Mas Maß!

A few weekends ago, Sue (my travel and adventure buddy!) and I decided to take a night train to Munich for Frülingsfest, a spring smaller version of Oktoberfest. Remembering how lucky we were with the night train to Zurich at the beginning of the semester, we decided to test fate again and just reserve normal seats on the night train, hoping that we would end up with the cabin to ourselves again. Wrong. We find our cabin and we are the only two seats that are reserved. Unfortunately, there are two people sprawled across all of the seats. Awkwardly standing outside, we debated the proper social protocol for such a situation. Luckily, they woke up before we reached a decision, so we were able to enter the room. Opening the door, we were blasted with the worst and most pungent feet smell ever. We were also confined to two seats while the other two people sprawled over 4 of them. It was for sure our worst night train experience ever.

Grumpily and on not much actual sleep, we made our way to our hostel. Never you worry, though. Germany did not let us down. We decided to take a day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle, commonly referred to as the 'fairy tale castle' located about 2 hours from Munich. This was by far the best idea we have EVER had! The train ride out was accompanied by views such as this:

We started off right for a German, stopping at what I will refer to as a beer hall with a food stand. It was a wonderful idea. Then we trekked halfway up the mountain to the castle. So. Beautiful. Seriously. Afterwards, we walked to the Marienbrücke, a bridge overlooking the castle. We were surprised to find that places actually look like this:
I mean. Seriously. Wow wow wow!

That night, we met up with some of our fellow IESers for Frülingsfest.

As it turns out, Frülingsfest is really just a carnival with a huge beer hall in the middle. Naturally, we went on the bumper cars. I mean, how do you turn that down?
I did almost die trying to take pictures while in the bumper cars, though. Apparently they aren't regulated at all in Germany - I thought I was going to get whiplash every time a car bumped into me! Crazy intense...AND AWESOME!

Of course, we enjoyed plenty of Munich's main specialty - beer. We enjoyed them in style - in one liter Maß:

What can I say? We embraced the German culture.

I Love Poland like a Druggie Loves Krak-ow!

Okay I know I'm absurdly behind. Tomorrow I'll be done with finals and papers and such, so maybe I'll get completely caught up...maybe. Anyways, I thought I'd finish up on the Adventures of Nikki's Easter (Spring) Break! Last stop on the 5-country break was Krakow, Poland. Easter weekend in Poland might have been the best idea we'd ever had. Apparently Poland is ridiculously Catholic. Who'd a thunk? Not I. I guess I never really wondered, but nonetheless I wouldn't have pictured that...like ever. Good to know, eh? The cutest little Easter market in the center of town provided lots of painted eggs that I fought myself for 2 solid days to not buy (I won...although I don't know how much of a win NOT BUYING them is...), YUMMY food, and raspberry beer. Walking around, what do Whitney and Emily decide to do but juggle while they wait for me to get back down from the random hill I saw and of course HAD to climb:

(while Mike stands by awkwardly. Haha!). Grinning the whole way, we got to the Wawel castle just before sunset. On the other side of the castle, a hill overlooked the Vistula river. While the others took pictures, juggled, and did other sources of merriment, I propped myself up on the ledge of the wall and just sat looking out:
The clouds raced by, in a hurry to whatever their destination was. It was absolutely breathtaking. I'm a dork, and of course wrote a poem about it when we got back to the hostel that night.

Darkness fell as we made our way back to the hostel. In contrast to the pitch black of the outside, the glowing lights from the various churches in the middle of their Easter Vigils beamed out, beckoning passers-by in. As we kept going, we came across an Easter vigil coming outside to light their candles. Having never experienced a view such as this, I was only slightly disturbed by the images that the campfire reflected off the priests' garments. I felt really bad about it, but it definitely just made me think of pretty much what my subconscious had oriented with the idea of cult gatherings:

I don't know what that says about me...whoops!

The next day we walked around some more, exploring the Jewish quarter. We visited the old Jewish cemetery. Noticing that many of the gravestones had rocks set atop, I was intrigued:

After getting back, I researched into this and found out that it's a Jewish tradition to leave a rock when you visit a gravesite, to mark that you visited and in honor of the person whose grave you visited, much like our flower version, albeit a more permanent gesture, as the rocks won't wither, nor will they fly away. It was astonishing how many rocks some of the gravestones had. I love it.

Sunday, Emily and Mike had to leave earlier than Whitney and I. So after dropping them off at the bus station, we headed back to the Easter market (of course) to eat and shop some more. Walking around afterwards, we heard music. Naturally, we headed off in that direction. What do we find, but nuns dancing...to a monk praise band!!!!!

We were all kinds of excited. While Whitney recorded the festivities, we both just stood there with the biggest grins on our faces. I remarked that the only thing that would make this better is if they all of a sudden started playing a song that I knew. What happened two songs later? They started playing "How Great is Our God"...in Polish!! I didn't think my smile could have stretched any bigger, but apparently it could, and did as soon as I heard the beginning of the song. I mean, it sounded more like "pddddedjhf nsssjsfhskuerg seue isbnde gaaaaaaad!" to my complete lack of understanding Polish, but I sang along (and danced, too, of course) in English, thinking that there was no better way to spend an Easter evening.

As the sun started to fall, it was time for Whitney and I to head to the train station to catch our night train back to Vienna. As Whitney had talked to the lady in German when buying our tickets, we didn't realize that we were in a fancy sleeper car until we found our absolutely beautiful PRIVATE compartment, with our own sink, closet, chocolate croissants, and bottled waters:

We slept better than we had all trip and awoke bright and early (about 6 am!) in Vienna, still glowing from our wonderfully epic Spring Break! (More Krakow pictures here)

Auschwitz

While I could insert a few antics, sing a song, or insert a bit of comedic relief, that wouldn't do Auschwitz or its history justice. Instead, I'll provide a few facts and comments but mostly let the pictures below speak for themselves.

I was thoroughly impressed with the tour at Auschwitz. The tour guide didn't try to break the tension, force you to draw anything out of it, nor did she try to make this experience out to be anything less than it was; instead, she simply gave facts and led us through.

"Arbeit Macht Frei," meaning "work frees oneself" or "work makes freedom," was a common phrase used by the Nazis at the entrances to their labor camps. This particular entrance was to Auschwitz I - Auschwitz was actually comprised of three camps: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II (Birkenau), and Auschwitz III (Monowitz). Auschwitz I was the original camp, used mostly to hold Poles and Soviet POWs. The camp is actually smaller than I thought it would be. Starting with only 8 buildings (referred to as blocks), the prisoners here built others to hold the increasing numbers.

In between two of the blocks was the "execution wall," used for individual executions of prisoners of Auschwitz I. Today, it is kept as a memorial to those individuals.

We then went off to the death camp of Auschwitz II - Birkenau, named for the birch trees surrounding the camp. Right after getting off the train, people were separated into the few "lucky" who got to live and those who walked down the Road of Death to the gas chambers disguised as showers.

The train tracks to Auschwitz II - Birkenau.

At the end of the Road of Death is now a memorial to those killed at Birkenau. Plaques in every language spoken at the camp line the current end of the tracks:

FOR EVER LET THIS PLACE BE

A CRY OF DESPAIR

AND A WARNING TO HUMANITY,

WHERE THE NAZIS MURDERED

ABOUT ONE AND A HALF

MILLION

MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN,

MAINLY JEWS

FROM VARIOUS COUNTRIES

OF EUROPE.

AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU

1940 - 1945

As a last try to cover up their tracks as the Soviets were about to liberate the camp, the Nazis blew up the gas chambers that had been disguised as shower facilities.

The rest of the pictures can be found here.