My Final Day in Munich

I'm sure you're all wondering why I didn't post anything of substance last night and there is a very legitimate reason. After our Dachau tour, David and I partook in the Munich Beer Challenge. More on that later.

Inside the main government building in Munich,

We started our day by waking up around 9 (yay!) so we could get ready for our trip to Dachau around 10. The tour group picks up at our hostel so we had to be ready a little sooner than we would have been otherwise. A guy from Spain walked us to the meeting point for all the tours of the day. This is where we bought our tickets for Dachau and waited for the tour to begin. For our entertainment, we had two dogs running around the square playing. Reminded me of how Hektor and Oscar play when they think no one is looking.

The tour left at 11 and we made our way to the train station so that we could go outside of Munich to the smaller town of Dachau.

The guardhouse to Dachau.

Marcin, our tour guide from England, was freaking awesome. He's a professional jazz musician (mainly saxophone) and composer. On the way there we had plenty to talk about that wasn't a concentration camp, which I think was a good way to start off the tour. It's really funny or weird, depending upon how you look at it, that I've run into two professional saxophone players since I've arrived in Europe. Anywho, on to Dachau.

The town itself is quaint, but when you get off the bust at the camp it's unbelievable how much the atmosphere changes. Dachau was the mothership and model for all concentration camps around Europe. This was the scale to which all others were measure. Next door to the camp was the SS training facility. Almost all of the SS and infamous Gestapo/SS came from this very town from these very buildings. When you walk inside, it's hard to imagine what it would've looked like while it was still in use, but it was still an unbelievably sad and sobering sight.

Imagine thousands of prisoners lined up in this yard.

Marcin was one of the best tour guides I have had and he was incredibly knowledgeable about Dachau's history. They would line up everybody in the courtyard you see above, make them take off their hats, and bow their heads to the SS every morning as they were all counted. Marcin was telling us how everything they did was to in some way dehumanize the prisoners. We saw four main places, the museum, the barracks, the crematoriums, and the gas chambers. The chambers we saw were completely original and were, again, the model for the rest of the system. Everything started in Dachau. They ran all their tests and started a lot of their experiments within these gates.

I'm not going to post the chamber or crematorium pictures here. If you'd like to look through all of my pictures in Munich, they are now available in the top right corner. Per usual, it's hard for me to fully digest the magnitude of yesterday.

Now on to something completely different... and I mean completely...

The Munich Beer Challenge!

We got back to Munich around 4:30, ran to our hotel to rest a bit, then returned to the train station for the Munich Beer Challenge! We visited three of the most famous bar houses in the world last night. It was awesome. Got a beer in the station and walked through to the tram. Did I mention it's legal to just walk around the city with open alcohol. And to get on the tram with it as well? Oh the small things I'll miss...

Anywho... we had great beer all night. I can't remember any of the brews or names of the pubs at the moment, but I'm sure I'll do that research eventually. Maybe if you squint you might be able to make the name off the menu that is under Erin's hands. I think it was a tad too much alcohol for one night -- I had over 2.5 liters. The tour was through the same company so I ended up running in to Marcin again. It was great. Above is the main group of people I was drinking with. Two Canadians, two Americans, and one New Zealander. Luckily for me, the tour ended right back at the bar in my hostel with a shot of Jaeger... seem like a bad idea to give us shots after so much beer? I think so too. I was starting to get dizzy and whatnot around 11 so I came back to my room, quickly posted what you saw last night (which seemed quite sober, if I do say so myself) and passed out. Just woke up, looked up my train information and am now about to leave for Austria.

Hope this was a good update. I'll talk to you guys later!

God bless!

München

So I survived my 9 hour bus ride from Berlin to Munich. That's WAY too long to be sitting down. We had stopped in Nuremberg for a few minutes when all of a sudden two Polizei approached David and me on the bus. They asked to see our passports. Scared the buhjeezus out of me. I was trying to figure out why they would just make a beeline to us and demand our passports. As the incident got further away it started to make some sense. We couldn't speak German so the attendant kept looking at as funny as we tried to tell her what was going on. Didn't realize I could be a suspect just for travelling. They gave us the whole nine yards: asking us why were in Germany, where we were from, when we would be leaving Germany (rude!), and how we had gotten to be on the bus. It ended up being nothing, but it gave us a little bit of a what the hell? moment amidst the 9 hours of suck.

The bus passed through Nuremberg and Dresden. It was weird to think about all of the crap that has happened to Germany throughout their history. I kept thinking about the bombings in Dresden, the forests that covered this beautiful land, and what it must have been like to be a combatant in WWII. Luckily I am not old enough to remember or have seen those horrors. As we rode into Munich, we saw the Olympic Park. Oh. My. God. Unbelievable. This thing was freaking massive and was one of the most impressive buildings I have ever seen.

Of course, David and I lost our way to the hostel. The directions seemed so simple. Streets in Europe are anything but simple. You know how I said last night's hostel was the best I've stayed? Well, Euro Youth Hotel is even better. This hostel is alive with young people. And Happy Hour every day from 6-9. I love how hostels in Germany all have bars in them...

We planned out the rest of our trip as soon as we were settled in to our new home. We're going to leave Thursday morning for Salzburg and then on to Vienna to finish out our trip. Tomorrow we're going to do the Dachau tour. I'm really excited. Kind of odd to be excited to go somewhere that there was so much inhumanity, but it's one of those things that I feel will be completely humbling and incredible. A greater appreciation for what I have the opportunity of doing with my life. This is through the same company who did the free tour in Berlin, but this one sadly has a charge.

When we were adequately rested, we went out on the town to see what Mardi Gras in Munich was like. There was smashed glass EVERYWHERE and people were roaming all over the place. I'm sure the city will be much more appealing tomorrow when everything is cleaned up. I've done nothing in Munich and I already like the feel the city possesses.

I think that's it for today, guys. Tomorrow is going to be a rough day, I think, just because of the strain it will put on my emotions. I'm prepared for it, but I'm not sure you can ever be ready for that type of experience.

Until next time, my friends.

God bless!

Die große Stadt Berlin (The Great City of Berlin)

I have finally arrived to Berlin! This city is already amazing and I have seen next none of it. David and I are staying at Baxpax Downtown Hostel and it is about three streets away from the Reichstag! I'm right in the middle of German history. If you're ever in Berlin, this is the hostel that you should choose. There's a bar on the main floor and it's THE best hostel I've stayed at yet.

I'm sure you're all wondering about Hamburg, but there really isn't much to say about it (much like its Iowan equivalent). I took two pictures in Hamburg so I won't make an album out of it because that's just a waste of space. If you'd really like to see those pictures they are on my Picasa profile and you can view them there. I will add one of the two below.

This is the main shopping district in Hamburg (or at least the biggest one I found),

We got on our first train (we had 4 trains in total to get to Berlin) at 11:57. I can honestly say that God was watching over us. Everything that could've gone wrong miraculously went right for us. Our hostel in Hamburg was right next to a train station and we figured we could just take our train from that station. When we asked how our regional ticket worked, the man working behind the counter, knowing we were foreigners, printed off our route for us and sent us in the right direction. An absolute God send. Apparently the train we needed was at the Reeperbahn and we were fifteen minutes away from that. We hopped on the S-Bahn (tram) that was leaving in three minutes to get to our train that left in less than twenty minutes. Racing to the terminal we chuckled about how close things were getting on this trip. It's Europe though, so we expected to be riding by the seat of our pants. We were able to relax as soon as we were seated on that train. Our three stops were in Uelze, Stendal, and Rathenow. I'm glad European public transit is so efficient because we cut it close quite a few times.

I was actually able to journal quite a bit on our trains, thus the more in depth post. I love this thing. I took a picture of it on the train so I could post it here. Legit.

So we got to Berlin and bought our Berlin Card that will get us on any public transit for 48 hours. So tomorrow we're going to do a free walking tour and head out to Potsdam. It's nice travelling with a history major. David and I have the same interests as far as Germany is concerned.

David had a great thought as we were travelling today. He was musing how interesting it was that a nation we were at war with in such a serious way 60 years ago was now commonplace for us to visit. That kind of boggled my mind as I let that sink in. Weird. On the trains we were passing scenery much like in the states with one small difference -- the forests. If you've seen Band of Brothers you'll know what I'm talking about: forests with trees reaching to the heavens very close together that were so dense that it was hard to see much further that the first few trees. I kept thinking What would it be like to be fighting in these forests as the brave soldiers in WWII had... these forests that even today look barren and foreboding. It gave me chills.

Oh yes, those are my feet and my computer. But beyond that is my hostel. Legit.

Just finishing off my Vodka Red Bull and planning our day tomorrow. We're going to ride the fastest elevator in the world to a 360° view of Berlin sometime in the next two days. So much to do, yet so little time!


If anything else interesting happens tonight I'll be sure to post later, but for right now that's about all.


God bless!

Hamburg? I've Been Here Before... O Wait... That Was Iowa... My Bad!

I got to use my new journal today to start recording my thoughts and whatnot while I'm not at my computer. Hopefully that will make these posts more on point and just better in general. Today started out on a really good note. I went into Florence at 12:10 to meet Veronica for lunch as I was telling you all in my post last night. It had been awhile since I had been to Santa Maria Novella and I almost got lost. This made me kind of late. Of course, she ended up being late as well, so it really wasn't that big of a deal. I had no idea where she lived, so I figured SMN was the easiest place to meet. Turns out she lives by the Duomo and San Marco, which is the bus stop that I got off of every time I venture in to town. How's that for irony?

Anyway. Veronica had chosen a pizza place she wanted to try out, which was fine by me and made the whole afternoon run quite smoothly. I ended up getting a Calabrese pizza -- really couldn't help myself: my family is from Calabria and I kind of felt like the pizza was calling to me.

Two Calabrese pizzas. Score!

So we ate our pizzas and talked for a good forty minutes before we decided to go for a walk so someone else could use the table. Those are all order tickets underneath the glass, by the way. We added our own piece as you'll see in the picture below.

I'm a man of my word.

She had never been to San Miniato or Piazza Michelangelo, so I thought I'd bring her to the best overview of Florence. We walked for another fifteen minutes to get to this awesome place. I had been there earlier in the semester with Pietro and luckily I was able to remember where it was and how to get there. We were already across the river so it really wasn't as far as I had recalled it being. The day was kind of overcast, but it didn't really affect the view much. It is probably one of my favorite places in all of Florence.

Pretty sure Veronica got the better pictures of us, but this is the one from my camera.

I had to meet David back at SMN at 3:00 and she had to get back to study, so I dropped her off at her apartment and booked it back to the train station. We got on the 3:30 train to Pisa and my Spring Break had officially begun. We stopped in Pisa for a few moments to relax, more or less, and then walked to the airport from there. Kenny, Mary, and Holly were already at the terminal waiting for us, so we sat down and just read/wrote while we waited. That was my first opportunity to actually sit down and write in the journal. It was nice to put my thoughts down onto something concrete. Not that I don't love my blog, it's just hard to make it seem real sometimes.

That's about five hours of my day and I wasn't even to Germany yet. Getting on the RyanAir flight, the cramped RyanAir flight (I think Europe has something against tall people, by the way...) we settled in and got ready for our two hour flight to Hamburg-Lubeck. I ended up watching Lord of the Rings The Two Towers on my laptop for most of the flight. After a bumpy landing, we made our way to the bus stop to get on our hour bus ride into Hamburg. I took a small nap on the bus and woke as we were pulling into the station. We stopped to get something to eat at McDonald's before we found the tram that would take us to the girls' hostel. Guess where that was? Right in the middle of the Red Light District of Hamburg. It felt like how I imagine Amsterdam would sound and appear. I think there were at least nine strip clubs within a city block surrounding their hostel. Luckily I didn't have the pleasure (HA! How do you like that pun?!) of staying in that district called "Reeperbahn."

I don't know how Holly snuck out of this picture, but this is before takeoff to Hamburg.

After dropping them off we took off for our hostel called Meininger. This is one of the most legit hostels I've stayed in whilst in Europe. They're playing some modern techno/jazz music in the lounge area as I type this. The tram system here is pretty awesome, I must say. It goes pretty much everywhere really quickly. Although we're rapidly finding out there really isn't much to do in this city. That's ok, though. We're going to sleep here pretty soon, I'm sure, but we're going to leave around noon tomorrow for Berlin! I'm so excited for Berlin and Germany in general. As I do more research I'm finding more and more jazz bars and concerts and whatnot all over Germany. Munich is well known for their jazz festivals and there are two world renown bars in Munich just for that. This has been a dream come true for me.

That's not to say I haven't had any frustrations today, because I really have had quite a few, but the good has far outweighed that bad and it's good to finally be settled in to the first leg our trip. Please pray for us, as always, as we make our way. German is a completely different language than I've ever encountered. I've even caught myself starting to speak Italian to some of them. Kind of embarrassing, really, but I'm sure I'll be doing that in the US when I get back -- at least for a few months.

I know this is a long post, and I swear it's almost done. Just so everyone has some idea what's going on for me (if you've missed a few posts) I'll be in Berlin for two nights, then we move on to Munich for two nights, Vienna for two nights with Doro's parents, then a night in Milan that we will hopefully spend with Pietro and his family.

Woo... that post wore me out. I love you guys. Thanks for reading, as always. 1100 hits is phenomenal and I don't know how I got there, but I'm extremely happy that I have some devoted readers (even if they don't comment all that often :-P).

God bless from Hamburg, Germany! Until next time! Gott segne und gute Nacht!

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

That's right! Germany is tomorrow! Hell yea! This is going to be awesome. I love history, so this is going to be an awesome trip for me. I'll be immersed in WWI, WWII, and Cold War history first hand. So excited!

This is in my future!

I'm meeting Veronica in Florence tomorrow afternoon for lunch before I go and then leaving for Pisa around 3:30. Then we fly out around 6:40. Man oh man. It's hard to put into words what tomorrow is going to be like, but I'm ready for it.

Enough of that. Today, Will, Kenny, Nathan, and I ventured into Florence since the Villa is practically empty. I ended up buying a Tuscan cookbook (so I can cook for you all when I return) and an awesome leather-bound journal. It's a leather sleeve that I can keep changing journals. It's one of my favorite things I've purchased thus far. But yea... tomorrow is going to come really quickly. I haven't packed completely yet, but it shouldn't take me that long.

Anywho, that's about all I've got at the moment. I don't know if I'll be updating later tonight or not, but be on the lookout for my first post from Germany! Pictures will go up as soon as I can manage, so look for Hamburg up in the right corner in the next few days.

God bless, guys!

Spring Break... Already?

Ok, so I almost forgot to post again. This is starting to become a habit. But I guess the saying is true: close only counts in horse shoes, hand grenades, and nuclear war.

This is a picture I never anticipated would grace my blog when I began.

Anywho (it has been awhile since I've used it, so I'm going to start using it again :-P) Well... Spring Break has started for me. Kind of unfathomable. It's March. The beginning of March. Oh well. That just means that I'm off to Germany and Austria on Saturday! Woot!

For those of you who don't know or can't read, this ^ ^ is Germany. Of course, if you can't read then we have much bigger issues at hand.

I'll be flying into Hamburg Saturday night and then going immediately to Berlin the following morning unless I find something awesome to do in Hamburg. Then we'll travel south through Nuremberg to our third destination, Munich. So excited!

We finish our week in Austria.

O look.... it's Austria... Imagine that...

Vienna! We'll travel all the way across Austria to Vienna, meeting up with Lauren and Claire. Tomorrow is going to be relaxing, and I'll need it since I'm going to be moving non-stop after Saturday. 

I would really appreciate hearing from you all while I travel through Germany and Austria. It's always nice to hear from friends and family as I make my way. I'll have my laptop with me. I know, I know. You were afraid that you wouldn't have the pleasure of reading my blog over break, but I am to please. I love and miss you all and can't wait to tell you everything I've seen and done when I return back to the good ol' United States of America. Ciao! A prego!

God bless!

She Turned Me Into a Newt! ... I Got Better...

I watched/am still watching this. Classic!

It has been another lazy day in Settignano and I wouldn't have it any other way. It's nice to just relax and think about everything that has occurred in the past month (not even!). These past three and a half weeks have felt like an eternity, but I have loved it. I spent most of the morning organizing my room and yes, my half is finally clean.

This evening I was able to call my brother Anthony for his birthday and they were out for his birthday brunch, so I was able to talk to my entire family. It was awesome. Hearing their voices again makes me miss them, but I'm glad to know that they'll be there when I get back. I've got to keep moving on, like I have been, and experience this with an open mind. Rarely have I been at a lack for words, but it is becoming more difficult, as I've mentioned in one of my Ireland posts, to really put my experiences and thoughts into words. Really it comes down to the gentle reminders for myself to help me remember what was going on each of these days. Hopefully future Dominic thinks present Dominic did a good job.

One more week. Venice. Two more weeks. Germany & Austria. Four more weeks. AS Roma v Fiorentina then Umbria/Perugia. Six weeks. Rome! This entire trip is going to fly by before I even realize that it's gone, but that'll also mean that I've enjoyed my trip. To amend a popular quote, the reward of a good (life) trip, is a good (life) trip.

Although, I must say, I'm kind of hurt I'm not getting any comments. Don't you guys love me?! Hah anyway...

I have an N64 Emulator on my computer... so I can kind of play some of my favorite games...
Anyone remember Harvest Moon 64? Freaking awesome!

I'm about to get dinner here in an hour, so maybe I"ll update again after if something interesting happens. Otherwise... God bless!

Machinations

It has been awesome to get adequate amounts of sleep the past two days. I got out of bed around ten this morning and came out to the lounge to relax. This turned into me planning a trip to Venice for the first week of Festival. I can find no words for how awesome I think this trip will turn out. We leave on February 25th and will return on the 26th after a full day in Venice.

This led to me further planning (and finally booking) the rest of my Spring Break. We will be in Hamburg for one night, as I said earlier, and then on to Berlin for two nights to see the Berlin Wall, Potsdam, and the Brandenburg Gate, among other things. From there we will take a bus to Munich, stopping in Nuremberg for a few hours, and spend another two nights in Munich. Then we're off to Vienna, Austria, to spend a few nights with Doro's parents. Our flight back to Italy will be on the 12th to Milan, so we will spend one more night in Milan, before we head back to good old Settignano. Now the only thing left to do is figure out what we want to do in each city that we visit.

Finally, I was able to take a run through Settignano. It was liberating and felt nice to get out and do something athletic again. The hills of this town are beautiful, even if they wear me out. I'll update later with further exploits of my night because I have to head to Mass and dinner.

God bless!

The building on the left is where the governmental functions occur in Florence.

So after dinner and mass, I went to my first C&L (Communion and Liberation) meeting with Father Meinrad. It was absolutely amazing. We read Luigi Giussani and discussed everything that we were feeling. After, we had our 'graduate studies' with a few of the group which consisted of drinking and smoking. It was a great way to end the night. Right now I'm researching things to visit in Germany and Austria. If you have any ideas PLEASE leave it in a comment or send me a message!

Recuperating

I finally got to sleep in after more than a week of "go, go, go!" I woke up at ten, took a shower, then headed out to our lounge area to hang out. Spring break and travels was brought up, so I decided it would be good to at least get started on my plans for Austria and Germany. This project completely consumed my morning, but I finished all of the itinerary for this nine day trip. I set a budget for my spring break as a third of my budget for Europe, and I pretty much nailed it as far as my price estimates are concerned. We're going to fly into Frankfurt on the Friday of break and make our way down through Nuremberg and Munich before terminating our break in Vienna, Austria. I'm really looking forward to it. Now I just have to find two other people to fill out my group, and we should be golden.

This is the back of the Cathedral in Lucca.

What else did I do with my day? Not much else. I'm sitting down now to watch my favorite team (Roma) play calcio with Pietro whose favorite team is their opponent Inter Milan. Let's hope Roma pulls this one out for me. I always enjoy bragging rights. I've also considered watching the Super Bowl tonight, which will start at midnight here. We'll see though. If anything interesting comes up today or if I have anything worthwhile to say, I will update later tonight.

God bless!

Daniele De Rossi -- my favorite player on my favorite team. Go Roma!

Ok, so here's the update: I watched Roma v. Inter Milan and it was a bella partita (beautiful game). Roma ended up losing a player on a bogus call, but it was still a great game. Final score 3-5. The most amazing part is that I will be able to see Roma play Fiorentina the day before we leave for Umbria! It was a magnificent stroke of luck.

I'm thinking about watching the Super Bowl, so hopefully I can stay up long enough. Honestly, I don't care who wins between the two teams, but I have the opportunity to watch, so why not? Buona sera!