München and Düsseldorf

So I ran into some more Terps in Switwerland...

When I got to the station I asked the receptionist if a reservation was required for the train to München (German spelling for Munich - just for educational purposes) and she told me no, but that it was "highly reccomended". But when I went to buy one the ticket manager told me the train was booked, and that I would have to travel standby (That means I stand or I sit on the floor with the bicycles).

The train arrived and I clammered inside and to my luck there were about 20 seats that were not reserved (no name tag), so I got a free seat all the way to Munich. Unforunately about twenty people didn´t get those seats and had to stand with the bicycles the entire time. I felt bad for a minute, and then I remembered the time I had to pay 28 Euros to sit on the floor for two hours and I stopped feeling sorry.

When I arrived in Munich is was pouring rain, of course. My hostel was supposed to be close to the station, so I got out my poncho and went out to find it. In retrospect, the hostel was easy to find, just not in the pouring rain at midnight. The instructions told me to go right on Grasserstraße, but emmerging from the Metro I never saw a sign or anything. When you come up from the Hackerbrükke station, you arrive on a bridge. You can come up on either side of the bridge, so if the bridge is in fact Grasserstraße street, than going "right" or "left" would be pretty much impossible since it is relative to which side of the bridge you emerge from. So I walked to one end, then back to the other, then back to the other, realized that the bridge was in fact Grasserstraße street, and then proceeded to find Arnulstaße, which took me to my hostel.

I arrived pissed, cold, wet but with another interesting story to tell.

The next day I went to Nuremburg with a guy I met from Penn State named Eric (I asked - he thinks Ian´s name is familiar...). Nuremburg is famous for two reasons. One, the famous Nuremburg war-crime trials. And two, it was the central rallying point for the Nazi Party. Hitler planned a massive development with several buildings and fields to host Nazi events, but only a few of the buildings were ever created. Congress Hall was only half-finished, and is where the the Nazi Documentation Center is housed. The Documentation Center is a musuem that displays Hitler´s rise to power and how is happened, and how Nuremburg played an important part. We spent about five hours there and left to go see Zeppelin Field.

Zeppelin Field is where everyone gathered to watch the troops march through the city. There is a stadium-like seating structure, and a special platform where Hitler stood to watch the marches. Standing on that platform was incredible. Knowing you are standing in the exact place where Hitler watched his armies march past is haunting.

After Zeppelin Field, Eric and I split up and I went off to explore the old-town before taking a train back to Munich. There were powerful storms through the region again, so it delayed my train quite a bit, but I had an entire train car to myself and the new Harry Potter, so I did not mind one bit. The train also gave out free drinks, too.

The next morning Eric told me that he had gotten on a train about an hour after me, and he didn´t get home until three in the morning. He said that trees had fallen all over the tracks, so the train he was on had to backtrack and pick up all the stranded passengers. He told me he stood in the train car for hours. When I told him I had a car to myself and was served free, cold drinks because of the slight delay, he was needless to say a little upset at my luck.

The next day I went to Dachau. I really wanted to go to Hitler´s Eagle´s Nest at the reccomendation of my grandmother, but they were both closed the following day, so I had to choose between one and the other. I will be back to see that hide-out, though.

Dachau was what you would expect when you visit a concentration camp. Sombering, moving and packed with history. The most interesting part was the gate to the camp (still the original) which read "Abeit macht frei" (Work makes you free) that you walked through when you entered the camp.

The film and personal stories on the audio guide were chilling, but the gas chambers and crematorium really made you sit back and realize that it all really happened. The Nazi´s would tell the prisoners that they would be getting a "de-lousing" treatment, so they would instruct the prisoners to remove their closing and enter the "brausebad" (German for bath-house) for cleaning. This of course wasn´t a cleaning and gas would proceed to enter the chambers. Because of this, Germans no longer use the term brausebad for the bathroom, but instead the French word "doucher". Although the gas chamber existed in Dachau, historians do not believe it was ever put in use like the ones in Auschwitz.

The next day I slept in (ask me about my free breakfasts at A&O hostel...) and then got on the train to Düsseldorf. Why Düsseldorf?

Well, when I was in Napoli you probably remember me hanging out with Stefan for a few days. The last day I was in Napoli, Stefan invited me and some other people to come stay at his house in Düsseldorf and then take a road-trip to Berlin. And I have to admit, German hospitality has trumped the rest...

I arrived in Düsseldorf and was greeted by my friend at the platform. His brother drove us back to his house and showed me to my room and bed, which was actually his room and bed (I told you). He told me that we were going to a friend´s birthday party. He told me that in Germany, you celebrate the person´s birthday the night before and party throughout the night.

I then asked if I could take a nap.

So after a good nap and shower, we left for the party. It was nothing crazy, just a good cookout with some good German meat and good German beer. Only a few people spoke English, but we had fun all the same.

The next day Stefan, his brother Tobias and his girlfriend went to the German mining museum. They replicated an entire mine underneath the ground, complete with all the machinery for mining for iron and coal. It was incredibly detailed. Up above there was a giant exhibit on everything mining. It was all in German, but Stefan assured me that even he did not understand what he was looking at. It had huge collections of mining equipment as well as an exhibit dedicated entirely to a mining disaster in France near the turn of the century.

When we got back his mother made us an authentic meal from Düsseldorf - Reibekuchen. Potatos onions cooked together into pancake-like patties. They were served with apple sauce, a sweet sugar spread and sugar. They were delicious. Tobias says I had twelve, but Stefan puts the number somewhere around ten.

After that we headed out to the "Old Town", a part of downton Düsseldorf filled with restaurants, cafès and bars. We met some cousins of his and had a great night around town. It was a pretty wild time, and I think this picture (which was the last picture taken of the night) will speak for itself. If you want to hear some of the stories (the crude bartender, the mess in the street, "pfeife für pfeife", the amazing Donald Duck, the fake Canadian, the virgin paper doll, the pipi joke, and the missing taxi, Stichpimppullibockforcelorum, STRESS, the €115 bill, etc.) you´ll just have to ask me sometime...

Today I (needless to say) slept in late and had a great breakfast with Tobias and Stefan. They bought some fresh bread from the baker as well as some mett, which is raw ground pork. It sounds different, if not gross, but once you spread some on some bread and sprinkle some salt and pepper on it with freshly cut onions, it is delicious. Stefan warned me that if you leave it out for more than four hours it will develop Salmonella, so it must be fresh (which it was).

Stefan´s original plan of taking a road trip to Berlin did not work out, so I will be heading there today by myself. I have only spent two nights here, and I could not have asked to stay with a nicer family. They have cooked for me, cleaned my clothes, let me sleep in their bed, and everything else a wonderful host does. I told Stefan that if he ever comes to the States, I will show him such a good time it will blow his mind. I told him I would take him to Red, Hot and Blue (He says he has always wanted a good American BBQ), Krispy Kreme (Germany has a lot of Dunkin Donuts, but none of the good stuff), Sakura (Japanese steakhouse - just for entertainment´s sake) and the Oceanaire (he loves seafood) and do some UMD tailgating, skeet-shooting, quad riding, and horseback riding if he comes to the farm.

Off to Berlin. Maybe I will meet Quentin Tarantino. If only I was as lucky as Stefan´s cousin Tanja...(A whole other story)

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