zmac

I arrived in The Hague late last night and met up with my roommates aunt, who is the court reporter for the final trial being held at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Last night was also the first full night sleep I got since I began travelling so it was well needed. The next morning I went to the ICTY to witness part of this final trial, the man on trial is Ratko Mladic, nicknamed the "Butcher of Bosnia," who was Chief of Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska and is accused of being responsible for the Siege of Sarajevo, the largest massacre in Europe post-WWII. The tribunal was really interesting as at the time i was there the main defence lawyer was questioning a witness, but this lawyer had quite ... read more

Today I went to Mauthousen Concentration Camp in Austria. At first, I got lost and ended up walking around the town of Mauthausen for a couple of hours, which was honestly just very bizarre because it seemed as though the entire town was in he McDonalds, and when I asked for directions, no one in the town knew where the concentration camp was (that was only 5 min away from the centre of the town. Mauthausen is a camp probably only comparable to Auschwitz, it is a huge haunting fortress that just towers over everything, and stands on the top of hill overlooking the town. This camp looked like something out of a movie, with huge prison-like walks and watchtowers that you could go into and walk on, as well as still-built barracks, crematoriums and gas ... read more

Today I was supposed to be in Amsterdam with Leah, sadly my train from Geneva to Basel got cancelled and so I missed the train from Basel to Amsterdam. I ended up having to spend the night in Basel and the next day in Koln. In Koln they had something called shopping night, where the streets were packed till Midnight, so I walked around there, went to a few free outdoor concerts (which are pretty funny because its old rock songs sang in English with thick German accents) and had the best French Fries I’ve ever had.... read more

I got to the frankfurt airport at 6:30 and right away took a train to Luneburg (4 hours away) to watch the last ever nazi war crimes trial that’s taken place there (url=http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nazi-auschwitz-camp-accountant-oskar-groening-trial-begins-in-germanyhttp://www.cbsnews.com/news/nazi-auschwitz-camp-accountant-oskar-groening-trial-begins-in-germany/). Sadly, the only place big enough in the town to hold all the guests was the local concert hall and so, instead of the trial, a party was taking place that day. So I explored the town instead which was really beautiful as it is a very small, old town with a lot of cool buildings, churches and a town square. That night I went to hamburg and explored for a few hours, and then hannover, explored and caught a late night train to geneva that night.... read more