>As late as 1984 in East Berlin you couldn't see the skyline due to the smoke from the chimneys. Most were burning coal. I was amazed that almost every building had a huge pile of coal in the yard and all buildings were emitting black smoke. Of course that was not nearly as amazing as the vehicles they drove, or their clothes choices, or food options (except in the tourist hotels and restaurants that I only visited for comparison sake).

I drove a Trabant. My father still drives it. It's a funny vehicle, and it's definitely hard to love. But I'm still amazed at the minimalistic solutions on which it was built - and if the materials were of any decent quality, it would have lasted much longer. Usually, whenever anyone asked "does Trabant have a" I'd interrupt with a "no", and then listened to the rest of the question - and I already gave the correct answer.

It has a digital gas level measure - there are digits on the dipstick :)

Occasionally, I used it as a political statement. When some of Milosevic's cronies would park in front of the entrance to the City Hall (which is in violation of any imaginable parking law imaginable), I'd usually pretend I'm somewhat stuck, then I'd just step on it... engulfing the guy in a cloud of blue smoke. Well if they didn't steal all the money, my company would have made enough for me to buy something that uses unleaded, not the 3% machine oil mix.

It's currently in some sort of zombie state - runs, but needs some parts from time to time.