and picking up my next set of prompts, I was starving.  Although I had already fueled myself with an energy bar and a banana over the previous four hours, I knew if I didn’t sit down for a meal, I was going to hit bottom soon.  So I headed to my favorite noodle shop near Alexanderplatz.  While I slurped my soup, I thought over my strategy for the next set of photos.

I knew I wasn’t more than a quick bus ride away from the next checkpoint, and since I know the area pretty well, I stayed near Alexanderplatz for this entire set of photos.

Photo 9: Stadtleben / city life. I found it difficult to capture an abundance of city life with the off-and-on pouring rain.  While I was trying to shoot this photo, most people seemed to be staying put.  In any case, though, there are few symbols more representative of Berlin than the Fernsehturm, so I went with it.

Photo 10: lauthals lachen / laughing out loud.  A place of entertainment for the people.  There’s bound to be some laughter going on, right?

Photo 11: sehnsüchtig / longing.   Maybe it was just because it was nearly 5pm and I was actually longing for a coffee at this point.

Photo 12: Denkpause / pause for thought.  I considered capturing some of my fellow cafe-goers drinking their coffee and reading the newspaper, but this portrait with a cigar caught my eye and I couldn’t resist.

Photo 13: Höhenflüge / flight of fancy.  I was actually walking around looking for birds, but instead came across flying flags for the Euro Cup.

Photo 14: richtig scharf / hot and spicy.  I had wanted to photograph a sex shop near by Susuru for this prompt, but there was too much scaffolding in front of the building obscuring the neon signs a little too much.  Ah well, maybe next time. :)  Instead I went for the obvious (although in reality, nothing is ever really that spicy in Germany).

Photo 15: Naschkatze / sweet tooth.  A whole booth full of gummy candies is not to be resisted.

Photo 16: sorglos / carefree.  Remember how amazing riding on a carousel was as a child?  That’s why I shot this photo.

Soon after, an incredible downpour began.  Luckily, I was able to escape it while waiting in a shelter at the bus stop on my way to the next checkpoint, the Berlinische Galerie.   Arriving with plenty of time to spare — eight hours after starting this adventure — I was feeling creatively drained, but still happy that I was managing to complete each set of photos on time.  (Again, a major improvement from last year when I was already three hours behind by this point!)

With my final set of prompts in hand, I sat down in an empty corner of the gallery and pondered my options.

To be continued…