Last Day of Munich

Today, Jen and Dave went to the Dachau concentration camp in the morning with some hostel friends. They did the audio guide while they were there. Pat and I didn't go with them because 1, we wanted to sleep, and 2, we wanted to go with a tour guide.

So, we headed out later on and went on the New Europe tour to Dachau. Since being there I completely agree with what people have been telling us: Everyone should see a concentration camp at least once in their lives.

It was really upsetting being there. We saw where people got their welcome to the camp speech (when they were told that they were nothing and yelled at and cursed at). We saw the showers and the whole process of getting them situated at the camp, aka stealing all their belongings, the razors used, and a uniform they were given.

We learned about different forms of torture used at that camp in particular. We saw the barracks as well, but it was a recreation of them. All the original ones were burnt to the ground by the US soldiers when the camp was liberated and emptied.

There are 4 memorials there from the 4 major religions present by the prisoners: Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, and Greek Orthodox.

The gas chamber and crematorium were still standing. The prisoners stopped the US soldiers from burning it to the ground so that people could learn about what happened there, learn from what happened, and to honor the memory of those who lost their lives in that way. If you wanna know more about that part, just ask me, but I'm not going to blog about it because it was pretty upsetting and I don't want any of you to get upset by the descriptions. Feel free to talk to me about it though.

On a lighter note, later in the day Pat and I met up with Sarah!!! We went out to dinner with her and had soooo much fun! Sarah, it was so good to see you!
Oh and apparently in Germany there's a fruit that's called: Sharon!! It's supposedly really sweet too! Quite fitting.... Just kidding! :-P there really is a fruit named that though!

Germany has been so much fun, but alas, tis time to move on. Off we go!!!

PS- Germany won their game on Sunday. Pat and I found this out on the train ride back from Dachau, when tooons of germans were heading to the city to celebrate. They were singing, cheering, and jumping: the whole train was shaking! I'll post the video I took. It was pretty funny!