I live!

So remember that time when I didn't post for over a month? Yeah, my bad.

I find that when I am in the habit of doing something, it doesn't seem tedious or like any extra effort is necessary... but the longer I put something off, the more I don't want to do it. I enjoy posting and keeping a record of things that happen (preferably when they happen) but the longer I wait to update, the more I convince myself that it's an inconvenience... which is not at all true, but when there's a whole world of American television to be caught up on online, it's seems like a pretty good excuse at the time.

So a LOT has happened in the past month, including three notable trips to Munich, Austria, and the Baltic Sea. In the interest of self-preservation, I will be tackling each trip in separate posts. I started this blog entry this morning while letting apple cider cook, but apparently cooking cider is a day-long process and I am now, more than 13 hours later, still nowhere near done writing. DANG IT. On the plus side, it will hopefully be easier to read in segments than in one big tangent... and I think I can safely say more interesting, as well.

Munich
So, as a complete answer to prayer (see prayer requests from last legitimate post) I was able to get very cheap train tickets to and from Munich. I left on a Friday and traveledfor TWELVE HOURS. Munich is usually only a 6 hour ride away, but because I'm po' I bought the "Deutschland Spezial" which is code for transport solely by commuter trains. I left the house at 7:20 in the morning, took seven trains, and got to my hotel room by 11:30 that night. I was also having trouble getting ahold of Emily, which was a little nerve wracking. There was also a friend from high school who was in Munich that weekend but I couldn't seem to find a way to connect my German cell to her Italian cell... so unfortunately that didn't work out to meet up.

Anyway, the morning of my first full day I took a cab to the hotel where Emily and her friends were staying, and as soon as I get there Emily said "So, we're going to Dachau." I was like "Great... what's Dachau?" Well, a concentration camp just somehow didn't seem to fit my pre-concieved notion of Oktoberfest's celebratory atmosphere, but I decided it was a good idea to go. I had been wondering if I would be emotionally capable of seeing one, and I had come to a half conclusion that unless there was a blatant opportunity I would probably not try too hard to go. Well, Somebody knew better than me and provided me with a blatant opportunity, so I warned the people I was with that I'm an easy we took the U-Bahn out to Dachau.

When we got there, there was a lot to see and not a lot of time to see it. We started on the right side of the camp with the barracks, which was host to medical experiments, interrogations, and torture. In Europe I love that you can physically touch the history around you, but this was certainly some history I didn't want to make contact with. They had several post-war accounts from prisoners who survived, and to give specific voices to the experiences was terrifying. It's bad enough knowing that millions were tortured and killed, but to know the individual stories magnifies the monstrosity of it. Of course we know that every single person has life and personality, but I think sometimes we look at the larger group and forget the individual stories. I found it to be fascinating and devastating a the same time. I then moved on to the main hall which was the main source of information. I tried to look at everything, and in doing so spent the rest of my remaining time there. I went from trying to read everything, to reading the titles and deciding which ones to read, to walking briskly through and just reading titles. There was a section about music and poetry in the camp, and I was reminded of Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time" which he composed while in a concentration camp. We studied the third movement, specifically in Music History and I found the solo clarinet absolutely enchanting. Dr. Hanson described the clarinet as the nightengale, which is mythologically believed to be the last creature living when everything else in the world has already been destroyed. The melody is haunting and serene, and is yet another beautiful example of the power of music. Whoops- I just got lost there for a minute in the thought of the music. Hey, at least it shows I learned something in college, though, right?! YESSS.

Anyway, I was pretty bummed to think that I wasn't even going to see the normal bunk houses or the crematorium. However, some of our group was late to catch the bus (which came every 20 minutes) so Emily and I power-walked our way to the OPPOSITE side of the camp to see it. The outside was super creepy in that it looked completely normal... almost like a little cottage or something. The thing about the camp as a whole was that it was eerily quite, I think out of a certain reverence and respect for the severity of what happened there... but the silence in the crematorium was deafening. I was really a pretty small room with three or four ovens. Just like the exterior, the ovens themselves were deceivingly innocent in appearance. Honestly, they looked like pizza ovens you would find in a local pizzeria... which to me is all kinds of disturbing. Then I went to a room on the side and read something that said "this room is where all the bodies were stored before burning"- in which case I ran out of there as fast as possible. Things I'm not interested in: standing in a room previously occupied by thousands of dead people. Thanks.

Unsuprisingly, the rest of the trip was much more festive.

That night we managed to get into the Hofbräuhaus, one of the biggest and most famous beer halls in Munich. The energy was unbelievable! Something I noticed even on my last train into Munich the night before was that EVERYONE was wearing a dirndel or lederhosen. I had assumed that the traditional outfits would be primarily for bar wenches, but it seemed like they were everywhere you went- which was AWESOME. Needless to say, the Hofbräuhaus had it's fair share of festive apparel :) At first we tried to stand in line to get in, but in that mob scene playing nice wasn't going to get us anywhere. We decided just to bum rush the place, and actually got in! The tricky part after that was to actually find a table- especially one that would fit nine people. We were lucky enough to find a table on the balcony outside, which appeared to be the last available spot possible. I asked the people next to us if we could have their extra chairs in German, but when they looked at me with total confusion I tried English- and wouldn't you know, we wound up next to a group of Irishmen! I think their time in Munich was a mobile bachelor party for one of the guys, so the group was... rowdy. They were fun to chat with throughout the night, though, and it was fun to meet people from another country and actually be able to converse with them (as opposed to meeting someone from a non-English speaking country, persay...)

Everyone at the table ordered a beer, but being the girly drink drinker that I am, I looked at the "Spirits" section and saw something that said Apple & Pear. In my cocktail-oriented mind I thought, great! A fun little mixed drink to go with dinner! It wasn't until the arrival of said drink that I learned the significance of the 2cl that was printed next to it in the menu. 2cl is two centiliters... so instead of a nice little sweet drink, I got a shot. GREAT. That also meant I was going to have to buy another drink to go with dinner, so I decided to try a light beer. I used to say that with both beer and indian food, people always insisted that the reason I didn't like it is because I haven't had "good" beer or indian food. Well, I'm warming up to indian food now, but the beer is still a lost cause. The menu said it came in a half liter, but the waiter said I could only have the full liter. Everyone in the entire restaurant was downing multiple liter glasses of beer, so I decided to go for it. After finishing half of it (which was a feat in itself) I decided that it just wasn't tastey enough to justify making myself drink the rest of it, so I let somebody else finish it for me. I did, however, receive a free drink from the boys at the table next to us... so that made me feel a little bit less left out.

After the Hofbräuhaus, we took the U-Bahn back to the general area of the group's hotel and found a strange little Spanish/Mexican restaurant (I have no idea how a Spanish restaurant would be different from a Mexican restaurant, so it was either reasonable Spanish or not so Mexican Mexican). We had a little loud music, a little margarita, a little chips & salsa, and called it a night.

Speaking of which, I just can't go on any more right now. Esther will be gone the next two days for a seminar (but will be back in the evenings) which means that I am looking at two SUPER full days with the kids- including a trip to an apple orchard which Esther volunteered me to chaperone for. No sneaking a little extra sleep in for me :(

I will, however, post Munich: Part II TOMORROW and hopefully some bits of Austria, too...

Congratulations if you made it this far. I promise it was hard for me, too.
~Julia~