Day 59: Munich/Dachau, Germany

We went to Dachau Concentration Camp on a tour today. It was extremely depressing and made us both sick to our stomachs to hear all about the torture and murder that had happened there and to be standing in the buildings where it happened. Dachau was the very first concentration camp and one of the last to be liberated. Our guide took us through the museum and the rest of the concentration camp: the barracks, yard, gas chamber, crematorium, check-in area, original gate, sculpture memorials, electric fence, and church memorials. We couldn't bring ourselves to take any pictures beside some of memorials. It was the longest time of our awake travel hours together without laughter,smiling, or singing. By the time we left, we felt thoroughly depressed, but agreed on the importance of places like these showing the truth so that it might help to stop what is happening presently around the world and prevent this from happen again in the future.

We rode a double-decker train back to the hostel and took a nap. When we woke up to get ready for a brewery tour, we met our new roommates: two guys from Wales and one from London. Since Bavaria is considered the beer capital of the world, we decided to take a tour to learn more about it. On our tour, our guide told us the history of beer that began in 8000 BC and became popular through monks who would drink it a lot during Lent when they were fasting for 40 days and nights. He took us to a beer garden to explain the culture, a brewery to show us how beer was made and to taste and smell some of the raw ingredients, and finally to visit the Hofbräuhaus. The Hofbräuhaus is the most famous beer hall in Bavaria. It is also where Hitler used to make his speeches and an assassination attempt was made on him.

When we got back, we hung out with Chris (from Australia) for a while before sneaking to bed because the others were sleeping early after being on a train for 48 hours over the past 2 days.

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