Yo moy estoy contenta estar en Italia, porque me gusto mucho pasta! En Alemana me gusto mucho la bebida juego de manzana con agua con gas. En aleman se dice "apfel shorley". Pasta y apfel shorley no bueno juno.
I know that it might sound odd that we're heading north when we really should be heading south, but we absolutely HAD to see Munich. I'll explain more about that later.
After we checked out of the hotel we went to a local mall to look for an adaptor we could use in Austria so that I could recharge the computer the next time we came through. We never found one but we did end up finding a really cute red dress and some little black shoes for me. I felt guilty for both of these purchases. It wasn't that they were expensive (they weren't in fact the dress was on sale for 20 euros), it was just the fact that I needed new black shoes. We'd gotten black shoes in London and I have left those cute black shoes somewhere. Something tells me I left them in Paris after I wore my all-black outfit to go on the walking tour with Louise. Why do I think this? Well, that's the last time I remember wearing those shoes. While we were in the mall we sent off mail, and grabbed a few sandwiches.
Then we got on the road. Yet again I did as much work as I could. This time I was basically barred from using the computer. It's battery was just about gone.
As usual, when I'm working I don't truly notice what's passing by me in the window. It wasn't until I heard Ahmee say we were heading into Munich that I set aside my work to help look around for specific roads to get to the Ibis Hotel we were looking for. We ended up driving around downtown Munich for 40 minutes looking for the right street. When we did find the Ibis Hotel we went in, found out that it would cost us 300 dollars a night, and then walked out to go look for another hotel. Farther down the road we found out that yet another hotel was full and that we should check with tourist information in central station. After a short walk down the street and some navigating through traffic (on two wheels, on four, and on many more) we arrived at the information center. We discovered there that a convention was going on in Munich (tourist man didn't know what it was for either) and that every hotel was booked. When we heard this we asked him to look for a room that has four beds. This time he found one, called the A&O Hostel Hotel. This place was significantly cheaper than the outrageous Ibis Hotel and it was very easy to reach. So we booked it and headed over. When we checked in and went up the noisy elevator (creaked from what I suspected was over-use) we arrived at the top floor to go check out our room. Since the plan was only to stay long enough to get a look at Munich I didn't unpack much, actually, I only unpacked one thing: the computer. I immediately hooked it up so that the battery could recharge. I then started typing madly so that I could send more to my teachers. I ended up working for several hours there at my little desk. While I did this Ahmee and Poppy went out and explored and had a drink at a close-by beer garden. Don't worry, I had my own experiences. I was delighted to find (and this is not sarcasm) that our neighbors loved music and loved playing it loudly, that our room opened up onto a balcony that looked into the courtyard (so we could see our neighbors), and that many of the people staying in the hostel were around my age-normally slightly older or slightly younger and then every now and then getting an older than 25 person and a younger than 10 person. The loud music and the partying of my neighbors didn't rattle me (if stopping and going on the interstate doesn't then why would that?) and I got my work done while Ahmee and Poppy were gone (except for three questions which later turned out to be in a completely different chapter). Every now and then I'd hear a favorite song of mine that I hadn't heard in ages (through the fog and the haze) and I'd pause for a moment or two to sing to myself or dance. I never did this very long though and those songs didn't come on too often.
When Ahmee and Poppy got back from their beer-garden walk I was hungry and tired of working. They eventually ended up doing an about-face to go back to the beer-garden so we could head inside to eat dinner. We ate in the cellar, where all of the drunken sounds echoed off the rounded walls, and where the beer was sent down by a shaft tunnel and where those who poured it didn't do it properly (foam filled up half of the glass on one guys). I must say though that one large beer was a two handed job, the . Poppy got one of these and Ahmee got a smaller beer. I got myself some apfelschorley (apple juice with fizzy water- a delicious mixture of one thing I love and one thing I throughly dislike here). My apfelschorley disappeared faster than either beers (although I must say that during dinner I ate and when I did the beers had been downed). The beer cellar was a really fun place, and I didn't even have over a sip of alcohol (I did try some of the beer-twas pretty good).
After dinner in the cellar we went back to the Hostel where I got on the internet, wrote to people, sent off homework, and grabbed a few needed things. I was happy as all get out to discover that my Aunty Jen Jen Jenny had written to me. She told me that she'd been reading my blogs and that the mention of her name had made her blush. XD I LOVE YOU JEN JEN JENNY!!! (told ya I'd mention your name again tehehe).
I eventually got off the internet and headed back upstairs with Ahmee and Poppy (we had to type in the main entryway/lounge/front desk so believe me it was loud and interesting in there) where we all crawled/climbing into bed. I say climbed because there was a bunk bed and I called the top bunk.
10/07/08
The next day we decided we'd catch the free-tour of Munich that would start just outside the Glochenspeil on the Marienplatz (really great, fun shopping center) (sp?). We manuvered our way to the meeting place and were introduced to our guides. We got to tour Munich with a fun guy named Travis. Travis immediately caught everyone's eye because of the thing under his nose. He had a wiry, curled up mustache. He said he did it as a reference to his favorite artist: Salvador Dali. Travis didn't view his job as just an informer of the people. He called himself an infotainer. He showed us the Glochenshpeil, the "old" town hall where Hitler gave the word for the crystal night (sent his SS men out to destroy the homes, work places, and schools of the Jews), Our Lady Cathedral (the cathedral that was the starting place of the current Pope and which is famous for the devils footprint in the entryway), St. Peters cathedral (where Travis told of the time when he went up and the bells rang- he saw the towers shook and was excited while his friend was scared stiff), the Jewish center that was threatened with bombs from the miniscule Nazi party that still remains in Germany, the Haufbrau House (where they originally had a ditch as the toilet and where the canes of old fashioned days were used to direct their pee into the ditch and not splash the guy on the opposite side of the table-really disgusting), the maximillian plaza (streets around it were the expensive area where the "shicky mickey's" blow their money), the opera house that was built with an inversive dome as a rain collector so they could put out any fires-first time they used it it didn't work because the fire broke out in January (an effort was made to put out the fire with beer from the haufbrau house but the beer never made it down the chain of drunken men), the palace that King Ludwig I lived in with Theresea (these two were the ones who started the October fest by opening their wedding party to the whole of Munich, and opened the Haufbrau house to the public-was originally the Kings brewery), "dodgers alley" where people went to dodge the area where they had to salute Hitler, the street where Hitler and his rounded up followers went and tried to overthrow the government (their force was met by a blockade of policemen and a showdown went down where 15 Nazis were killed, 1 innocent bystander, and 4 policemen-Hitler escaped with a dislocated shoulder but was caught later and was put on a mock-trial where he basically got to address all of Germany and spout his views-basically it was a rally time where Hitler got more followers-he ended up with a jail sentence of five years but he was let out early (a matter of months) on good behavior), the square where bronze plaques were set up dedicated to the 16 Nazis that were killed (they told the people that the man who was killed was a Nazi supporter so that the Nazis didn't have any innocent blood on their hands) and the 4 policemen who had been shot down as they tried to change sides and join the Nazis, the last place we got to see was the place where Hitler addressed the people when he came into power-funnily enough he stood between two lions (one that was facing the church had a closed mouth meaning you can't speak out against the church and the one that was facing the palace where King Ludwig I had lived had it's mouth open meaning you can speak out against your government-Hitler had no idea). That has got to be the biggest run-on sentence I've ever created. Isn't it great? We were fed with tons and tons of facts and we were told loads of stories while on this tour. Travis did an excellent job.
After the tour and after we ate lunch with Travis we went off to find Words Worth, the bookstore that Uschi's friend had helped start. Even though we didn't know the exact address we didn't have any issues finding it. While we were in here I discovered just how much Ahmee and I adore reading. It had been ages since we'd been able to find a store that was so filled with English books. We were able to pick up any book we wanted and read it. We spent at least an hour in Words Worth just soaking in the English print. I went through many gardening books, cooking books, and fiction books before my eyes rested on a traveling book called: Americas best traveling Writers. Each chapter described one persons trip to a different country. The last chapter was the one that stuck with me the most though. It described this one womans search for a place where she truly belonged, her search for her home. She found it on Easter Island, but she ended up leaving. The last sentence of that book was something along the lines of: "It takes true courage to stay." On the way back to the hotel I continued to think about her story and I wondered if that's why I adore traveling so much, I'm looking for a home. I eventually decided during dinner that I, like my mother, am like a weed, I can grow anywhere. The thing is though: every plant has it's favorite soil. If we were to find our "place", would we grow wild and expand and thrive like the weeds we are? Where have I immediately felt a connection to a specific place? I still ponder this question.
10/08/008
The next day we went on the Dachau tour. Our tour guide reminded me of David Bare. His name was Kevin. Dachau was perhaps the most stark place I've ever been too. All of the books that I'd read over WWII immediately came to life as I looked around at this place that was considered to be the model concentration camp. I was a tense, person all throughout this trip and I definitely didn't stick around long when we were invited to go through the gas chambers (that don't have any documents showing just how many were killed there so the estimated count is 0). Even though the purpose of the tour was to encourage people to look more into the subject and to honor those who were persecuted, the small sections that told of what the prisoners went through made me tense up completely. Those who know me well know that I can become absorbed quite easily: when I watch tv or read a book it's like I'm in the film or in the story. While in Dachau this became quite a curse. The "punishments" that were described weren't just words for my ears. There were two that he talked about: the whipping block (where the prisoner was set down and given "25" lashes while the prisoner had to count out loud the number in German-imagine if you were from another country and didn't know German-imagine if you passed out and had to start all over-imagine if you had to deliver the beating to this person or else suffer a worse fate later), and the hanging pole where the prisoners arms were tied behind their back and then they were hung (chain from their hands to the pole) until the muscles tore and the bones snapped-this was eventually outlawed because it made the good workers useless. Can you imagine living in a place where if you made the slightest mistake (they had to have their rooms perfectly clean or else they could be subject to those two "punishments") you'd end up having one of those two things as the smaller punishment? An example: if you were out working and your button popped off your uniform, you bend down, pick it up, and put it into your pocket-you just broke three rules: you're out of uniform, you stopped working, and you put your hand in your pocket. Another thing they did was if you set foot on any of the grass then you were considered as trying to escape and they were required to shoot you down. They were anal about keeping track of the people, if one wasn't at role call then a search was conducted to see if that person had escaped. One time people were standing in role-call for 17 hours because two people were too sick to get out of bed and make it to role-call.
The thing is though was that these weren't the worst things. The prison within the prison was the area where far worse could happen to you. One example: they'd keep prisoners in a room that contained no light. That prisoner would be given food once every four days and they remained in the dark for years. Then the Germans would take you out and force you to look into the sun-force you to use your eyes again and put you through excruciating pain. This was were I heard an incredible story though. A man was tortured (no idea how long), once they were done they gave him a rope and a knife and left him in his room basically saying: you have the choice to kill yourself tonight and be gone or we'll continue till you're dead. This man used the knife and the rope, not to kill himself, but to escape. He used the knife to open his cell door, and he used the rope and his bed to get over the fence. When the Germans went into his room the next morning he was out of the country.
Another great story was one where a prisoner decided he'd had enough and he was going to make a break for freedom. During role call he ran across the strip of grass (dodging bullets the entire time), went down the ditch, and made it halfway up the ditch when he was shot in both legs by the Germans. He shouted, loud enough for the whole camp to hear, "My heart's right here! Aim right you fuckin pig!" The man died in defiance of the Germans.
Before we left we got a glance at the memorials that were on the site and the we dashed for the bus. While on the bus and the train it felt odd for me to talk. I was still thinking about Dachau. I did manage to say to Ahmee that that night would've been a great one to do the beer challenge tour on (I'm not old enough-have to be 18). I wasn't the slightest bit surprised when Kevin suggested this before he let everyone head on their merry way.
We went to the Haufbrau house for dinner, and after Ahmee and Poppy had their beers (which weren't nearly as good as the beer gardens or the Pope's beer-his favorite beer that Ahmee tried) we were all much better. We headed back to the hostel where I spent a large amount of time working and then emailing. Before we went to bed we arranged some of our things so we could get up and go-the next day we were just going to take the Third Reich Tour and head south.
10/09/08
The next day we finished packing our things up, checked out, put everything back into the car, and then headed out to take the Third Reich tour. What surprised me this time was the accent that I heard from our tour guide named Adam. He had a Scottish accent with a hint of something else. As the tour went on I found out that his hometown was an hour south of Glasgow (didn't catch the name). We listened to him and learned more about what happened there in Munich, such as how Hitler got started out, why he ended up rising to such a position of power, what Hitler had to say about the situation (wrote a book while in prison and when he became dictator he made it illegal for you to NOT own his book), what resistance forces there were and what happened to them (White Rose movement was a group of college students who were beheaded after they got caught putting out pamphlets-they along with the man who printed them), the many different groups of people who were persecuted, those who escaped persecution, and much more.
I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I have to say now that it's the guide that makes the tour. Travis was wonderful at balancing the entertainment and the information so that a person could remember things. Kevin tended to stumble over the words, and he had a much shorter timeframe to complete everything in so it was a tad rushed in certain places. Adam was simply passionate about what he was talking about. It was easy enough for me to tell that even though he'd said these things and shown these places to people many times over the past year, he wasn't tired of it. He gave as much information as possible. The thing is though is the tone of voice and the way he presented it, how he showed just how ironic things were, just how hypocritical people were, just how amazing something was showed that he truly adored the subject.
We got a brief history of what Hitlers life was like before he came to Munich-he originally came from Austria (in fact there are now more Nazi's in Austria than in Germany). We also got a run-down of how Hitler slowly came to head the Nazi's. After failing at becoming an artist (couldn't paint the human form) Hitler became a spy for the military. He was told to spy on one particular party who held meetings in a particular building-that building today is an apple store (mac). Hitler told the army he liked what he was hearing (that Germany shouldn't have taken responsibility for WWI, and that Germany should refuse the Treaty of Versailles), and he continued going to these meetings. He quickly became their spokesperson and soon the party decided they needed to expand. They held a rally at the Haufbrau house saying it was a meeting for the German Workers Party (the pamphlets were all in red and black to invite the Communists in so the Nazi's could show everyone who will act rather than just talk-they had the Communists thrown out of the Haufbrau House). Hitler quickly became head of this newly enlarged party (all he had to do was say he was about to resign and the president decided he didn't want to lose the party's spokesperson so he stepped aside and let Hitler take over). There was another section of this party that decided they were going to stage a coup and overthrow the government, Hitler was not invited to this meeting, so he invited himself and several hundred of his followers (all armed) to the meeting where he pulled the two leading men out of the room and basically held them at gunpoint and said, "You're going to do what I tell you to do and your going to be with me or else you're both dead and myself included." Hitler also told the people in that meeting that he was backed by the old army General. This General showed up later at the meeting and Hitler told him that they'd reached an agreement and asked that the General watch over things there while he took off to round up more people. Hitler left this once-alcoholic man in charge of hundreds of drunken guys in a bar. Basically, the man got wasted and was a pushover for the other two men to slip by. When Hitler got back he found his political leverage gone. He considered suicide but his General friend told him they still had a chance so they went to try and take the government by force. They were blocked by police forces and at the showdown 15 Nazi's were killed, 1 waiter coming out of his cafe, and 4 policemen. Hitler, who had been at the front, was thrown down by his bodyguard who jumped on top of him. Hitlers arm was dislocated while his bodyguard received 11 shots in the back at close range. The bodyguard survived miraculously enough. The general who had been all for Hitler walked through the bullets and the blockade and turned himself in (he didn't get hit because he was a famous war veteran). Hitler shoved his bodyguard off of him and ran back through the crowd to an ambulance where he got his arm popped back in and where he highjacked the ambulance. They found him the next day hiding out in one of his friends houses. He was put on trial where the judge was pro-Nazi and where Hitler got to spew anything he wished and thus gained more followers. Hitler received the sentence of five years in prison, which he didn't complete because he was released after a few months for good behavior. Immediately after his release he started up again and quickly became the second most powerful man in Germany, just under the President. The President handed over the rest of the power to Hitler when a pyro-loving, mentally ill, Communist "set fire" to an important government building (in 6 different places all exactly at the same time). He handed emergency powers over to Hitler so that he could deal with the situation. Hitler used this new power immediately by setting up camps to place all Communists in. Once all of his political rivals were locked up, a vote was cast to give Hitler permanent power. Of course, the vote made him dictator of Germany.
That's only a small section of what I found out on the tour (I'm leaving out specifics because I always have issues remembering those).
When we stopped to get coffee Adam came up to me and asked me what I thought about the tour. I told him it was excellent. Course we started talking immediately after that. As we talked I was continuously getting "shots" of Iain. Adam would say something that would remind me of things that Iain had said before to me. An example would be, when Adam told us that he was going to show us what Munich has done to honor those many different people who were persecuted and who died I saw the flame within the sculpture and said, "It's an eternal flame." Adam said in response, "Good girl." Instantly a memory of Edinburgh flashed before my eyes. I was back with Iain, telling him why I thought the Castle of Edinburgh was a specific way (was going uphill-all giganjo castles are uphill) he replied, "Smart Girl."
After the tour had ended Adam and I walked at the front. He ended up talking about his love of medieval weaponry, about issues he's had with customs, about how he checked what truly happens in history (use different viewpoints and whatever matches up each time is what happened), about what books and movies he would recommend, about how I should watch out for Italian men, and about October fest.
Later when we were on the road heading to Austria I had plenty of thoughts running through my head. There were things that I'd caught Adam say at the beginning to a trainee (such as: "get used to them nodding their head and being all glazed eyed when you're talking"). I didn't do that. I don't normally do that. The subject of the tour was far too interesting to do that. Adam noticed I was interested. At the end of the tour he thanked everyone for their attention because that was what made him love his job most of all-was knowing that people were willing to learn, where willing to find out more rather than just go on the beer challenge. Since he'd mostly talked to me on the in-between times I felt he was saying this to me specifically. I enjoyed talking to him and I enjoyed the tour. My memories of Iain snapped back to the surface so many times. It made me miss him tons. While Adam was fun to talk to, he wasn't Iain.
My reflections of everything that had happened that day got disturbed. I had to use the restroom. We pulled off the windy, curvy road and into a gas station where Poppy filled up the tank while Ahmee and I used the toilet. This would not be the last time we saw that gas station. After we hopped back into the car we heard a slightly disturbing noise. As we got farther and farther away from the gas station the noise got worse and after we turned around and headed back we discovered smoke was coming out the back end. When we got the car to the mechanic (just across the street from the gas station) we (Ahmee and I) heard some pretty nasty news. The diesel car had been filled up with gas (Poppy hadn't read the label). The car needed to be left with the mechanic who would give us a call when it was fixed up. We grabbed a few things and headed to the closest hotel (that the mechanic recommended). While Poppy haggled for a room Ahmee pulled me outside to inform me that the worst that could happen from this was that they'd have to put a new engine in or they'd have to pay some huge price and we'd have to go home early. As I dragged my suitcase up the stairs I was picturing us heading back early and what it would be like to head back home the next day. I viewed it with dread. I love my family and my home, but I've been wanting this trip for years, I didn't/don't want to end it prematurely. I made sure to tell Poppy that we all make mistakes though and that it was alright what happened. Even if we did end up going home (I decided), I refused to get angry with Poppy.
Poppy apologized (this is when I said "what for? It's ok that you filled the tank up with the wrong fuel. We all make mistakes.") but didn't relax or act happy until after dinner (had a good bit of wine with Ahmee). We all ended up going to bed early that night.
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