A Note on Parrots

I don’t know how I managed to miss this out of my first Berlin blog, but I had a rather interesting experience whilst buying plants to add colour to my room in that first week (it’s decorated in the neutral cream/beige theme traditional for student rooms). The plant shop is rather large, sprawling as it does out onto the pavement in front of it, and I’d been thinking for a few days this would be the place to buy foliage. So upon this day I decided to wander inside and do just that. After a short moment’s confusion upon stepping inside, I located a table of house plants and other cactussy creatures, and began to peruse. I have to say, I was mildly surprised to hear the raucous squawk above my head, and this surprise increased somewhat when I looked up and found that the squawk belonged to a rather blue, rather large, and very real parrot. After a few seconds though, I got used to the idea, and continued my perusings. My surprise turned to full-on shock a few seconds later however, when, whilst considering a small cactus, I heard a great whoosh of air, and ducked just in time to prevent my head being detached from my body by a swooping parrot. The bloody thing dive-bombed me! Everyone else in the shop was most amused. Clearly parrots do not like being ignored. Of all the things I may have expected of Berlin, parrot terrorism was certainly not something I considered there to be a high risk of. Ah well…you live and learn, I suppose!