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Hi.

I guess I'm now documenting my adventures in travel and food. Hope you have a nice stay!

Munich and more

Munich and more

If it wasn't for the German language being spoken in both places and German flags flying in both, Munich and Berlin could have been in two different countries. The architecture, the people, the food, and just the overall feeling of the city is completely different from Berlin. Munich seemed to be much more of a laid back, "fun-loving" city than its more serious counterpart Berlin. 

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Similar to Prague, Munich has a long history with beer and it permeates the city's culture. This is pretty evident by walking down any street in Munich where you will see beer halls and cafes filled with people drinking beer in the warm summer air.

Similar to Berlin, almost 90% of the city was destroyed during the Allied invasion of WWII, thus most of the "old" buildings that contain these beer halls are actually quite new but made to look old. It is actually in these Munich beer halls where a small group of men in the 1920s first started talking about their views for the future of Germany and discussed how to solve the economic crisis ravaging Germany at that time. Chief among these beer-drinking, pretzel-eating men was one Adolf Hitler. Although Berlin was the seat of power for the Nazi regime, Munich can actually be considered its birthplace.

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Munich itself does not have many "iconic" sights besides Oktoberfest and the Glockenspiel. Since Oktoberfest is obviously not in June, I settled for seeing the Glockenspiel which is a giant clock that has moving characters depicting a marriage and a joust. Hundreds of tourists crowd the square to watch these characters move at the top of the hour. Spoiler - it is the most underwhelming thing I have ever seen.

To settle down from all that excitement, I took a stroll through the English Garten of Munich. The English Garten is one of the world's largest urban parks filled with gorgeous trees, sculptures, a serene river running the length of it, and naked old guys sun bathing at 7pm... welcome to Munich I guess. In the middle of the English Garten there is a large Chinese tower that is the site of a German beer garden - they obviously are having a culture crisis here. Crisis aside, it is a wonderful place to enjoy a beer and a pretzel on a nice evening with some local Germans. 

Another iconic site in Bavaria is Neuschwanstein Castle which is the location that inspired the movie Sleeping Beauty. High up in the German Alps, the castle really looked like something out of a fairy tale.

Now for a change of pace. Only 15 miles away from the beer clinking sounds of the Hofbrauhaus in Munich is the site of one of the most horrific scenes of the 20th century. Dachau concentration camp is still one of the most preserved concentration camps from WWII as many were destroyed by the Allies. Dachau still has most of its original buildings on site and acts as a memorial as well as a museum so that the world may never forget what happened there. Dachau housed an estimated 188,000 inmates and killed a recorded 32,000 people as reported from Nazi documents and thus does not include unrecorded killings or deaths by disease which were not reported. Recent discoveries of mass graves near Dachau lead researchers to believe that thousands more were killed here than previously thought.

It is hard to describe the feeling of taking your first step into the camp and having the tour guide tell you that on that very spot hundreds of men were beat to death on their first day at the camp to show the power of the S.S. to the remaining prisoners. I say men because Dachau was a slave labor camp and thus was a men's only camp. The tour takes you through the camp in the order that a prisoner would have experienced it and at each point explains the degradation, humiliation, and torture that these people had to experience. Although many camp buildings still remain, the barracks where the prisoners lived are no longer there as the Americans destroyed them due to the diseases that were present in them. However, there are replicas of the originals that show how tight the living spaces were and how they were forced to literally sleep on top of one another. The tour finally ends where the lives of many of the prisoners' lives ended - at the gas chambers and crematorium of the camp. The whole experience is hard to put into words and even that does not do it justice. Reading about it and being there are two completely different experiences.

Center of camp where roll call was taken and the prisoners were forced to stand at attention for hours on end - including the sick and the dead. This is also the entrance to the camp where many men were beat to death for no reason.

Center of camp where roll call was taken and the prisoners were forced to stand at attention for hours on end - including the sick and the dead. This is also the entrance to the camp where many men were beat to death for no reason.

Stone foundations of where all the barracks were. On the right hand side of the picture you can see some grass and a gate. If a prisoner stepped foot on the grass they were shot by a guard in that tower. If the managed to make it across the grass al…

Stone foundations of where all the barracks were. On the right hand side of the picture you can see some grass and a gate. If a prisoner stepped foot on the grass they were shot by a guard in that tower. If the managed to make it across the grass alive they would run into that fence and get electrocuted.

Inside of one of the gas chambers. The black circles on the ceiling were made to look like shower heads to trick the prisoners into going into the room without question. Once the prisoners were inside, a canister containing the deadly poison was dro…

Inside of one of the gas chambers. The black circles on the ceiling were made to look like shower heads to trick the prisoners into going into the room without question. Once the prisoners were inside, a canister containing the deadly poison was dropped from the square in the center of the picture.

The crematorium.

The crematorium.

Switzerland

Switzerland

Prague

Prague