Munich

Hey Everyone!
 
I got to Munich on Saturday, and walked to the hostel in the rain.  The hostel was so nice!  Feather duvets, hardwood floors... I was definitely spoiled.  There I met Haley and Boyda, two sisters from Beaverlodge, Ab!  We talked all evening (Turns out they know a friend of mine from Lethbridge) since there was so much rain coming down.  Sunday brought a trip to the large English Gardens and then Dachau, the Nazi´s first concentration camp.  The gardens were beautiful and were so large!  We saw some surfers there, a lot of soccer players, and a cool monument.  (Pictures to come...)We were trying to waste some time before a museum opened, but ended up spending the whole morning there.
 
Then it was off to the sobering experience of the Dachau concentration camp.  Over 43 000 people died there, but as far as they know, the gas chambers were never used here.  Near the end though, the creamatorium crew could´t keep up so they barried over 3000 in mass graves.  The audio tour was realy interesting as it featured prisioners´ teastimonies.  The 3 of us took our time, and went through the grounds and museum at our own pace.  It was a very spiritual experience for me.  For example, before I rounded the corner of to see the creamatorium, you could just feel your chest tighten and knew that something horrible had happened there. 
 
Today was a lot more lighthearted as I went on a 3 hour free walking tour with a really funny tourguide.  I hadn´t realized it before, but did your know that Hitler´s campaign started in Munich?  His first big speech was to the politicians at a meeting in the oldest beer hall in the world, which I had supper at last night.  (Some of you might be hoping that I had some beer while I was there, but since I can bearly stand the stuff, there was no way I could finish a litre of it!)  This afternoon, I went to Nymphenburg Castle with a girl I met on the walking tour, Katie.  The grounds were really large and the castle (summer home to be precise) had a moat all the way around it with two large ponds on either side that stretched for 1 km in either direction.  Everything in there was covered in gold!  It was so beautiful when the light hit it.  If this is the summer home to the "sleaping beauty castle" then I can imagine how beautiful it is!
 
Tonight at 11:30 I´ll be taking my first night train to Wien (Vienna), and I´ll arrive at 6 am tomorrow.  I´ll have to let you know how that goes at a later time as I just found a USB hub, so I´m going to try to upload some photos. 
 
Living it up, and loving you lots,
Andrea

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