We spent today on a tour of Dachau, a nearly fully preserved nazi concentration camp just a bit north of Munich. It was a very informative trip, and it really made me think about what I already knew about concentration camps and the Holocaust in general. Once you see the furnaces of the crematorium and physically walk through the gas chamber where 200 people were systematically suffocated at once, you tend to put things in perspective. I will raise my brow at anyone who says the Holocaust never happened before now, that much I know.
Our tour group consisted of six Americans, one Egyptian, and one Australian. It was a good group, we were all talking a bit during the walk through Dachau, so afterward we decided to journey onto the U-Bahn (subway) and find a restaurant our guide told us about that served huge portions and rather cheap beer. It was a great time, we were all cutting up and telling stories and seeing where everyone was going/had been.
The Egyptian guy was especially goofy - after half a beer he was telling us about his previous trip in Australia. It was the first time he had ever tried sake, and he apparently downed 19 bottles of it and then, since he was the only one with an international drivers license, set out to drive his party home. He was capable of driving, he said, but unable to find the steering wheel once he got in the car (he wasn't used to the wheel being on the right hand side), and once he had found the correct seat to sit in to drive, he forgot that Australian gearboxes are reversed. He was attempting to drive from a dead stop in 5th gear, much to the amusement of obviously intoxicated onlookers. They were cheering him on (lol). They started cheering louder once he finally figured out the gearbox and drove off on the wrong side of the road and proceeded to go around a round-a-bout in the complete wrong direction. Regardless of how dangerous this experience sounds, we were all laughing and Prost!-ing (clinking beers and cheering "prost!") about it.
Today was another great day, aside from the fact that we're staying in a 6 bed hostel dorm and one of our dorm mates was a 30ish year old German man named Dirk who made the most horrendous noises during his sleep. He was moaning as if in the throws of passion, burping, scratching MADLY, and he even farted the longest fart I have ever heard in my life. It actually crescendo-ed! I was amazed, and since I was in the bunk underneath him, I am awfully glad he's gone tonight.
Tomorrow we ride the train to Prague at 8.44am - goodbye Munich :[ I'm sure Prague will be awesome though.
THREE BEEER ARE A BEER
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