Things that fascinate me

Its not that often you get to be a kid and experience new things that fascinate you over and over. Unfortunately with age, this becomes a rarity.

For me, I'm lucky enough to have found the child like experience again here in Germany every time I pass by one of the numerous GIANT wind turbines, the Graduation Towers and the city of BASF (a chemical company).

Let me explain....

Wind Turbines: Everywhere you drive, looking across the skyline, you notice a Wind Turbine. These colossal structures are bigger than I ever expected up close, totally random to the green natural landscape yet surprisingly engaging to watch for long periods of time. They even have a soothing "whoosh" sound. Every time we go past in the car I either need to squeal and look out the window till I can no longer see them, or I stop conversation just to catch a glimpse and awe at these amazing structures.

Graduation Towers: It is a sea smelling wood giant house type thing - in short. I don't quite understand the concept of these still, but basically these things are used to produce salt or just to produce the smell of salt air. Thats not the fascinating part. Its that people come from all around to breath in the air given off by them as a 'therapeutic' treatment. Because they don't have sea air, this is the next best thing. For an Australian who's always lived close enough to water, its strange to watch people all walking around this structure just to breathe the air.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graduation_tower

BASF - in Ludwigshafen:

This is a massive chemical company that has created a mini city of strangely structured buildings, smoke stacks at every corner and an oddly lit night culture where all the lights are left on 24 hours. The fascinating part is the look of this city. It is structured so differently, brightly and almost creepy that every time we go past, I can't help but want to know what is going on in there. Unfortunately its not easy to understand the imagery over a blog, and this site provides a snippet of the entire structure/city: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3415/3253192969_cd5fa6670d.jpg or this site http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/210880/210880,1213156979,1/stock-photo-chemistry-production-by-night-13626184.jpg.

I feel its like going into the ocean, as deep as you can go, and all of a sudden you come across a brightly lit, strangely structured city without the normal high-rise buildings or house night lights. Or, as my boyfriend describes it (for you nerds out there), its like in Star Wars Episode 1, look for the city under water, Otoh Gunga .

Those are the main three things for me for now, but there are more! Here are some other minor ones to note:

- The gypsies are rich but act poor

- They play John Farnam on the radio WAY to often

- You need your passport to use a library (but not allowed to borrow a book…?)

- The bread is always stale, and they find it the best in the world. They also will eat it plain. Maybe the germans have more saliva?

- Garlic never leaves your hands when you chop them. I'm six days after chopping and still smell like an italian kitchen.

- You answer the phone, instead of saying hello, you state your last name as the greeting.

- I will get killed by oncoming bikes. My brain doesn't quote acknowledge bike lanes - therefore I pay no attention to where bikes get to ride and people get to walk.