I have added a new static page to link to various recommendations on the foodie topic.
This is more to kick-off filling it with content and a note to myself…
Author: Kurt
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Fun with e-Scooters
This is so f* awesome hot! It is definitely the best since bread in slices and by far better as e-Bikes! 🤓 Now they pop up everywhere here in Munich even right in front of my home.
The best is: it is such an incredibly simple story: find a scooter, download the app, set up your account, scan the code, and fly away!
The e-Scooters have a highly enjoyable acceleration, and they are fast, well they could be of course faster. 😎 However, I am quite sure people will find great new ways to hurt themselves even with this speed.
It is the old equation. The probability of meeting idiots is reasonably high and gets higher in the context of new stuff. Scaling means the likelihood not to mess up gets close to zero. 😂
Until then, enjoy the ride! 🛴
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Nicolae Ceaușescu (Part One)
This is a fun, travel, foodie, photography, and laziness oriented blog where I am working hard to avoid serious stuff. Usually…
As I have promised more in-depth material on Romania in a recent post, I am now running into a severe conflict of interests, as you can not post on Romania without touching Ceaușescu, so let me take you on a sarcastic, ironic personal perspective on the “Titan of Titans.”
Warning, this is my perspective influenced by my early childhood in Romania and lots of Romanian relatives, especially my parents.
- The first lesson from Ceaușescu is: Education is far overrated if you aim to become Dictator. The right time, the right place, and a good network are by far more critical! Four classes in elementary school will do the job. That is: how it all started.
- The second lesson is: a highly exposed position is also highly attracting to bullets. That is how it ended.
- The third lesson is: take a view on the system. It is still alive and vivid and well prospering.
Until my visit to Romania, after my parents were able to escape in a James Bond-like spy story in the mid 70ties, I did not meet or know a single person who was not spitting on the floor, when hearing his name.
When I was talking to the guides of the Ceaușescu Mansion in Bucarest, I got new insights. It seems, as so often, that it is far more complicated. I would put it this way: he was a perfect system component as well as a system glitch at the same time. Other as Honecker, who was quite similar to him but remained a pure idiot, Ceaușescu has gone seriously mad at the end of his reign.
However, there was probably one smart move, or let us call it a high-risk all-in stunt, that is remarkable. For this, you must know that Romania is a blessed beautiful country. It has a highly fertile ground. It has its own resources. It has a lot of smart people. It is, even though far to the east, totally Europe oriented throughout the last two millennia. It also had oil, which made it to an ally to Germany in WW2 but was depleted by the big brother through the Soviet era afterward.
Therefore, in the 70ties Romania had a well developed large scale petrochemical industry without oil. The master plan was now to win Persia as a partner and to export its knowledge to the Shah. The plan miserably fizzled, and the debt towards the IMF started to drown the Rumanian economy to death. It may have turned out different…
In this time of growing madness, Ceaușescu left some remarkable ugly pieces of history behind I would like to share here.
His villa or the Ceaușescu Mansion
You have to visit it. It is the ugliest place to live (as a dictator) I could think of but shows the very core of his mindset. The fever dream of a poor shoemaker from the province of being rich.
His palace or the Palatul Parlamentului
You have to visit it. More on this in a later post…
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Eisbach
The “Eisbach” is probably the best place to cool off on a 35+ degree day in Munich.
Captivating summer stream -
Why do YOU read this?
I highly appreciate the audience I won since I moved an admittedly not so active blog from a fully controlled environment to wordpress.com.
I do this because it is a funny way to play with technology in a nonisolated environment, which makes experiments much more interesting. I also like to share my photography, but I have other platforms where I can do this by far more efficient.But why do you read this blog? I have just opened the comment feature for everybody, and I am looking forward to your thoughts on my thoughts.
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Camels
Camels are formidable animals. Besides being so useful at carrying goods through the desert which includes the ability to domesticate them which applies only to very few animals, besides offering milk which is not my cup of tea, besides the fantastic meat which I love even though it takes nearly a day to get it tender, so besides this all…
They have this extremely relaxed camel stance. This:
- I do not give a 💩 about the sun and heat here
- I am thirsty and could drink a well dry, but I do not give a 💩
- I do not care about the fly cloud around my face
- I do not care about you, human
- I do not care a rats ass on anything
Aren’t they cool? 😎
Oh, and you have to watch this TED talk to be astonished to learn where they come from. It fits the list above quite well.
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Airports
OK, this is a German insider 😆 …it seems, that everybody on this planet is currently building nice new airports, like this one (MCT) with only one exception: BER 😅😂🤣
Travel Hack:
There are terminals all around where you can scan you passport to get a free WiFi code for four hours. Use them before you enter your gate! 🤓
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Romania
Before heading to the desert to do a lot of nothing, I have to share some gems from a hidden treasure in Europe: Romania. I will come back to all those topics, as they deserve more details, but for now, enjoy the appetizer.
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Chapulines from Oaxaca
Authentic Mexican food is, by far, my favorite food. Why?
- I love Italian cuisine. It is through its simplicity unbeatable.
- I love French cuisine. It is through its history of aroma refinement and presentation unbeatable.
- I love Spanish cuisine. It is both in traditional tapas as in the molecular cuisine unbeatable.
- I love Japanese cuisine. The pristine quality of the raw products is unbeatable.
However, Mexican food beets it all. It looks back on a long history and combines more products that originated from there. It is the very source for the global cuisine we all enjoy today.
I am not talking about Tex-Mex, and not at all, talking about the even more diluted European version of Tex-Mex that is served here.
I am talking about Oaxacan food. The herbs, the chilies, the meat, flavors, the rolled cheese balls, the raw mole creme, and the secret ingredient that no money can buy here: the Chapulines!
Chapulines, Chapulines with garlic, Chapulines with chilies, Chapulines with garlic and chilies – it is by far the most superior snack on this planet. 😋
When you have some time in Oaxaca, you have to visit Isra & Tuti where you will be involved in the gathering at the market, the preparation, and the cooking itself. You will love it!
Chicken Galantine with Chapulines -
Night-drift-shark-feeding-dive
Again material from the Maldives. When during day time you see nothing the desperate crew will propose to stop by a island where they know, that at sundown leftover pizzas will be thrown in the ocean to entertain Italians. Why not watch this from underwater? Well, why not? 😎
Kydroon 