Dachau Concentration Camp

This is not a happy post. The contents describe my experience while visiting Dachau concentration camp. The camp after which most concentration camps were modeled.

I’d been waiting all semester to go to Dachau Concentration Camp. Perhaps it was a rather morbid desire, but I thought it was important. Not only for research for one of my books, but also for the sake of seeing how devastating was this monumental event in history known as the holocaust.

I expected to cry. I expected to be brokenhearted for the whole two hours that we were there. I was not. It was definitely sobering. But the birds were singing. The trees were starting to come to bud. The grass was green. Only two barracks out of the thirty that had been there still stood – and they smelled good. They smelled of pine from the rows and rows of bunks. It was overcast, but the sun was giving off enough light for me to get good pictures inside the barracks.

There were two instances when I could see it, when I could put myself in that concentration camp sixty/seventy years ago.

There is, obviously, a gate to this concentration camp. This gate opens and closes as people come in and out (I had expected it to stay open, actually). On the gate are the words: Arbeit Macht Frei: Work Will Make You Free. Ironic?

I heard the gate clang close behind us and as I turned around, I felt trapped (someone probably just wanted a picture in front of the closed gate. We had.) until I reminded myself that we could get out. The gate was not locked. Not anymore.

When the concentration came was found at the end of the war, General Eisenhower made the whole town of Dachau visit it so that they could see the horrors that had gone on right in their back yard.

"May the example of those who were exterminated here between 193301945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defense of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow men."

We went into the maintenance building, the building that housed everything except sleeping quarters, right down to the hanging posts in the shower room. The maintenance building was hard, white concrete. It looked miserable, but it didn’t tug at my heartstrings. Posters filled every room with pictures and information about the camp. The second moment that hit home was when I stepped into the room where they were stripped of their personal belongings, their dignity, their identity, and their very humanity. Display cases stood between the pillars in the center of the room. They held personal belongings of the prisoners: family photos, i.d. papers, eye glasses, even a play program.
Horrible picture, but you can see how happy they were.

The courtyard where the thousands of prisoners had stood for hours at roll-call and where hundreds had died stands just inside the gate. Once it had been filled with starved human beings. I couldn’t picture it. I rarely have trouble visualizing a place as it once was. I couldn’t see it. It was only a giant gravel courtyard inside a fence.
In some rooms there was no space between the bunks. The prisoners had to climb over each other in order to get to their bed.
View of the courtyard out the front of the barracks.
The lockers held the prisoner uniforms. Each uniform had a patch on it that identified the "sin" of the prisoner - usually just their nationality.
View out the back of the barracks. There were once barracks in those frames.
Wash basin. One for the whole building.

The road back past the other barracks to the memorials and the crematorium.
The Jewish memorial.

Guard tower.

I didn’t make it to the crematorium (my great sense of direction prevented me) but it described in great detail to me. I wish I had seen it, though. Maybe then, it would’ve effected me the way that I had expected.

Back on the Continent

Hey everyone!

I'm back! (or rather, on the continent. I'm still out of the country. I was able to see it for about two hours before crossing the border into Canada. It was nice to stand on American...pavement... for a little while). I've been back for about a week (as you probably saw on Life in Canada, Eh.) Getting here was rather difficult. It's official, I have bad luck in airports. I have spent WAY too much unnecessary time in them.

We almost missed our flight out of Munich and had to sprint to the gate. The lady at the check-in gave us a look that made all of our hearts drop. "Please, go straight to the gate," she begged us. We went through the standard security line and an additional security line before we could get to our gate. Our passports were checked four times (I can understand two, maybe three, but four?). The eight hours from Munich to Washington D.C. seemed to take forever. When we finally got there, we had about an hour and a half until our next flights (I was going to Buffalo and Heather and Courtney were going to Oregon). We got some Mexican food and called our families.

I figured that the "A" gates - where I was flying out of - were within short sprinting distance of the "C" gates - where we landed and where Heather and Courtney were flying out of. Of course they weren't. As I ran, dread was sinking my heart once again. I got through the tunnel, ran up two sets of escalators, down three, and then there was the subway...and two more escalators to run up, and then some more running. As I approached the gate, the door was open onto an empty runway. I checked my phone for the time. Ten minutes. I still have ten minutes. Where's the plane? Gone. It had already left. The man at the desk was already giving a ticket to another lady who had also missed the plane.

I was sweaty and breathless for the second time that day. And I was mad. The man was very nice and patiently printed me a new ticket for the next flight to Buffalo while I paced, panting from frustration and lack of oxygen. The next flight was for 9:55 p.m.... 4 1/2 hours later...and it was back at a "C" gate. Seriously? Back on the subway, up and down all those escalators.

I finally got ahold of my mom to tell her I would be there for five hours later than usual - there goes our shopping trip in the states.

I was so tired on the little jet that took me to New York. I was not very conversational and couldn't keep my eyes open. Too bad the guy next to me was young and wanted to talk. Not to mention I was trying to read and the book that I was trying to read was New Moon. I was a little embarrassed about that and tried to hide the title and the cover, but I was practically unconscious so I doubt whether I succeeded.

We finally landed and I finally got to see my mom and sister waiting at the security line (when my mom took that really attractive picture of me and Katie).

When we got to Washington D.C. we found out about the volcano and only a couple days later found out that everyone in our group got out of Munich, but just barely.

Seven More Days

We have gathered from all parts of Europe and rejoined each other in Munich, Germany. We came together with all sorts of adventures to share with each other. We are in Munich until Saturday, when we will visit Dachau concentration camp and return to Regensburg for a few days.

We have beautiful weather for our tour of Munich. As in most places in Germany, it is a city of history. It is the hub of German industry and the second richest city in the country.

This is the famous glockenspiel, housed in the Neu Rathaus (New Town Hall). Twice a day the figures inside the green windows come out and twirl around to the clock chimes.

Here is Marienplatz, the square which is home to the Rathaus.

The traditional Bavarian dress is a Dirndl. There are cute ones and beautiful ones. I even saw a pure white one that looked like a wedding gown. These are little girl ones and they are so cute!

We went to the English Gardens yesterday (strange because, you know, we're in Germany). I guess the English all had gardens with gazebos so the Germans built a garden with a Chinese tower.

A view of part of the garden from the inside of an Olympian style gazebo up on a hill.
The Isar River.
Some of the Germans engage in a very safe sport called River Surfing. It's quite impressive, actually. One or two of the surfers made us all hold our breath because they kept getting so close to the side.

It's hard to believe that there are just a few days left. I am going to miss Germany. It has been such an adventure and I've learned so much, such as: how to read bus and train schedules, even if they are in a different language; how to say, "Haben Sie soya milch?" (do you have soy milk? - most often the reply to that is "so-ya milch?" and then a confused shake of the head); Germans are quite helpful when two American girls are a tad bit lost... I mean, aren't quite sure which direction to go; Germans are very, very clean - I missed that when we were in Italy; trains in Germany don't wait for everyone in the group to be on; gas stations and convenience stores charge 50 cents to use the bathroom, but they're really nice bathrooms (gonna miss those on my next road trip); carpet and comfortable chairs are splurging in the comfort area; some of the most beautiful countryside is in Germany; they eat bread and cheese and liverwurst for breakfast...every...single...morning (eggs and pancakes or french toast for breakfast, Mama?...maybe both?); and I never want to tour another cathedral again in my life! Well, the list goes on, but I'll be home soon to tell you all about everything...multiple times...even if I've already blogged about it. :)

See you all soon!

Pictures

We had to wait for two hours in the morning in the train station. Two hours doesn't seem like too long, but it's a really long time when you haven't slept since 8:00 the morning before. Thankfully, this is the stop that was shortened by missing the train that got us there and daylight savings time.

As you can tell, it was an exciting wait.

We rode our bikes down quiet country roads on our way to the surrounding towns/villages.

Most of the houses have actual thatched roofs. I didn't know those still existed.

A street in Wyck, the capitol of Fohr.

Us eating the best fish and chips ever!

And, they were from the North Sea off the coast of Germany in the Friesian Islands.
Who would've thought that Grandpa Harvey's hobos are in Germany too? (is that how you spell hobo?)
Sunset last night in Utersum, the village that we are staying at.

Spring Break Begins

Spring Break at last! We've been turned loose with nine days to do WHATEVER we want! Heather and I packed our bags and headed North...WAY north. About as north as you can get in Germany. We left Regensburg at 10:37 a.m. Saturday morning. We settled in at 10:30 a.m. Sunday morning. So, what filled in those 24 hours?
10:30 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. : various trains until we got to Hamburg and said good-bye to Dalton (who shared the train ticket with us).
10:30 p.m.-11:51 p.m.: get some dinner, look around for some coffee, but everything was closed, find coffee in a vending machine, look down the track at the shrinking tail lights and realize that we were one minute late for our train. Oops.
11:52 p.m. - 12:30 a.m.: check the train schedule, buy the ticket for day #2.
12:30 a.m.: get on the waiting train. Guess what! It started raining as soon as we sat down.
1:02 a.m.-1:59 a.m.: visit with some Germans who invited us to a pub (don't worry, we didn't go), and then invited us to an Easter Festival on Sunday (still debating that one)
1:59-5:00 a.m.: wait in a little room in a little train station and try to finish The Sorrows of Young Werther, talk a little bit, see a man who reminds us that it is daylight savings so we only have to wait in the train station for two hours instead of three!
5:00 a.m.: get on the train
5:38-6:40 a.m.: another train
6:50: nearly miss our train because a young man with just a little too much to drink last night tried to tell us to get back on the train we'd just come from - luckily we have been riding trains long enough to know how to read the schedules.
7:30 a.m.: get on a tram from the last train station to the ferry stop.
8:00: get on the ferry, have breakfast (two hardboiled eggs on a baguette is not what I call breakfast, but for some reason, Germans love to eat sandwiches for breakfast).
9:00: arrive on the island of Fohr and find a taxi man who was kind enough to call the number of our host (we may have forgotten the address).
9:30 move in
10:00 rent bikes, buy some groceries, ride around a little
11:00: finally settle in, exhausted.
(Okay, so maybe not exactly 24 hours, but close enough)
Today we went to the local bakery and got ourselves some pastry to go along with our scrambled eggs and veggies. Then we rode to three of the villages, came upon a place that grows their own apples and are famous for it up here. We had some delicious apple tea, found a few other cute shops, finally found some Friesian horses (we are in the Friesian islands, so I figured they had be here), rode along the Nordsee (North Sea), got ourselves some soup, and settled in to watch a movie.
What a great day!

Cinque Terre, Italy

We stopped at Pisa for about an hour on our way to the coast from Florence. Here is the tower. It stands 23 feet off vertical. It began listing even as they were building it, yet they kept building. The did try to fix it, but it still leans and requires a vertical cable to keep it from squashing someone.

This is the Ligurian Sea, which is an inlet to the Mediterranean Sea. Here begins the Italian Riviera.

Manarola, Cinque Terre. This was the last stop on our tour. We had a free day. It was absolutely beautiful. The sun shone giving us a nearly 70 degree day. No sweatshirt or coat was necessary! It was wonderful! Five main villages line the coast and make up the Cinque Terre. The hills behind the villages offer remarkable hiking (or so I heard). We all split up to do our own thing. Heather and I walked along the cliffside path that went between our village and the next. We climbed 365 steps to the village, got a snack, then hopped on the train to be able to get to the next village in good time. We found a little local restaurant for some lunch. I had their local pasta with pesto. It was pretty good. Then we got some gelato. One scoop is just the right amount of dairy for me, so I was able to experience this Italian treat. It was delicious!

We found this arch on our way down to the beach from our hostel.

This is the beginning of the path we followed.

We waited for an hour in the warm sun for the train. In the distance you can see where our village is on the peninsula.

Vernazza, Cinque Terre. This is where we ate lunch.


The sun going down as we were leaving the last town. Good day.

Academia Gallery

The city of Florence is not the way that I imagined it when we talked briefly about it in World Thought and Culture. It is not the way I pictured it during the time of the Mediccis. It is a city whose dirt and grime is thousands of years older than dirty cities in the U.S. and I was not impressed by the city itself.
We did go to the Academia Gallery in Florence. From this academy were born the greatest artists of the Renaissance all the way through the 16th or 17th century. It also houses Michaelangelo's famous David. During our brief couple of days in World Thought and Culture, we learned about this statue, and I thought to myself, This is a piece of art I wouldn't mind spending money to see. I didn't realize until yesterday that we were actually going to see it. The statue of David represents Florence as the underdog Italian city that it once was, and how it would rise up and slay its enemies (the other Italian cities). It is a beautiful sculpture, with every muscle, vein, eyelid, and hair created in perfect detail. His stance and the expression on his face gives the resounding message of confidence, almost cockiness.
The David was carved from a single, massive block of marble that was rejected by artists long before Michaelangelo was born, simply because of its sheer size. The danger that it offered to those whose job it was to move it was enormous.
There were other great works there, such as the The Rape of the Sabine Women and numerous paintings and sculptures. We are touring Italy as a part of our Art History class, so our professor lectures on significant works of art and styles of art so that we understood the significance of what we were seeing. The coolest thing is that we are learning about all of these things on sight. So cool!