European Vacation

After arriving in Krakow last night I took a tour this afternoon to visit Auschwitz. I was originally going to have a look around the city today and visit the camp tomorrow but I thought as I'm already spending my birthday alone, I didn't need to spend it at such a depressing place!

Auschwitz, rightfully so, will always be remembered as the worst example of how evil mankind can be. Walking around the camp is a moving and memorable experience yet a different feeling to when I visited the concentration camp at Dachau, just outside of Munich.

Dachau, the first concentration camp built by the Nazis, was commenced in 1933. Auschwitz opened in 1940 and the first prisoners were Poles. Auschwitz concentration camp is actually three seperate camps. There is Auschwitz I which contains the entrance gate pictured below stating "Arbeit macht frei" (work brings freedom)

I was surprised when I first entered this site as it didn't look anything like I imagined or the pictures I've seen. This site houses the museum and the brick barracks contain the personal remains of those who perished there. I couldn't adequatly describe the feeling when you walk through the rooms and see the 80 000 shoes, thousands of hairbrushes and toothbrushes, thousands of suitcases still with the persons name written on them and glasses and jewish prayer shalls. Most haunting though is the exhibit where you see laid out in front of you 2 of the 7 tonnes of hair that were found when the camp was liberated.

It is Auschwitz II also called Birkenau that, at least for me, is what I always thought of when I pictured Auschwitz.

When you walk through the main gate at Birkenau, the sheer size of it is haunting. Auschwitz I, held about 15 000 to 20 000 prisoners at a time and is, I believe, about 20 hectares in size. Birkenau held about 90 000 prisoners and is about 200 hectares in size. When you stand at the entrance, as far as the eye can see, all you can see is the camp. I should note also that the photo below is only half of Birkenau and doesn't include the side of the camp on the other side of the train track which crosses the camp.

Most of the wooden barracks in Birkenau, including also the crematoriums were destroyed by the nazis before they retreated. All that is left of the wooden barracks are the brick chimneys.

Since my last blog, I´ve crossed from Germany to Belgium and back again and had a great time in all of the places! To begin with, the Pink concert was awesome and the fact that I only got about 3.5 hours sleep before I had to get up to catch my flight was certainly worth it! She did seem to mess up the first line of a couple of the songs, but all is forgiven! I´m not sure if she´s coming to Oz but lets just say there´s a number where she performs in a bikini, strung over the stage in a net...hmmm memories! :-) Anyway, nothing much more to say on the matter really!!!

Last Friday I arrived in Belgium to visit my aunt and cousins who I haven´t seen since leaving Germany nearly 17 years ago. It was great to catch up with them and I´m quickly learning which of my cousins are just as happy to have a couple (plus just a few more?!) drinks like me! And you know who you are if you´re reading this!

On the Saturday we visited a city in Belgium called Aalst which is beautiful.

After that my cousin and his wife picked me up and took me to Brussels. We watched the South African Rugby final (not sure if I´ve got the correct competition but it was a final of some sorts). It was quite a good game with the most bizarre ending for a final. I didn´t think this was actually possible in a final but it was left at a draw after extra time. So, it seems that each team will get to keep the trophy for six months- a little weird if you ask me!!

On the Sunday we took a walk around Brussels which is also a beautiful city. , even considering that there seemed to be a plague of girl guides and scouts infecting the city! Everywhere you turned, there they were!

So after my time in Munich and Belgium with family and friends, I am now back on the road and alone again! No need to feel sorry for me though, I´m keeping myself entertained and find that I´m quite the conversationalist when it comes to talking to myself!

I´ve actually enjoyed Hamburg more than I thought I would and would have loved to spend a few more days here as it´s quite a cool and vibrant city. Not necessarily the cleanest of cities as there seems to be graffitti everywhere. Nevertheless, lots of fun! I did make a comment to someone from Hamburg about the amount of graffitti in the city, apparently they quite liked it and told me that it was the trend at the moment. Don´t get me wrong, I can appreciate good graffitti artwork but when it´s simply a matter of people´s tags or scribble sprayed on every second street corner I tend to see it more as an eyesore.

The photo below is of the town hall in Hamburg and, for another random fact, contains six more rooms than Buckingham Palace. At least that what the guide book said, though the actual building seems quite a lot smaller than the Palace itself so I´d love to see how small some of these rooms are meant to be!

The port in Hamburg is meant to be one of the busiest ports in the world and it certainly looks that way when walking around it. Nevertheless, the industrial side of it is also nicely balanced with something a little more laid back.

I also had a look at the St. Nikolai church which was almost destroyed during the allied bombings in 1943. The only parts of the church which remain are the main tower and parts of the surrounding walls.

Blanten un Blomen, the botanical gardens in the middle of Hamburg, is also a very popular destination and although I know next to nothing about plants, I did enjoy the stroll through and the free deck chairs that they provide are a nice touch!

As you can see by my clothing it is getting colder here. But I realise I can´t complain too much given the fact that when I was trying to keep cool in the hot Greek sun, you guys were reading my blogs in the middle of winter. Nevertheless, at least you didn´t have to consider the approaching snow which, last year at least, first appeared at the end of October!

For my last activity in Hamburg I watched a film as part of the gay and lesbian film festival held this week. Yes, I have managed to visit another gay event and no, I did not know that it was being held this week until after I arrived. If I visit anymore gay and lesbian pride events this year I´ll probably come home with my skin coloured in the rainbow flag!

Apart from that, nothing more to report really until after I arrive in Poland tonight.

My time in Munich is nearly up and on Friday I set off for the remaining part of my trip. Yes, I´m coming home, in fact I´ll be home on the 6th of December! I am extremely grateful for my dad to organise the flights home for me, via New York which is even more amazing! I wasn´t even surprised with the speed he had me booked on the respective flights after my initial email ( a little worried I´d change my mind to stay longer maybe??). So, where am I off to next? Well, I spend this weekend in Belgium visiting family, then onto Hamburg, Poland, Berlin to catch up with dad there, then Leipzig, Dresden, Prague and maybe one or two other places in the Czech Republic, before returning to Munich to pick up a few remaining things and flying on to London to catch my flight there for New York and then SYDNEY! Just a relaxing little holiday really!!

The next few weeks will certainly be a little more intense than the last couple of weeks here in Munich. I´ve had a nice few weeks here and spent a few days with my aunt and uncle who live in a small country town. They took me for a drive to another city in Bavaria called Passau which is quite a nice city. The claim to fame for Passau is not only that three rivers converge in the city, but also has to do with its cathedral...

The reason for this is that the cathedral has the largest organ in the world. To me it didn´t seem any bigger than many of the others I´ve seen, but what do I know?!

Regardless, it is a rather beautiful cathedral and trust me, I´ve seen quite a few churches and cathedrals since beginning my travels! Of course, the major problem with this is that after a while they all tend to blend in together so once you´ve stepped outside again, you´re really not sure which cathedral had what!

Apart from visiting my aunt and uncle, for my Oma´s birthday we took a drive into the countryside and visited one of the many lakes in Bavaria called the Spitzingsee.

A beautiful area where we enjoyed a childhood favorite dessert of mine Dampfnudel! It´s dough which has been rolled in a ball, cooked a certain way and served in hot vanilla sauce. It´s quite nice, though in honesty I probably enjoyed it more as a kid than I do now. A little sticky after the first few bites!

The weather here has been quite nice the last couple of days, even getting up to 20 degrees during the day. Nevertheless, autumn is here and winter is approaching quickly! Last weekend it dropped down to 5 degrees at night and as the picture below shows, the Bavarian Alps have had their first snow.

Apart from that I don´t really have anything else to report, apart from the fact that I´m going to see Pink in concert tomorrow!! Whoohoo!! Given the fact that the concert is in Nürmberg which is about 1-1.5 hours away from Munich and I have to be at the airport on Friday morning at about 7 to catch my flight it probably isn´t the smartest thing to do but hay, a friend here in Munich managed to get free tickets so I couldn´t pass up the opportunity to see her...and I´m sure the music will be good too ;-)

I know I´ve been a bit slack with not updating the blog earlier but when the largest beer festival in the world is happening, the last place you want to be is in an internet cafe!

Yes, the Oktoberfest, or Wiesn as it´s referred to in Bavaria, is coming to a close after 18 days of great wheather, approximately 6 million visitors in that time and lots and lots of beer!!

It´s a fantastic event and to borrow a saying from someone else...It was the best party ever! The atmosphere is amazing and everyone is ready to party and have a good time. Of course, some poor sods end up a little worse for wear and you do see quite a lot of people passed out in all manner of positions, either standing, lying or sitting. They are often referred to as Bierleichen or beer-corpses and either end up sleeping off the alcohol in any location they manage to find, or in the first aid tent.

Nevertheless, it´s probably a good thing that it´s finishing for another year so as to give everyone´s liver a rest! Also, it is surprising how many people you seem to see with their right arms/wrist either bandaged or in plaster- no joke! I´m not sure whether they´ve developed RSI from lifting the 1 litre beer jugs?!

At least I´ve been careful to regularly swap arms, last thing I need is a visibly musclier right arm because of lifting the beers, though it would complement the beer belly I´m starting to develop!!

After having seen four pride events in my time in Europe, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that even the Oktoberfest has a Gayday, well two in fact! Who would have thought that the entire GLBT community of Munich and surrounding areas converges on one of the beer tents on the first Sunday and the second Monday!

Unfortunately for some visitors to the respective tents, not everyone is aware of this so it was rather amusing to see the looks of straight peoples faces wondering what they had walked into! Given that they also close the tents because of overcrowding, it wasn´t an option to leave either because there was the risk they wouldn´t get into another one. Nevertheless, it didn´t take them long and fun was had by all!!

I must say that ´leather fetish´takes on an entirely new meaning when you see them walking around in Lederhosen!

This is me at the steps of the Bavaria (the statue in the picture above). Given the fact that this picture was taken after an entire day in the beer tent and after 5 mass beer, I think I´m looking rather well!

And, just so you don´t begin to think I might be developing an unhealthy relationship with binge drinking here in Europe (I had that before I left Oz! ;-)) a friend and I hired a car for a couple of days last week and took a drive to Austria. We visited Salzburg and Innsbruck which were both very beautiful cities (can´t upload the photos at the moment so you´ll just have to take my word for it!)

Salzburg is of course famous for the movie The Sound of Music and the fact that Mozart was born there. Innsbruck is also a stunning city encircled by the alps and twice host to Winter Olympics.

I think I ended my last blog with the intention of taking a walk around the city as the Pope was arriving that afternoon. Well, I did have a look around but didn´t end up waiting for him. I figured I had already waited once for a Pope (ie. John Paul II) only to see him drive past waving his hand. Also, as this photo shows, it was starting to get a little crowded in front of where he was going to speak (and this photo was taken about 3,5 hours before he was scheduled to arrive!)

While he left Munich after his second day here, the whole of Bavaria has gone (and still is) Pope crazy. As you´d imagine you can by any type of Pope souvenir from keyrings to posters, statues to postcards. My favorite though is the Pope beer that is being sold...(just in time for Oktoberfest, go figure!)

Yesterday we took a drive into the Bavarian countyside and as a reminder of the relative small size of Europe, ended up driving through Austria to get back home.

Although I´m very much a big city kind of girl, it is fun having a look arond the countryside...if only it didn´t have to come with the country air which can sometimes be a little off!

A photo of the Aachensee in Austria with my own personal tourguide...my nan

Today, I made a little trip down memory lane to Berg-am-Laim which is the suburb where I grew up. Isn´t it funny how everything seems so much smaller than what you remember it to be!

My primary school...

The apartment complex where I used to live...

And St Michael´s church where I had my first Communion and used to be an Altar girl...