Today Amy, Drew, Carolyn, and I took a train down to Dachau to visit the concentration camp and memorial. We got on the first train and it was completely packed to the point we thought we might not get to sit don let alone all sit together. Drew and I ended up sitting at a table next to a guy that looked like a German Al Pacino. He was being super flirty with his wife to try and make us uncomfortable which was hilarious because she seemed to be really embarrassed and we didn't care. The rest of the train ride was pretty uneventful.
At Dachau, words couldn't describe how intense of an experience it was to go somewhere that so much pain and suffering was deliberately caused to so many innocent people. The whole place took about two hours to cover since it is such a large area and we chose to do the audio tour so we had a lot to listen to. It was a beautiful sunny day which Drew mentioned that all these years he wanted to visit a concentration camp he always envisioned it being rainy and cold, so the opposite weather made it all a little weirder to feel such a sadness somewhere that otherwise looks really beautiful. We also had a hard time wrapping our heads around how it must feel to live in the town of Dachau knowing what terrible things happened so closely.
There was a whole museum inside of one of the main buildings that we were all too emotionally drained to see so we decided to walk to a grocery and pick up some picnic supplies. We decided on ham sandwiches which were delicious, but Drew and Carolyn pointed out that in Germany things like mustard either come in a fancy glass jar, or a tube that is exactly like an oil paint or toothpaste tube. It kind of weirded me out and I wasn't totally sold on the taste either but you take what you get when traveling to strange countries.
After hanging in a park for a while we hopped on a bus and made our way to the train station to head to Munich where we would spend the rest of the day.
We got into Munich in he afternoon and started walking through the main shopping district which was way too crowded for our liking but eventually we got out of the crowds and into an area with many old buildings and parks. One of the parks has a really beautiful river and bridges running all through it. Drew mentioned that if you go into the park far enough that one side of the river has nudists and the other has clothed people, all of which are carrying along with whatever they're doing, We didn't have time for that spectacle so we walked down the road a bit to a section of the park where the river rushes out from underground in a way that creates a perfect rip curl for surfing. It is very weird seeing a bunch of surfer dudes in wet suits carrying surf boards in the very middle of Bavaria.
One thing I was really eager to do while in Bavaria was to visit a genuine german beer garden with pretzels and HUGE beers and lederhosen and music. Drew just so happened to want to do the same and knew that the HofbrauHaus was the place to go. It's one of the most famous beer houses in all of Bavaria and you could tell based on its gigantic proportions. Drew made a comparison last night that Bavaria is to Germany what Texas is to the US and I couldn't agree more. The people here like things big and they have a lot of pride in where they are from.
While we sat enjoying our huge beer, a TV camera crew came into the beer garden and literally set up a camera in our face. They didn't even ask if it was ok or anything, I just looked over and BAM it was in my face. Next thing I know the guy is telling us to cheers, so we all attempted one which came out very half-assed. I wasn't aware of this when it happened but the guy got upset with us because after we did said pathetic cheers, I apparently just sat my beer back down on the table and didn't drink, which is not what you do. The guy told us to do it again with much more enthusiasm so we tried and then then packed up and left. Drew and Carolyn are going to try and find the footage.
As incriminating as this photo seems to be, I actually just happened to catch Amy mid blink. She was not drunk...
Toward the end of our time at Hofbrau we saw an old German dude who was obviously drunk wandering through the garden with a super old beagle dog (who was also kind of drunk looking). As he was heading into the restaurant he passed a tree and the beagle stopped waking with the man and turned around to pee on the tree. This wouldn't have needed any attention drawn to it at all except that one by one we and people all around us stop our conversations as the dog quickly passed the one minute mark of straight peeing. People all around were laughing hysterically while this poor old beagle stood in humiliation for almost 2 whole minutes trying to do his business. I think it has to be a world record or something. I was a little nervous the old man would be annoyed by all the people watching his dog, but it turned out he was rather jolly and in a thick German accent he looks around at everyone and yells "TOO MUCH BEER!!" and everyone laughed even more. Drew said that he didn't doubt the truth of the statement at all.
After the Hofbrau we slowly made our way back to the train station and stopped for gelato and coffee along the way. Munich was an amazing city and I would have loved to have spent a couple of days there since it was so big and surprisingly beautiful.
As we took the train back to Nuremberg I showed Drew the basics of how to use photoshop and illustrator to do basic graphic design which made the trip go by very quickly and when we realized it was almost midnight we all talked about how long and physically and emotionally draining it all was.
All very much worth our time and very interesting. Tonight is the first time of the trip that I was realy sad at the thought of having to leave. I hope to come back and hang out with Drew and Carolyn while they still live in Germany.
Tomorrow morning we head to Paris.
Until then, Cheers!
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