Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Wow, Dresden is probably one of the coolest places I've been to yet. Not only have a lot of the buildings been rebuilt since the carpet bombing of WWII but some of them are also incredible museums. Today I went to the new Green Vault museum and saw so many things, all of them treasures, all of them worth more money than I'll probably make in a lifetime. Not only is there the green diamond (made green from exposure to radiation while it was forming, sick!), but amazing clocks, lathed ivory pieces, a ship made out of ivory and golden wire (holy crap!), a magnificent tea and coffee set that was never used and a square meter recreation of the royal palace in India. In fact, a lot of the things in the museum were never used or meant to be used because they are too fragile or elaborate. Of course they didn't let anyone take photos but we all know I took some anyway. Unfortunately the connection here is quite slow so none for now. But man, everything was beautiful, especially the miniature ivory carvings and cutlery that had red coral for handles. I could honestly go on and on about the cherry stone with over 100 faces carved into it, or the hollow octagons of ivory with stars inside. Unfortunately I couldn't buy a ticket for the old Green Vault since it was sold out.

As for the food, I have come to the realization that most Germans survive on a diet of meat, bread and beer. Surprisingly the ones I see walking around aren't all that fat like the ones I saw traveling SE Asia. Of course those Germans are probably sitting behind desks and not walking around. Still, the typical German diet seems to have little to no fiber at all, I haven't even seen all that much sauerkraut.

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