We took a train right from class on Thursday to Munich, Germany. We stayed at Wombat’s hostel, which was right by the Hauptbahnhof (main train station). We loved our hostel. It was full of other people our age from all over the world, and had a great bar with 2 happy hours! So we didn’t even have to leave the hostel, but we did. We ate some pizza at an Italian restaurant nearby, and then hung out at the hostel for the rest of the first night.

The next morning, we woke up and took the S-Bahn to Dachau, the site of the first Nazi concentration camp for “political prisoners”. It was the second camp to be liberated by American or British forces. Over 200,000 people from 30 countries were imprisoned at Dachau over 12 years, of which 1/3 were Jewish. The camp was originally designed to hold 6,000 people, but by the end of WWII, it held over 32,000 prisoners. The camp was very depressing. There was a museum that seemed to never end, full of grotesque photographs describing life at the camp. One thing we noticed was that the camp was enormous and had lots of trees, yet there were no birds. It’s as if it’s too evil a place for them to live. Although depressing and disturbing, we were glad that we went and experienced it.

After the camp, we headed back to Munich and took a little nap. We then took the metro to the Englischer Garden, a park that’s twice the size of New York’s Central Park with 4 beer gardens. After the garden, we walked through the Marienplatz (main square) to see the Glockenspiel, but there was construction, and we couldn’t get a very good look at it. We then headed to the Hofbräuhaus, one of the most famous beer halls. It’s absolutely enormous and loud. It’s impossible to get a seat, so we had to wander around awhile. The beer only comes in 1 liter mugs (except the Weissbier) and was very good. The brats, meatballs, and sauerkraut were equally as good, and not very expensive either. Our waiter was great, and he let us take the mugs from our table, so we tipped him well on top of the tip that was already included in our bill.

We headed back to Wombat’s and spent the rest of the night in the hostel bar, where we met Samer, a guy from Lebanon (the country) who would accompany us on our trip to Neuschwanstein castle the next day.