1/16/10
Today our journey took us to Museum Island. What's that you ask? An island. With museums. I know kind of a let down with the plot. Kind of like Snakes on a Plane or Cowboys VS Aliens, it's all in the name. Of course there was a lot in these buildings that wasn't in the name. A lot of the museums themselves were works of art and had beautiful interiors and exteriors. The first museum we went in, the Neues Museum, contained Egyptian coffins, artifacts, and huge pieces of hieroglyphics with pictures that must have been taken from some building. I past statues, carvings of hippos, glass cups and bowls made hundreds of years ago. One carving stood out. Once again it was the man killing the bull with the dog trying to eat the bull, the scorpion/crab going after the testicles, and some snake doing something. Trying to google it didn't really come up with any results, but hey can you blame if for that description. Definitely had some interesting sites pop up. Everything from books, blogs, to quotes from how I met your mother.
Outside of the museum I took pictures of statues, two on horses (your welcome Hannah) and one of an archer. Outside our museum a brass trio (tuba, french horn, and trombone) played Hall of the Mountain King while dressed in colonial looking clothing. We crossed the river and walked down the side to get to another museum. We had to cross through this a market that had two stands selling brats. We may or may not have vowed to go back to them. We also passed a guy playing wine glasses like a piano. It was pretty legit. I almost wanted to buy a cd. I resisted the urge.
What I forgot to mention was that I did not remember to charge my camera. Part way through the first museum I had already had to revert to the hot battery trick. When your battery is almost dead, you pop it out of the camera and hold it for awhile. By heating up the battery you allow for the energy to be better used, making what little power you have left go farther, even making an apparently dead battery work. I always put this concept into use with my gameboy as a kid. I used this trick for most of the morning getting sixty photos out of a "dead" battery. Eventually I used all the power up.
The next museum, the Pergamonmuseum (it was written all together) was amazing. You walk in and the entire gigantic first room is a reproduction of what some temple remains would look like - to scale. All around the walls were these beautiful sculptures, mostly in ruins, lined all the way around the room. In from of us stood a set of huge marble stairs leading up to pillars and a ceiling topped with a few small sculptures. The large ones that were suppose to be up there were displayed on the ground, horses, lions, and some other animal I forgot. The scene around the outer wall though contained all the Greek gods and important mythical beings in various states of wear. It was amazing. This was not the only life-sized replica to be held here. There was also a reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate of Babylon with the tower parapets as well (47 feet tall). These huge structures, the gate reconstruction is actually two gates and the second one wasn't put up, are insane and begs an ethical question - when should you take something and when should you leave it?
When we talked about the British Museum we went over this topic a little. The museums claim that they are protecting a part of history, and they are, and because of this it gives them the complete right to hold on to what they are protecting, despite the fact that it came from somewhere else. Countries have demanded the return of the artifacts that belong back in the countries the objects originated in. The Museums claim that their actions are done in pursuit of the greater good for everyone (Mill). They have a greater ability to protect the artifacts than the home countries often do, making sure that these artifacts will be around for centuries to come for all the people of the world. If we use the Vail of Ignorance, Rawls, then we realize that this is not the best solution. No matter where the artifacts are stored, people will be content as long as they have access to them. The home country will never be happy unless they can get their artifact back. By giving the artifacts back, when there are facilities to take them back safely, then everyone is more appeased, except the museums that have no true right to the artifacts - but the museums might profit from the sale back to the countries making every position a good one to be in, either as a person who wants to see the artifacts, the museum, or the country that the objects belongs to.
I don't have an issue with smaller objects being protected and held in museums. The problem I do have is when the objects are HUGE! Of course the Ishtar gate was a replica, but I don't know about the Greek temple or the roman looking column supported structure. These things were massive and looked like they had to be torn apart, moved, and reconstructed. When complete and not in a horrible state of ruins (ok the Greek structure may have been) then I believe that it isn't right to take the structure away from where it is. I feel that the value, and possibly the structure, is put at risk. Museums are kind of like zoos in a way to me when it comes to something that has its own grandness to it. It may be amazing to see a tiger in a zoo, but seeing a tiger out in the jungle would be even more amazing. If the tiger could live there, reproduce, and live a good life - then that is where it should be. I feel the same about large structures.
Huge pieces of Egyptian wall with hieroglyphics had been taken and held in the Pergamonmuseum. Was it good looking? Yes. Should it be there? I don't feel that it should be necessarily. I feel it would be more impressive out there where it first was. Of course the huge pieces of wall were either already broken, or had to be broken to be brought to the UK. Touring Egyptian ruins right where they were found would be great. When the greater good will be served by protecting the object and taking it, that line of thought should be followed. If it is a complete and intact structure, it should be left and chunks shouldn't have been taken. Maybe ethics of archeology has changed...or have been established.
The grandness of the Greek temple though was striking, and it wasn't even complete. When thinking about the greater good of the world and what is best for everyone, it is easy to see why the temple was built. Greeks believed that temples in the name of their patron god would help secure the happiness of their god. It may be expensive and resource intensive to build, but the happiness of the god would mean the prosperity of their city-state - making sure that it flourished. When displeased a god might incur their wrath upon the town. Establishing a temple benefited everyone as it kept the gods from getting angry and brought blessings to everyone, bringing good to everyone and minimizing pain (Mill).
On our way to the next museum, the Bode, we got a bratwurst. There was not bun but a more stout rectangular bread bun that was used to clamp onto the brat. The nice thing was that it was cheap. The ketchup and mustard dispensers were actually hanging bags with an udder. Yes an udder. Squeeze it and the sauce starts to spray out in a very thin controllable stream. MOST functional thing ever! No more wasted dressings! So I realized I said sauce before. England offered you sauce with everything. Brown sauce, incase you ever get asked, is actually made of figs - or at least part fig. The ketchup I got was actually more of a barbecue sauce! Slightly smoky and full of flavor!
Lunch was amazing. Yes we ate twice. I felt like I was starving though. I had a Germany noodle dish, (Spaezle I think), and a sprite. I broke down. It was the first pop on the trip. I like soda every now and then, but my past as a runner usually keeps me away. Our waiter wouldn't give us tap water, the usually roll their eyes when you ask, and I didn't want to pay two or three Euros for some mineral water I wouldn't like. The noodle dish was great, as the noodles were big and pouffy and then they were mixed in something like a cream sauce with bell peppers, cheese and something...think noodle omelet! I felt super hunger and thirsty, but I couldn't finish more than half the dish. I don't know why...but the dish was great. Maybe I was just dying for some water and I couldn't tell...
We went to the Brandenberg gate! It was neat to look at. When we were going to go under it I was trying to decide which path I would go under it. I was going to go through the center but instead went through the one on its right. There was an archer sculpture high up above on the wall. Of course I was going under that one!
We walked around a lot and ended up next to a holocaust Jewish memorial site. It was a huge piece of abstract art. It covered at least a city block. At the very edge, rectangular cement blocks (I just realized that they were the size of coffins) started rising out of the ground in a perfect grid. Each block was somewhere between three inches to six and they grew the farther and farther out they went. I just started to walk into the mass to go off by myself. The ground slowly dropped down and then started to form waves with little hills here and there. As the ground sloped downwards the blocks continued to rise and rise. I wondered in and then started to zig zag towards the center. At a low point, I just stopped. It was eerily quiet, with most the sound blocked off. The cement blocks, now towers, reached over ten feet above my head. I feel separated from people and humanity in a way. Here I stood, alone, and I wondered if I would ever be found. I knew I could make my way out in the end, but finding another person seemed like it would be difficult. I quickly went zig zagging back towards the west (I think it west ward direction). I stopped again and was sort of surprised when a woman and some man went by. They were only visible for a second before they were gone. It was just as empty and lonely as before. I could understand why this was a memorial. If you came in here with the concept of it being a memorial you could connect and start pulling your ideas of what the artist was trying to convey. Without that, this site had great potential for a playground. Adults were jumping on top of them and taking pictures. I felt like they were being disrespectful, and then I realized that I hadn't seen any marker that said what this place was. I only knew it was a memorial site because our professor told us. I must admit, playing any version of tag, nerf guns, or any game in that nature would've been crazy fun in there.
Dinner really wasn't dinner as everyone was still full. We instead ended up at "the house of 100 beers", of course it was in German but we got the point. Most people ordered a drink while Megan and I split an ice cream dish. It was basically Neapolitan with cream on top and a hot container of fruit ready to be poured on top. The ice cream was smooth and a bit rich but the fruit was what made it perfect in my mind. I wasn't sure what one of the berries was. Kind of looked like a blueberry without a skin. Whitish. It was a perfect way to end the night food wise. The rest of my night turned to typing. I went to bed late again to let Will sleep.
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