Our European Adventure, Day 13

Today I woke up before everyone else because I was able to go to bed early – at eleven – for once. It was really nice to actually get a full night’s sleep, so I got up at nine to take a shower and walk around town. I forgot it was Sunday though, so nothing was really open. I did find a breakfast place though that Ben and I ended up going to after I walked back to the hostel and noticed that he had come downstairs as well. I had a croissant and he had a chocolate croissant with a sandwich. I got some orange juice to so that I could combat this sickness everyone seems to be getting. Matt threw up last night a couple of times. I think he has the flu, so I have flu germs to combat on top of the ones Madeline and Ben were passing around for the cold.

I sat downstairs and listened to Daniel subbing on EMU’s radio station while I waited for the rest of them to get up and ready. Ben came down with cards and we watched a bunk of drunk guys in morph suit tuxedos recant their nights and generally act crazy. They were visiting for a bachelor party and woke up just in time for 11 o’clock check out so they ended up spraying themselves with an axe-like body spray (mouth included) and using hair conditioner on their armpits and crotches while congregating in the hostel lobby. It was an entertaining, yet disgusting scene.

After I was done listening to the radio show, we walked over to the train station and bought pretzels and water before checking in for our tour of Dachau Concentration Camp. This camp was different than the others we have visited because it was completely rebuilt and actually looked nice. Our guide explained that everything had been replanted because the camp was considered a cemetery and it was done in respect. However, I think it took away from the memorial part of the camp because while there were three churches on the site it looked much too pretty to be a place where so many people were killed. The atmosphere was just very different throughout the whole camp, or maybe we’re just getting used to visiting them.

A monument remembering all of the different types of people who were persecuted

The camp walkway - notice the nice greenery

Inside one of the churches at the memorial

A gravestone for the ashes found after the camp's liberation

We had ice creams at the café and found Matt where he was resting before hopping back on the bus to the city. We were able to find orange juice and some crackers to calm Matt’s stomach before resting in the room.

I put on a dress and at sixthirty we headed out in search of a fancy dinner to spend the rest of the school’s money now that we are getting near the end of our trip. We settled on the Park Café within a botanical garden. Matt stayed in the hostel while we went out because he still wasn’t feeling good. Ben and I were able to get steaks and Madeline fish while we all sampled drinks from the lengthy cocktail menu.

Our drink choices - mine's a strawberry colada

After dinner, we got ice cream down the street from our hostel and then I decided to go downstairs and try to get internet again. It didn’t work so I ended up talking to a group of Germans who were visiting from Cologne. We were talking all about the language barrier.

Our European Adventure, Day 5

This morning we were shaken awake by a train attendant who alerted us that we were about to arrive in Berlin. I quickly packed up my things and was about to go to the bathroom when Madeline realized her money wallet was in a different place than she had put it the night before. She lost all of her cash. Jean recalled seeing someone poke their head the train car around 3 AM, but he said they quickly left once they noticed he was awake. She only noticed because the wallet was moved slightly down the table, but luckily they left all of her belongings except her 70 euros and about $20.

I was careful to make sure I had all of my things before running down to the bathroom with my bag of toiletries. After washing my face, I noticed the train had stopped moving and we had already arrived in Berlin. I rushed them out of the cabin as quickly as possible, in the process forgetting to pack my bag of toiletries, including my toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, and face cream. I just cannot win on this trip.

We oriented ourselves in the station, but were required to wait outside of the ticket office to purchase public transportation tickets because while our train was nearly two hours late in arriving, we still had to wait outside the office until 7AM when it opened. I bought our city travel cards that came along with a nice, informative booklet on tourist places around the area.

We navigated our way out of the Hauptbahnhof afterward and walked the 100 meters or so to our hotel, Hotel Meininger. The hotel is actually really nice. It has a modern decoration that appeals to me and it was quite cheap. We were able to store our luggage and purchase breakfast from the hotel before figuring out the best way to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. We piled onto the train that took us one station over and then another that directed us out of the city and into Oranienburg. From there, we found the city bus that would take us a few stops away to the camp. Amazingly, all of the hour journey was covered by our transit cards.

The camp was very draining, according to Madeline. It was horrible to think about all of the people who died on the soil that we walked on. While not many of the buildings were still standing, the memorial had buildings erected for the sole purpose of educating people on the history of how the camp came to be, who was trapped within its walls, and how the city was involved. Apparently, the city had originally had a smaller camp in the center of town, but it was closed down after they prisoners were forced to build another closer to the outskirts. We viewed the second camp, who was notorious at the time amongst the press because of its proximity to Berlin.

The entrance to the camp

A memorial in the camp

After taking pictures around the memorial and walking throughout the exhibits, we walked back to the city train station and boarded a regional express train that cut the journey back to the hotel in half. I managed to purchase deodorant (after looking all over the pharmacy for something that looked similar) and a toothbrush before leaving the train station and we all took showers after checking into our hotel room. It felt really refreshing to wash off the grodiness of the train and then take a nap to catch up on some sleep.

We woke up around eight and went out for dinner at a small Italian restaurant that we found in town. The food was actually fairly delicious and we wandered in during happy hour, so we were even able to sample some very cheap drinks in addition to our pasta and pizza overload. We managed to stay under ten euros per person, so we’re keeping to budget too. Now we’re just hanging out in the hostel for the time being to prepare for tomorrow.

The views from near our hotel

Some cool graffiti we spotted on the way to dinner

Discarded Cities

I feel kind of stupid. When I originally wrote the budget for August in Europe, I should have looked closer at the Rail Europe website. But, to be fair, it isn't exactly clearly advertised that in addition to purchasing rail passes, it is necessary to PAY MONEY to purchase a seat reservation. I just thought that, you know, I had to call or use the website to book us seats, but that they would be free with our already-purchased, uber-expensive passes.

Silly me.

Turns out that seat reservations can cost anywhere from $10-150 per person! And, of course, they charge a ton on the overnight trains to compensate for the fact that tourists take them to avoid staying in a hotel. How the hell am I supposed to save money now?!?

After stressing, I've realized the only logical thing to do is discard some of the smaller cities from the trip. Strangely, Hamburg (not a small city at all, in fact, it's the second largest in Germany) was the first to be cut. I'm rationalizing this by the fact that we were going to have to take public buses by ourselves out of the city to see a not-super-important-on-the-scale-of-all-importantness concentration camp. The second to go was Weimar, which just makes sense, I mean that place was small.

Strangely, with all this rearranging, Warsaw (a place with no standing concentration camps, but some Jewish history) has become a two-night venture and Oswiecim (the home of Auschwitz) is being reduced to a day-trip due to a lack of sanitary and satisfying public transportation and hotels. Hopefully this all works out...