MUNICH EXPLORATION
Munich is a very cool, modern city with plenty to see and do. (<-- yes I do write for Lonely Planet). But seriously, it's a mix of really modern technology, transport, gadgets etc, then you'll see some elderly German men in their lederhosen. The German people are very efficient and punctual, and we met / encountered a mixture of really lovely, charming helpful people, and very brusk, rude ones. I put it down to the fact we speak no German when people aren't friendly to us, which is fair enough, but having said that almost everyone speaks quite good English here. So here are some things we did:
• Watched German locals surf the rapids of a river in a park. It's hard to explain this but I've included lots of photos. We couldn't figure out if it is harder or easier than real surfing, but I think you'd have to be pretty brave to get in there, the water is going so fast!
• Walked through the city centre about 5 times, which is shopping central. There are 4 H&M's within 500m of each other.
• Went to a huge open air food market, it was full of people drinking beer, and you could buy all the Bratwurst, cheese, cold meats, fruit and veg and flowers you could want.
• Saw the Munich town halls, the bells that ring throughout the city are pretty impressive. And loud.
DACHAU
This was the second concentration camp I've visited, and I found there to be a vast difference in how the camps were treated after the war between Auschwitz in Poland and Dachau here in Germany. Dachau was a work camp rather than an extermination camp during the war, although of course many many people died at Dachau, 30,000 people is a conservative estimate. The buildings and landscapes of Dachau were vastly changed after the war, and before the 1972 Munich Olympics. Heaps of trees were planted, all but 1 of the prisoners barracks were torn down, the insides of the barracks were removed, as were all the kitchens and facilities. It's obvious why the government did this, but it is a shame, especially compared to Auschwitz which is almost untouched. Unlike Auschwitz, we did an organised tour for Dachau, which I thought really added another level to the visit, having someone who knows a lot and who can answer your questions. An interesting piece of information we learned was that Dachau was split into two sections, the camp itself and barracks for the SS. The SS barracks have never been open to the public, and are now used as training facilities for the police. I saw something that really upset me during the tour, two middle aged men climbed over the rope and posed smiling next to the cremation ovens, laughing and taking photos. A lady stepped in and told them how disrespectful they were being, but they shrugged her off and kept laughing. It was hard to believe anyone could act like that, especially 50 year old men. Besides that incident, I 'enjoyed' the visit. I put the word enjoyed in inverted commas because I know it's not the right word to use, but I cannot thing of another. Maybe, I found it interesting and worthwhile.
MY BIRTHDAY
So because I'll be in London on my actual birthday, October 1, and wouldn't have many people to celebrate with, we celebrated it on Friday 21st September. I had such a good day, the girls put in a lot of effort and carted my gifts all throughout Europe! So I woke up to them jumping on me and throwing balloons around, then went down to breakfast where there was a Soy Mocha Frappe waiting, and a whole pile of gifts! They got me: robot tea strainer (Avignon), elephant phone holder (Avignon), bicycle bell (Avignon), hot water bottle wearing a jumper (San Sebastian), tin of english breakfast tea (San Sebastian), MAC face powder (Lisbon), Nougat (Barcelona), Gaudi style elephant statues (Barcelona), and a card with a baby elephant the size of it's mums foot (Lagos). They picked up on my love of elephants, and as it turns out a lot of the presents they bought while I was with them. Standing next to them. One situation Joni faked a stomach bug and 'went back to the hostel' but in fact bought me gifts. I'm obviously not as observant as I think! So we spent the day shopping, had a delicious picnic in the park that included gluten and dairy free chocolate cake, then went out for a nice dinner and Joni read out a speech, which I was glad only a few ears could hear! I had such a good day, and am very thankful to the girls for making it so much fun.
OKTOBERFEST
We had two very different days at this craaaazy festival! The first day it was so miserable, raining really hard and was freezing. For some reason the hotel receptionist (Wolfgang- no joke) told us to go at noon as we'll get in to a tent no worries. Not true. We stood in the freezing wet weather for ages trying to get in, when we realised it wasn't going to happen and that my toes were about to fall off we left! However, the second day more than made up for it though: the sun was shining and it was only a bit cold, we all wore extra cardies and left at 7.30am to get in nice and early! We easily got into the HB tent which is the 'tourists' tent, so we got a table, made some friends, played some card games and drunk! Well everyone drunk but me for the first 5 hours because of the wheat in beer- I took some photos with some steins anyway. About an hour before we left though the beer wench (correct term) told me I could order wine! So I did! So I drank 500ml of wine, then we went exploring around the festival, I went on the big drop while Sophie's palms got sweaty just watching, we all got some sugared nuts then went home and had a really good snooze after a long, fun day.
I'm in my hotel room right now, the other two have already left for Paris! Teary goodbye this morning, but only a few as I'm seeing them in 2 weeks. Its day 101 of my trip, and my flight to Manchester is this afternoon, I'm just packing and realizing that a) my trip is over and b) I'm moving to London! I'll do a trip re-cap in a few days once I've adjusted, and I need to post a picture of all the postcards I've bought, I got one from every country! Until then! XX
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