last week my Hospitality Club friend Esther lent me her city bike, nickname: 'the old pickle', and we made the trek, roughly 30km to a small town a little north northeast from kassel called Hann. Münden. renowned for it's Fachwerk Häuser, half-timbered houses, the city was at one point a political center of germany. there's an interesting fella named Doktor Eisenbarth, who a long time ago was a roaming doctor who would set up a tent around the marketplace in different cities and heal the sick, apparently performing self-described miracles. at any rate, he would often visit Hann. Münden and in the end he passed away there. he would stay at an inn called 'zum wilden Mann', translated roughly to 'at the wild man'. restaurants and other businesses and houses didn't have numbers at the time but descriptions. they might have a wreath hanging outside or something and be called 'at the wreath'. in Ulm, matt and i, and the other fellas in 2006, ate at a place called 'zum wilden Mann' and i've often wondered if there was just some looney bearded dude that would always hang out outside and the place just became known as 'at the wild man.' anyway, there's a funny tradition in Hann. Münden, where every saturday during the summer someone dresses up like Doktor Eisenbarth, just like santa claus in the mall during the christmas holiday, and you can go up and tell him what illness you have and supposedly he says 'eureka' or something and you're cured. all doubts aside, it sounds like a fun thing for a little town in which not much else happens. though the old town is amazing to just walk around in. and the bike path along the Fulda river is beautiful and totally separate from the street. just watch out for all the bugs that make their way into your mouth. i'm no longer a vegetarian after all the flies i ate.

this is the way home at night. i'm not sure how to describe how quiet it is, but i feel like these pictures go a long way to emphasize that. and the sunsets (which are usually around 9:30 or 10:00) are really something. the walk home at night is almost right out of a movie. the streets look lit for a film shoot and it's actually a little twilight zone-ish but surprisingly relaxing. the little town is called Fuldatal and has a not very busy main street with a few stores, including a bio-laden or health food store. the church is small and very plain but it has a clock on it that keeps the time pretty well.

i finally did a little exploring around kassel. the first two pictures here are from the Löwenburg, which was used as a model for a disney film or the like. originally, however, it was the summer playground of the count of so-and-so a long time ago. he lived most of the year in the main residence in the city proper and then his mistress lived here in the Löwenburg. interestingly, the castle was built to look aged like a ruin. this aesthetic obviously was enhanced over time, but during the second world war a bomb landed kind of right next to or maybe a little on the castle and then the ruin really was a ruin. it's in the process, still, of being rebuilt. you can see (not in these pictures) the difference between the original weak stones, used intentionally to speed the aging process, and the current work which uses solid stone. the third picture is the Schloß Wilhemshöhe, the original residence of one of the wilhelms (i'm not a historian). it was taken over for about 6 years by napolean's brother, something of a womanizer and with a reputation for being completey incompetent. the fourth picture there is a beautiful Schloß right next to the city center. a Schloß is basically just a residence for the rich aristocracy, the ruling class families and such. this particular Schloß is now called the Orangerie and houses a museum and i think something of a planetarium something or other. might be wrong, the day i was walking around there was a wedding party there taking a lot of pictures. kassel originally had three Schloßes, but the third one, the residence of wilhelm something or other, was nearly completely destroyed during the second world war.


here the first picture is kassel, obviously in the evening. that's the silhouette of the dom and way in the background, just to the right of the two Turms, you can kind of see the Herkules. the other two pics are the Schloß Wilhelmshöhe.


there's an art university here and plenty of graffiti around. and then this yellow banana rocket-mobile.


and my two new friends i made walking home one day. they didn't have much to say but they did laugh at all my jokes.

tribute to those who came before...








matt, this is for you. a few things. first a tribute to the basic of functions. surely you understand. and second, you can always get closer to the construction site. thought i was done with those, but what do i see out the window upon arrival at my friend's house in marburg?? wow. super times. also, the main attraction here in kassel is the huge statue of Hercules. but guess what. yup. entirely covered by scaffolding. enjoy!

Marburg, Germany - Vegan (definitely) Gulasch (sort of)



i made this dish a few nights ago for my dear friends in the small but beautiful town of Marburg, in hessen. i'd chalk it up as a victory that these meat eaters thought it tasted yummy!

1/2 carrot
4 tomatoes
1 green pepper
1/2 yellow pepper
1 1/2 red peppers
1 small cucumber
3 cups textured vegetable protein
1 big onion
1 head garlic
8 sun dried tomatoes
1/2 cup capers
2T. olive oil
1/2 cup vinegar (apple-cider is best)
3 cloves
hungarian sharp paprika
handful fresh dill
1 T. dried dill
3 T. marjoran
1 T. oregano
1 cup vegetable broth

prep... dice the garlic. cut the onion into whatever kind of large chunks. slice the tomatoes nice and thin. dice the sun dried tomatoes. cut the carrot, cucumber, and some of the pepper into larger chunks, the rest of the pepper dice up fairly small.

1. heat up the oil in a large pot. when hot throw in the dried herbs, cloves, and some sharp paprika. cook for 30 seconds or so. toss in the onions and cook for about 1 minute. add the garlic and cook further about 30 seconds.
2. add the sun dried tomatoes and the other tomatoes and cook roughly 30 seconds. add the vinegar and put the top on the pot. cook further until the tomatoes are fairly cooked down.
3. add the small chunks of pepper and cook further 10 or so minutes keeping the pot covered.
4. add the rest of the vegies and the fresh dill. depending on spice tolerance you can add more sharp paprika here. salt and pepper to flavor. cook 5 minutes further.
5. add some of the vegetable broth. let cook a few minutes more.
6. add the vegetable protein. let it rehydrate.

you can always add more TVP as necessary. if it seems like the gulasch will be too watery, add more TVP. try variations on spiceyness or try simmering the tomatoes a bit in the beginning with red wine. try other herbs, too.
goes well with small noodles or try and find some egg free spätzle.

first impressions from Kassel, Germany...

i suppose it's called settling in, but as of yet, communicating solely with people in a foreign language, it'll be sometime before i'd consider myself 'settled in.' but my host here is one of a kind. i think if i was a bit more comfortable with the language we could be the best of friends. even still, we've had conversations about global warming, the size of the automobiles in the states, why i'm a vegetarian, herb gardens (she has a rockin one), the schooling systems in both the states and germany (totally different), favorite vacation destinations, and what life was like in germany before the wall came down. and then there's kassel. the city is a bit different than the rest of germany. it was totally destroyed during world war two. there's only a slim few buildings that made it through and for the most part the streets were totally anihilated. so the whole city was rebuilt. i'm not a historian or anything, but as someone from the states who's interested in city planning it was the first most outstanding feature upon arrival. it's immediately apparent that there was a western (specifically american) influence during the reconstruction. the streets are a bit wider, things a bit more spread out. there happens to be suburbs, too, something you don't really find throughout the rest of the country. at some point it became law that the cities had to absorb the surrounding communities. these then all became part of the city's structure: transportation, public works, etc... also the new cities are, for the most part, not allowed to build outside their boundaries. meaning you can't just say, it's too crowded here i'd like a house a little apart from the rest of my neighbors. to me, this makes a bit of sense. people are forced to deal with each other and find solutions for shared problems, mainly i guess transportation-wise. i wouldn't call it ideal, but it's a few steps ahead of the states. with people so close to their work, grocery stores, post, etc. it allows a greater emphasis on public and alternative forms of transportation (trams, bikes, teeny tiny cars...).
anyway, the surrounding communities of kassel had powerful mayors and nobody wanted to contest them. so when it came time to form one big city, as per law, somehow kassel was exempt. so now the tram only goes so far and the surrounding communities work together with the city of kassel to provide bus service past that.