A little bit of everything

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First of all, happy valentines to those of you that enjoy that sort of thing... haha also a warning, this is long-winded.

well i went for a little walk last night before bed just to get a look at some of the beautiful buildings by night. i was a little disappointed that they didn´t have many lights on them. kinda hard to get decent pictures. but of course i tried anyways haha there were still tons of people around when i got back around 9, this city is so full of life, blocked with tourists and locals alike around marienplatz (city center).

i was pleasantly surprised when i got back to the hostel to discover that there was only one other person sharing the room with me! 4 empty beds means 4 less people to wake me up at 3 in the morning. and as a further bit of good luck, the girl, Nora, in my room, is here from Stuttgart for the weekend to do some kind of theatre course. So she went to bed BEFORE i did, and got up at exactly the time I wanted to get up. It´s 700 now and i was just upstairs and she´s still the only one there. so fingers crossed! the toilet and bathroom are in each of the rooms so i just had to wait for her to use it. i used that time to get me some breakfast. the hostel, for about 5 bucks, has a buffet continental breakfast. cereal (with COLD milk! i am starved for dairy) bread with jam/pb/butter, fruit cocktail, juice/water/tea/coffee/hot chocolate. just wonderful, if busy.

so anyways i got up around 8 and was off on the go before 9. i went straight out to Dachau to see the memorial for the concentration camp that was there. was smart and bought myself a day pass for the transit which covers subway (U-bahn), suburban train (S-bahn), bus, and tram. i figured out after it would have been more than that (10 bucks) just for dachau and back. so anyways, got the S-bahn to Dachau, then easily found the local bus that goes to the camp site. easily found where to go, rented myself an audioguide, and was off.

dachau was the first concentration camp those friendly nazis built. it started in the mid 30s i think, and eventually grew and grew and grew, and was built using the labor of the people camped there. the whole way around there was a 8 foot wide patch of grass inside the fence. anyone who stepped there was shot immediately from one of the watch towers all around. inside the fence was a few layers of barbed wire, then the electrified fence with barbed wire, and a little moat as well. not very easy to escape i gather.

its so huge, and they have most of it preserved or reconstructed. you start by going in the wrought iron gates which say (in german) "work sets you free" or something along those lines. Then there is a huge open field where every day they had role call to make sure no one had escaped or anything. they had to stand out there sometimes for hours, rain or snow or freezing or hot. couldn´t talk, look around or do anything for fear of a beating or worse.

then there are row upon row of barracks, all built with german precision. 10 by 100m, stacked two wide all the way up this poplar-lined road. they were built to hold 200 people but by the end they were packed with 4 or 5 times that. bunk beds and a few toilets. there was one room in teh middle of each for ´living´, and they got lockers. but the nazis told them how they had to put their things in the lockers. not like they had much, they had all their possessions taken when they got there. most had just the clothes they were wearing and never got to wash them or themselves.

then towards the back there is the crematorium. or should i say crematoriums. they had one, but the bodies kept piling up so they built another with 4 ovens. they used them to burn the bodies of the people they shot or starved to death. they also had a gas chamber there, which for unknown reasons was never used (unlike the ones at other camps). they were pretty sneaky about it too, filling the gas chamber with fake shower heads and making them believe it was a shower room.

there are a couple of nice memorials towards the back, one catholic, one jewish, and an actual protestant church. the other end has the museum which had some disturbing pictures and information. there was also a 20 minute film giving the story. it was gruesome. bodies piled up, people starving to death, fighting over scraps of soup in the bottom of big pots...

there was also a bit about the people living in dachau at the time, and whether or not they knew what was really going on in the camps. of course the nazis were spreading all kinds of propaganda about how the jews/gays/gypsys/soviets/etc/etc were a detriment to society and were in teh camps for ´protection´ and so on. the americans who liberated the camp did a little survey and found that most people had thought there was more going on but had no proof. when the camp was liberated, there were all kinds of bodies still waiting to be cremated because there wasn´t enough coal to burn them all (ie they were dying/being killed too fast to keep up). the americans let some of the locals in to view them, and there was footage in teh movies of them seeing the bodies.

all in all the whole thing was crazy. i can´t really put in words how i felt while i was there. it was cold and snowy but man... the stuff that went on. how can people do that to other people? i mean there are always going to be some sickos out there, but all the soldiers beating and torturing and killing. following orders is one thing but it went on for so long, and they actually believed that they were doing what was best for the pure white germans....

anyhow i think ive gone on enough about that.

i got back on the bus and train back into the city and decided to lighten things up with a trip to the olympic village built for the 1972 olympics. hopped on the U-bahn and was quickly zipped right there. what a nice spot! its all open to the public now, so i walked in to the swimming pool and watched some swimming (didnt bring my speedos! lol), and went up in the big tower to 186m high. unfortunately the outside viewing platform was closed because there was ice falling everywhere. but they still had windows with good views. also a bummer was that it was snowing a bit so visibility wasnt that great. on clear days you get to see the alps in the distance. would have been nice.

they also had a big duck pond in the park with these cool lookin geese. since i had a granola bar in my bag i decided to feed them. well the first piece didn´t hit the water before a big flock of SAVAGE seagulls came roaring over. like 5 of them landed on teh poor goose adn stole the food. so i tried a different approach and got them to eat right out of my hand. the gulls were not impressed and were flying in my face but i just kept swatting at them and they got the hint! haha newfie gulls are quiet and friendly compared to these guys

anyhow i moved on to the aquarium. now normally i´d have to think hard about paying 20 bucks to see one thing but i do love animals so i splurged. it was good, but soooo crowded with kids, and this one woman who was intent on pushing me out of the way at every opportunity. i was quite happy when she got told off for using her flash. they had a cool setup though, there is a big pool of water with sharks and turtles and fish, and the walkway is a tunnel that goes right through the middle of the bottom. its like scuba diving, but drier.

so i head back to the city center again and head to St. Peters church. what a beauty. beautiful artwork all around, and they even had a tower to climb. so up i go. great views of the downtown area. narrow steps though, and freezing cold but worth the 2 dollars!

then another quick trip on the U-bahn (got my use out of that day pass for sure) to the Englischer Garten. Its Munich´s "central park" and its huge. people everywhere, and there are a few hills that were packed with kids sliding. it was snowing, people were laughing, it was a very happy kind of place! in the middle on a hill there is the Monopteros, a greekish kind of monument. the view from up there was super, and the sky cleared off a bit so it was a clear view of all the churhes and old buildings downtown showing through. can´t wait to see those pictures!

it was starting to get dark, so i wanted to go on a hunt for an adapter so i could plug my camera in. i was too cheap to buy one before i left, thinking it would last. but 450 pictures and 3 weeks later its just about dead. so i head to practically every department store in munich. i found one, and it was 35 dollars! yikes. then i thought well if i can´t find an adapter for my plug, what if i tried to buy a plug for my camera with the europe prongs on it? brilliant idea! found one for 6 bucks. unfortunately this was just an adapter type thing and to get the part that actually plugs into the wall was another 40 bucks. stonewalled again! i decided to try one more store. getting desperate at this point, as i had already harrassed all the americans and canadians i found looking for an adapter to no avail. this store had one, and for 12 dollars. they did have one for 8 dollars but it wasn´t deep enough for my plug.

anyways, got one and i haven´t tried it yet but if it doesn´t work i´d like to go back and strangle the girl who found it for me. lucky for her they´re closed tomorrow and i´m off to warmer climes haha

for food today, i had hostel breakfast as above, some ´hot pepperoni´ potato chips, a raisin/sugar sticky bun and a coke for lunch (yes i know, healthy healthy), and for supper a baguette with cheese, onions, mystery meat, and a laberkässemmeln - the mystery meat from yesterday now has a name! its some sort of pork, kidna similar to bologna actually, with mustard o na white bun. tastes good, and cheap. my kinda meal.

hmmmm well looking back its been quite the productive day. and my feet are screaming at me. still a couple more places to check out this evening before i pass out. train to padua, italy leaves tomorrow morning. i couldn´t find a place to stay in venice, either in the city itself or on the nearby mainland for less than 85€ a night (over 100 bucks!) but i did find a place in padua, a half hour 5 dollar train ride away for 41 euros. so padua it is for the next 3 nights. might work out well actually since i want to go to verona as well which is an hour the other way.

sorry for the excessive length.

see you in italy!

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Comments

[Lori]

Very moving...
Jason, after reading this latest entry I found myself totally enthralled in every word. I could feel the desperation that I am certain that many of those people in the camps felt....and agree whole-heartedly when you ask..how can people do this to other people? Looking forward to your next entry! Safe trip to Italy