Germany

As I'm leaving München tomorrow, Bianca and I did a whistle-stop tour of all the remaning main sites today. This pretty much took us across the entire Aldstadt (old town) and through the Stadtsmuseum and Englischer Garden. The highlight was once again having traditional Bavarian food in a biergarden, and seeing the 'München wave'.

This thing is hilarious and has to be seen to be believed. Basically they put rocks in the fast-moving river that runs through the Englischer Garden to create a false wave. It's not at all like the ones in the fake 'beaches' in Las Vegas etc., this is purely a single, continuous wave. And so all these surfers come and queue for their 45 seconds on the 'wave'. Looks like loads of fun as they don't have to prepare for it or anything, just jump straight onto a neverending crest!

And I had the traditional Sunday breakfast of Weiß Bier and Weißwürst and Bretzl (Beer, Sausages and Pretzels) at the civilised time of 11am. Seriously, this is a tradition here. It even has a specific name, although what that is eludes me for the moment.

However, the most exciting part of the entire day had nothing really to do with München or Europe or travelling or anything! Today I became a true adult. I am no longer a child. In the words of my mother I have 'lost my innocence'!

I had my first cup of real coffee.

No, seriously, I did! After 21 years of bad-mouthing the drink as bitter, disgusting, etc. etc. I finally bit the bullet and had a 'latte machiatto'. Granted it's not an espresso, but it was surprisingly tasty! So I guess Europe has taught me something - an appreciation of fine food. First the salmon, then the muesli, then the cheese and ham, and now coffee. Mmmm...food!

Oh yeah, and the Stadtmuseum has this awesome exhibition on marianette puppets! Really cool - and super creepy as well! They had all these old amusement park rides from decades-old Oktoberfests etc. that still worked! Sooo cool - I even bought a poster of it.

AND I finally satisfied my craving for fries with mayonnaise. No more tomato sauce for me! It's a Dutch thing (I think I've blogged about it before) and it's super tasty.

The strangest thing also happened tonight. In Amsterdam, Nathalie and Soren are working their way through all the Friends' episodes. In München, Bianca and Flo are doing the same. Fair enough I guess. What I didn't expect is them to be at the SAME POINT! So the episodes that I watched in Amsterdam a few weeks ago, Bianca and Flo had just watched. So now I'm up to the wedding of Chandler and Monica in Series 7. I'm expecting the hostel in Prague to have those!

Bianca, you are an awesome friend, and have been a fantastic tourguide and host. Thanks SOOO Much! Thanks also to your Mum & Dad and of course to Flo! Please pass on my congratulations to your brother as well! (He's getting married in a few weeks in Bangkok!)

PS: For photos of Munchen, click here.

After the über-impressive Alps, today was totally different. Bianca and I visited the Dachau Concentration Camp memorial site. This was not a place that you rush through, and it made for an emotional and powerful visit. We stayed there for 3.5 hours, listening to the survivors' accounts and gaining a much better understanding of the structure behind the camps.

Flo asked me last night why I wanted to go to Dachau, and to a large extent I couldn't answer him. It was a mixture of reasons, but I think mainly because I'd learned so much about it in high school and Uni that I felt it was about time I actually saw it with my own eyes. I don't really know what I expected to see, and whether it would change my point of view, but I knew that I had to go there.

Nothing can prepare you for a visit to Dachau (or Auschwitz, or Bergen-Belsen or any of the other camps). It's just unimaginable that such a camp existed for so long. Dachau was in operation from 1933 to 1945 and in that time thousands of inmates were worked or starved to death. It was not a designated 'extermination camp' as Auschwitz was, namely because it was within Germany. All the extermination camps were in the East - even the Nazi party realised it would not be pleasant to live next to one.

Having said that however there are people today who live right next to Dachau CC. I mean RIGHT next to it, in 2-storey buildings overlooking the campsite. That's just disturbing.

But back to the camp. The most scary aspect of the entire visit was the Infirmary. Here they undertook 'experiments' on inmates. These ranged from tests to ascertain how long someone would survive if plunged into ice-cold water, to ones testing a German version of penicilian by injecting patients with various viruses and seeing if the drug had any effect. What scared me most about all of this was that the reasoning behind it was fairly sane, in that I could see the thought processes behind it. It wasn't straight-out sadism, it was planned and calculating. For example, the ice-cold water tests were undertaken to work out how long the air force should look for survivors from a plane crash.

BUT THESE WERE REAL, INNOCENT PEOPLE!

After Dachau we both felt a bit numb, and so drove back into München city centre and went shopping. As you do. Bought some awesome homemade chocolates though.

We had a fantastic Thai red curry, and I visited Bianca's University and the White Rose monument. The White Rose was a resistance movement that distributed anti-Nazi pamphlets within the University. They were captured almost immediately and executed by the SS.

Fell asleep during the film 'Ghost Dog' at 12:30am.

PS: This movie has to rate as one of the worst I've ever seen. It's supposedly about the samurai and the mafia in New York. Hah! It's like someone has sat down and gone, "Right I want to see the Mafia, something Japanese, an illicit love affair, and I know, PIGEONS (!)". Stupid stupid people. Z-Grade Nonsense!

PS: For photos of Dachau, click here.

Today was one of those fantastic relaxing days in the life of a traveller.

After a long lay in, and a chance to catch up with emails etc., Bianca and I left the house at midday for the Deutsche Museum. This place is HUGE... it's touted as the European version of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC and it's not far off it.

It's essentially a Science and Tech Museum, but it contains full bridges, planes, space landing modules etc., so it's really hands-on and certainly beats Questacon anytime!! Not taht that is particularly hard to do!

After 3 hours there, during which I got to see the Northern hemisphere night sky in a planetarium (sooo much fun to watch all the stars spinning - I felt like a little kid again), we walked to Sacchus, at one end of the extensive pedestrianised Aldstadt (old-town). The aim was to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2 in English, but that was not to be - the next session was in 5 hours So instead we went to the nearest restaurant and I had Jägerschnitzel. OMG so nice!!! It's chicken schnitzel done in creamy sauce with noodles and salad. Deceptively simple, but oh so good.

After dinner, Bianca and I met Flo (her boyfriend who I had met in Singapore), and two friends of theirs: Marc and Jasmine. Marc studies with Flo, and Jasmine was over from Austria. We walked for AGES before finding a suitable place to have a drink, and ended up in the huge, but deserted clubbing district of Ostbahnhof (East Central Station). On a weekend this place is nuts, but at the time it was quiet and really nice, with potent cocktails. The potency, however, may have been because I ordered a Long Island Iced Tea, but hey, that's a Bavarian drink isn't it?

I also continued my education in German phrases. For example, the sitcom "Step By Step" from the 1990s is known as "A Strong Family" in Germany. You may be wondering why this subject came up at all - seriously though, when don't we talk about Step By Step!?? Nah, it came about because the aforementioned cocktails were damn cold, and Flo proceeded to have a "Brain Freeze", which is exactly the same in German (i.e. it's a literal translation). Apparently the phrase became known here through Step By Step. Small world huh?

After a relatively late breakfast, owing largely to the Robbie concert last night, Bernd and I headed off to the Haus am Deutsches Historische. It's official title is "Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland". Try saying that drunk.

This museum differs from so many other ones that I've been to recently because it only covers Germany's history since 1945. The museum itself was fascinating, but as with a lot of things in Bonn, everything was only in German, so without Bernd I would have been a little lost, to say the least! Thanks Bernd!

After rushing back home to finish packing, Bernd drove me to the airport and I boarded the plane for München. From the old capital of Germany (Bonn was the capital until 1991, believe it or not!!) to the beer capital of the world in 45mins! Hehehe...no wonder more Aussies end up in München. BTW: Germanwings have next to no leg room no flights .. be careful fellow tall people!

I've only been here a few hours and already I love it. The atmosphere is great - like a large small town (if that makes sense), and the view from the top of the Olympic Tower was grand! Plus I had a midnight beer in a real biergarden ... how much more München can you get!?!?

Tchüss!

PS: For photos of Bonn, click here