Sunny, rainy, cold, sunny, rainy, cold-taxi!

Germans love barbecuing as much as they love eating ice cream. In the summer, the streets are filled with the scent of meat and veggies (but mostly meat, let's be honest!) grillin'. All places are good to BBQ: parks, in someone's garden or on someone's balcony. If you don't have a BBQ of your own, that's ok, because you can buy a one-use-only BBQ at the supermarket for 2.50 euros or less- worth it!
My friend Chris was here this week-end for a visit, and we thought that having a BBQ in Tiergarten would be a fantastic idea. So on Saturday morning, before even sitting down to breakfast, I prepared what we would later be grilling: zucchini, red peppers and mushrooms marinated in balsamic vinegar; zucchini, onions and feta (to be cooked in aluminum foil); rocket and tomato salad. We bought some small sausages and pork steaks to go with that, and as my friend Rebecca was coming, and as she is vegetarian, we also bought some cheese to grill (something similar to Haloumi). To drink, we decided to go with something a bit more fancy than beer- rosé sparkling wine, called Prosecco here in Germany. Our little picnic was going to be perfect! We had blankets and Uno cards, plates and glasses and utensils and fancy napkins- all that you need for a perfect BBQ.
As we were walking towards the park, I mentioned to my friends that I had brought an umbrella. Apparently, that was funny, because both of them started to laugh- as I was not laughing at that moment, it was clear that they were laughing at me, and not with me! They asked why I would bother bringing an umbrella in such a lovely sunny day, and I said I thought we might need it at some point, to get away from the sun. They nudged and we kept on walking.
We set up our blankets and stared to unpack cooler and various bags in a sunny part of the park, next to a few trees.
The BBQ lit up with no problems, and soon, they were hot enough so that we could start grilling our food. Chris opened the first Prosecco bottle and we drank to a fantastic afternoon. The food was done in a remarkable short amount of time, and we all dug in- everything was delicious. As we were all starting to feel quite full, we noticed that the sun had disappeared behind a very big and very dark cloud. A few drops were felt, but nothing to panic about. However, a few minutes later, the few drops turned into a very big downpour! And guess who was happy to have an umbrella to hide under at that point- yep! You've guessed it, Rebecca and Chris!
The lesson of this story is: don't laugh at the person who brings an umbrella on a sunny day to a picnic!