Deutsches Museum, A Holly List, and A Strange Fact

I think this time I'll stick with the order listed in the title.

Yesterday I got to visit the Deutsches Museum. I wasn't really sure what to expect because I hadn't heard too much about it and my host mother said it was more of a "science" museum. She said it with kind of a negative inflection, so I figured that it wasn't really something I should go see. Nevertheless, when I want to know what something is, my brain won't shut up until I find out.

I did my research of course. The Deusches Museum website is pretty informative, and in English which was helpful, but all I really got out of it was that they have a lot of... stuff... in their museum. We're talking like massive amounts of information about everything. Roughly Holly translated for those of you who know me, it is EXACTLY my kind of museum. One of the largest science/information type museums in the world.

Downfall of course was that I only had three hours there, so I couldn't very well see and read everything, but I did walk through and take a lot of pictures. Personal favorite exhibitions of mine included: paper, geodesy, the sundial garden, and I really liked a display they had on the working technology of lasers. (Unfortunately, I didn't get a good chance to really look through the geodesy area. I do love a good map though. Future career maybe?) Other exhibitions I enjoyed, partly for myself and partly because it made me think of family/friends/or fiance (my three F's) include, but are not limited to: musical instruments (that was fun), computers, pharmaceutics, aeronautics, and I do find Foucault's pendulum fascinating. I hate waiting for those stupid pins to get knocked over though. Creates anxiety with every swing of the pendulum.

Anyhow, enjoy the pictures I have selected to share with you. Dear family and friends, I hope you enjoy the pictures that made me think of you. Not every exhibition was photographed due to lighting and such, but a large portion was. Click the pictures to enlarge please!

Deutsches Museum main entrance.

They had a whole display of ships of varying sizes. This ship is an American Clipper named "Republic" and sailed from Kennebunk, Maine... and I just so happened to have been in that neighborhood...

I thought this was super cool. It's a mercury arc rectifier. I know I'm a geek, but I thought this was really neat looking.

Another personal favorite display. This shows what women had to go through for the sake of vanity and unsurprisingly much of the information on the walls referred to American women. The display also shows what the natural body shape of a woman is and what would happen with the use of a corset. Very fascinating.

They had a robotics room and this was an interesting piece. It's the ARMAR II Andropromorphic Service Robot. It can be used to set a table, load and unload a dishwasher, interacting verbally and non-verbally with humans, and much more. I thought it was kind of fascinating.

The dreaded Foucault's Pendulum. I wanted to wait until a pin dropped but I just couldn't. I 've seen it before and that's the only consolation I had.

Most of my family is musical but somehow I lacked this. I tried the trumpet and french horn but failed. My mother, however, plays the flute and above are some antique flutes.

Likewise, my uncle is what I would call a "saxophone connoisseur." He not only plays but knows probably everything about them. I thought it was really neat that I saw saxophones from the 1700's here.

Continuing on with the musical aspect, my friend Justin is not exactly a musician (don't argue!) but he does love the Japanese (I'm actually becoming a fan more and more myself) and I saw this neat Japanese frame drum.

Further into the musical instruments, violins, violas, and the like were found. My grandpa plays the violin, so finding one from the 1700's was very neat. As you can see from the above picture, styles of instruments have not changed a whole lot over the years.

I love musical instruments as you can see, and I have always loved pianos and harps. This is the piano room. They had a harp display but I chose not to show it here. Given the choice I would love to learn how to play the harp. It's a very "Holly-like" instrument.

They had a lady demonstration on one of the pianos. Very neat.

Kites! I love kites. These are Japanese kites, continuing with the Japanese theme.

Okay, I do have another dream not so well known to my three F's: I really, really want to ride in a hot air balloon. Really bad. I must find out how to do this.

The paper making and historical significance area was really fascinating to me because I do love paper and am big on recycling. I loved this craft-based display. A better picture of the description is below.

It's almost poetic.

Both my uncle and my fiance are very much into computers. They had a whole room dedicated to the history and development. Unfortunately I didn't get many good pictures. I didn't have a whole lot of time left.

It sounds ridiculous, but I love maps and globes. It goes along with my love of traveling. I suppose if I had one love and not the other I would never have actually traveled.

I don't quite understand why, but I really wanted to see the sundial garden. I really love sundials and the concept of them, as it turns out.

Probably the most unique sundial I saw: the "bifilar sundial." Even after reading the description below I'm still not really sure how to read it.

How the bifilar sundial works.

Onto the next order of business: the next Holly List!

THE TOP TEN REASONS I WILL MISS BEING IN MUNICH/GERMANY

1) Language and Culture - This one's kind of a given. I love learning the language and even though I'm still having problem with tenses of nouns (yes nouns, they have like 100 words for the English word "the" and plural forms of words is not a straight forward topic), I've gotten pretty good at understanding and okay at speaking. (Accent needs work though...) The culture is fabulous. I love how they're not fueled by what's on TV, they are very rooted in tradition, and it's amazing that many people will still wear lederhosen and dirndls just because they want to! I love it!

2) The Food - Another given for me. The food, particularly the pretzels and dairy products, are amazing. Here in Europe I found out they use raw milk to make cheeses, which explains why they taste WAY better than American cheeses. Something I also noticed was the use of the Tonka bean. I kept seeing this yogurt and this sweet nut spread containing "Tonka." I tried to translate it, but the translation only gave me "Tonka" back. I tried to Google it, but no luck until I realized it was a bean. When I added "bean" to the search, I discovered it's a bean native to Mexico that is, believe it or not, ILLEGAL in the United States! Why? Apparently it can be deadly in high doses, plus give some hallucinatory effects, also in high doses. For anyone that knows anything about spices, so can nutmeg. Cinnamon is bad for you in high doses as well. I'm going to get my fill of Tonka while I still can here. It tastes great! (Vanilla-y with a bit of nutmeg-y/cinnamon-y. Yum!) The grocery shopping is truly amazing also. Even though I shop mostly in organic stores, the array of foods available to me in organic form is amazing, plus I can use my own reusable bag and no one looks at me funny. Actually, they charge you for using plastic bags. I love it!

3) Crafting - Go into a Joann Fabrics in the States and the average age of the shoppers would probably be around 40-45. Now, go into an Idee Creativmarkt here in Germany and the average age of shoppers gets lowered to around 30. What they have to offer for craft supplies makes me gleeful. Yes gleeful. I'm going to miss it.

4) Public Transportation - I have gotten into a car only about 5 or 6 times since being here. I love the S-Bahn and U-Bahn system. I can get everywhere! It's economical, not that expensive, and for the most part fast and reliable. Why can't we have decent public transportation in America? (Note: I recognize Washington D.C. has a decent system as well as New York City. There are some other cities in America with decent public transport, but none are as good as here.)

5) Museums- Wow. I have never seen so much information in one place! The Americas, I realize, are very young in comparison to Europe, but it's still another reason I'll miss being here so much. I've never gotten to be in a place where I could learn about anything I wanted to! And so much of the information is also translated into English for my convenience!

6) Castles and Architecture - Should be self-explanatory. I was talking to my friend Justin and I realized: there really are no authentic, meaning king and queen/monarchy based (or I guess technically "palaces") castles in the States. (For the record, I know Hawaii is the only state that had a monarchy at one point. I think they have a castle in there, I have to look it up, but besides Hawaii, no castles.) I didn't even realize I had never seen, much less been, in a castle until I got here. Maybe I'll go to London and check out Buckingham at some point! In any case, a wonderful experience to be able to see castles.

7) Travel - For those of you reading this blog post who live in the United States of America take note of this: when you live in Europe, travel is cheap. The States are awfully isolated, limiting you to Canada, Mexico, and the Bahamas. (Only one place of the three people really care about visiting.) I've gotten to go all over the place fairly cheap and it's been wonderful. Heck, Salzburg, Austria was only 21 Euros round trip! (Because I live in Bavaria and took a train.) I love being an hour plane ride from being in a place that speaks a whole different language and has a whole different culture. I just love it!

8) The Alps - Sigh. I love the mountains. I just love them. I loved climbing an Alp, I love seeing the Alps, I love being at a higher altitude, I love the snow tops... I love everything about them. The Rocky Mountains in the States are nice, but something about being in the Alps... it's just wonderful.

9) The People - Generally friendly and helpful, the people here are very sweet and kind. Some Americans might think they're standoffish at first, but after being here a while you realize it's just that if they don't know you or have a reason to talk to you, they just leave you alone. Not so strange. You can go up and talk to pretty much anyone for help and the vast majority also speaks English. Truly a benefit for me here in Germany.

10) Plants and Animals (and Insects!) - I love the flora and fauna here. People here really take care of their gardens and you see more than one apple tree around (we have one in our backyard, and down the street a neighbor has a pear tree). The flowers are beautiful and people really hold animals to a higher level here. The cats you see walking around always belong to someone, and they are well taken care of, clean, and friendly. Dogs are treated almost like children. It actually makes me sick. Generally well behaved and allowed everywhere, dogs are a very popular part of the German ideology. I will miss the openness and the kindness of the treatment of animals, plus all of the various kinds of plants, birds, butterflies, insects... so many varieties of things here!

One last note (my strange fact): I discovered thanks to Wikipedia, that the Solln S-Bahn station that I regularly use for travel was actually the site of a murder in 2009. After reading the description of what happened, it was a fluke thing, but kind of scary nonetheless. Thought I'd mention it!

The weather today is kind of rainy, so I'm not sure if I'll go out at all, and I still have chores to finish and laundry to do (yuck). Not to mention I have my good-bye presents to finish up! Actually, I just have the cards to work on as the gift themselves are done, but when they're totally finished I'll post a picture.

Hope everyone's enjoying the blog and I'll post again Sunday or Monday after going to the Neues Pinakothek!

Take care!

Sitting Down With a Cup of Tea Writin' a Blog Post

There is something very important I would like to say first:

HELLO MARLBORO ADVERTISING TEAM!

For those of you scratching your heads and are dedicated readers of my blog, think back to a few blog posts ago where I wished I could see the "Maybe Never Fell in Love" Marlboro poster again. Well, check out what I saw a day or two ago, but finally got a good picture today!

Maybe Never Fell In Love. Be Marlboro.

I have actually been seeing this ad EVERYWHERE the last few days! The only reasonable explanation is that someone from the Marlboro Team read my blog. (Okay, so there are other reasonable explanations but let me dream!) I'm not a smoker myself, however my fiance does actually smoke Marlboros. I've seen advertisements for other cigarettes but they're no where near as good. If anyone from the Marlboro Advertising team is reading this, thank you, and I have a few suggestions: "Maybe Never Discovered Art. Be Marlboro." "Maybe Never Traveled the World. Be Marlboro." "Maybe Never Takes Risks. Be Marlboro." I leave Munich on the 31st of this month... how cool would it be to get a new advertisement before I go? 26 days!

Moving on to a slightly more interesting topic, I visited the Dachau concentration camp memorial today. I really don't know how to describe the experience. Interesting. I will give some tips to people who would like to visit not only Dachau but any other concentration camp in Germany. First, go on a sunny day. It makes everything much less depressing and not as eerie. Another thing is if you plan on really reading the information set up by the people who conserved the site, go early in the day. I only got to spend an hour and a half there, which would have been fine had I not wanted to read everything. I was rushed towards the end because they were closing up and I wanted to see the other side of the camp. I did get to see just about everything though. Something else to keep in mind is that you will feel kind of strange, sunny or not, in the execution chambers. I swear in my head I heard screaming. Oh, and for those of you who just don't understand why they'd even THINK about keeping a concentration camp around for a landmark, here's why: thousands of people died there. To demolish it would be acting as though nothing happened there, and that is very far from the truth. My pictures will provide more understanding.

Before I launch into my pictures, I want to let everyone know I took a lot. However, I limited the pictures to actual footage and no text. There were many pictures of text, but I didn't want to bore anyone. All of my pictures are well explained though. One last thing is that I found out by reading all of the museum text that Dachau was actually used AFTER the end of World War II as a refugee camp! Until like, the late 1960's! This is twice as interesting for me because I have worked with refugees. It puts a personal spin to my experience.

Entrance sign to the site.

This is the actual entrance into the camp.

Famous phrase during WWII. "Work Makes You Free." Literally translated it says: "Work Makes Free."

Here's the main building in the background (now the museum) and in front of it you can see the hanging poles.

When I first walked into the museum, I didn't even realize this is where so many thousands of different people, not only Jews, slaved, starved, and died. The people who did the restoration did a remarkable job with the amount of information, it made me unaware I was walking through a building that had housed enormous amounts of torture and plots to torture. This room was an exception. The display you see in the middle behind the pole actually housed a bullwhip used to abuse the "inmates."

The Dachau sculpture and the hanging poles from the back.

This is where they slept. They as in the people who were forced against their will to leave their homes because of political opposition or race. In these itty-bitty stalls. Many lived for years in these conditions, although I was surprised to find out that for the first few years of the opening of this camp the conditions were not as bad. After the war broke out, it got much worse.

This room was considered the "living room." As in, they got a table and lockers. What they put in the lockers is beyond me since all of their clothes and possessions were "confiscated."

Long road in the camp. Many walked to their death down one of these three roads. On either side of the road were originally the "barracks."

Trench. A measure to keep the prisoners in. I can't help but feel like this was filled with bodies at one point.

Barbed wire fence. Just in case the trench, river (not pictured but just beyond trench), armed guards, and towers that also contained rifle holding guards weren't enough.

Of course we all know this is the crematorium site. I read on a sign some were hanged over the fire before being cremated. *Shudder*

These were the "showers." I will admit: I did not want to walk through to the other side. I held my breath. After this side was where I could feel like there was screaming.

A little out of order but this is the "waiting room" for those who were going to take a "shower." I hate the thought of that.

The picture says what this is.

Full picture of a fumigation cubicle.

This is the old crematorium building. It looks terribly uninviting.

As stated earlier, they made this a memorial for a reason. There are so many people who died here that don't even have a name. It's very sad.

I think they did do a nice job trying to commemorate those who suffered here. As the sign in the background says: Don't forget.

Okay so on to happier things: I have two new recipes to share! I think all of this cooking is starting to get to me though; I sliced my finger open cutting a roll today. I know it happens, but very, very, very rarely to me. I have one more major dish planned and that's my Holly lasagna (stay tuned) and if I have time I might try out this (believe it or not) stuffed onion recipe! It sounds amazing! But those will be my very last dishes here in Munich... sniff... at least for now...

Oven-Roasted Chickpeas and Broccoli with Barley

Doesn't it look yummy?

I can't take any credit for this. Thank you so, so much iVillage! This can be made gluten free if you substitute brown rice, and if you're sensitive to pepper, just take it out! Add something else if you'd like. Great, easy, versatile dish. One of the few recipes I followed to a T, except I just eyeballed the measurements. I'm gonna be a cook yet!

Holly's Chocolate Chip Coconut Granola!

Okay, I know it looks more like just chocolate granola... I got a little impatient and I didn't wanna wait for the granola to cool... so I just dumped in the chocolate chips.

I can take credit for this. I give Alton Brown credit for the baking time and temperature, both of which were perfect, and for the general oil guideline, but otherwise this was my own.

Ingredients:

4 to 4 1/2 cups of rolled oats (not instant)

1 cup of shredded coconut, sweetened or unsweetened (unsweetened is better)

2 tablespoons of raw sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons of honey

1/4 cup of vegetable oil (can use coconut oil if heated first)

1/2 cup of chocolate chips or chopped chocolate in flavor of choice

Nutritional Information:

It's good for you! Can be made gluten free if gluten free oats are substituted, vegan (I'm not sure if honey counts... if it does, use agave or maple syrup), low in sugar in comparison to portion size, oats help to clean out your insides as well as providing heart healthy nutrients and fiber, coconut is loaded with healthy fats, honey has been talked about before, and if you use dark chocolate you are giving yourself antioxidants plus a myriad of chemicals that help your brain feel good!

Directions:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit or about 110 degrees Celsius.*

Mix everything except for the chocolate chips together in a large bowl using your hands.

Spread out evenly on a large baking sheet and place in the oven.

 Stir every 15 minutes to ensure even cooking. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Remove from oven. If you would like actual chocolate chips in your granola, cool to room temperature then mix in chips. If you would like a more chocolatey coating to your granola, mix in chips while still hot.

Serve at room temperature and enjoy!

*250 degrees Fahrenheit is actually about 121 in Celsius however, I err on the side of caution and use a slightly lower temp. I actually think I used closer to 100.

The family is off in London for the weekend starting today, so aside from my regular chores which I still have to do tomorrow, I have some things planned. First off I have about 75% of my good-bye presents finished so I'm going to work on the other 25%, I will be going to the Deutsches Museum tomorrow, I hope to go to the Neues Pinakothek on Sunday, and for Saturday I'm on the fence about what to do. I might go to the Residenz, or visit the Summer Festival (all about organic and fair trade... yay!). I found out the family will not be going to the Neuschwanstein Palace, so I have to look into the cost for that.

I hope everyone is enjoying the blog and I will probably post another entry in a day or two just so there's not so much overload in one post. Take care!