February 7th-9th
On this trip, it was just Lily and me all on our own. We decided to hit two cities (and countries) in one weekend. Because of this we also decided to only take backpacks with us so all the traveling would be easier. This was totally a new concept for me, but I successfully managed. I’m so glad that we chose to pack super light because it made everything so much easier.
Friday morning we left for the airport at 5 am and when our taxi driver picked us up he got out of his car to open the trunk, something that happened to us more than once throughout the weekend, and seeing our light luggage quickly got back in since there was no need to put anything in there. We landed in Munich before 9 am and our first stop was the Dachau Concentration Camp. Seeing Dachau was our sole reason for visiting Munich and the whole experience was really surreal. It was bone-chilling in every aspect of the saying. The ground was icy and the wind felt like tiny needles when it hit my face. The front entrance to the camp seems small and worn down at first glance. At its center, it is closed off by an iron gate with the saying “Arbeit Macht Frei” which means “Work Sets You Free.” When you walk through the gate the camps true size is revealed. The large administrative building of the camp still stands as do two of the barracks. Behind them are the outlines of the 28 other barracks that were destroyed after the liberation of the camp in 1945.
The administrative building now serves as a museum for the camp. Dachau was the first concentration camp that was established by the Nazis in 1933 and it served as a model for all of the other camps that were later built. The museum shows lots of images of life and death that happened there. The artifacts in the museum that stuck out to me were a set of striped uniforms that belonged to one of the prisoners, a chess set that one of the prisoners had carved by hand with scraps, and a collection of wedding rings that they had confiscated. Being there and seeing these images of starvation, filth, and evil was really hard to wrap my head around. This piece of history has been something that I have studied and learned about my entire life but being there made it all less abstract. One image that really stuck with me was two Nazis smiling next to a pile of people’s gold teeth. The whole thing was just really eerie.
Next, we walked through the barracks that they had rebuilt for the purposes of the memorial site. Looking at the pictures of people jammed together in these wooden bunks with only hay beneath them was sickening. Inside the barrack was ice cold and I know it reached much lower temperatures at certain times of the year. The bathing and toilet areas were even worse, just humiliating and dehumanizing. Behind the two standing barracks, there are the outlines of the 28 others that were once there. It is crazy to think about the number of innocent people that were imprisoned in this camp and all the others.
From there we walked to the last thing to see at the camp, which was the crematorium. To get there you had to walk all the way down to the far end of the camp and leave through a barbed wire gate. The perimeter of the camp was guarded by several lookout towers where Nazis would shoot those who attempted to escape. As you get closer to the building they have created beautiful gardens and memorials all around it. Once inside you can walk through the various rooms: where they stored dead bodies, some filled with ovens that they hung prisoners in front of, where they prepped prisoners for “the showers,” and the gas chamber itself. There really aren’t enough words to describe it. Something that really irked me was throughout my time at Dachau there were large groups of German high school kids that were on field trips there. The entire time they were laughing, running around, and acting extremely disrespectful. Overall, I’m really grateful that I had this experience it was truly once in a lifetime.
Throughout the rest of the gloomy and chilly day, Lily and I felt weird after the heaviness of what we had just experienced. We took the train into Munich and checked into our hostel, Wombats City Hostel. From there we walked to the city center to explore. All down the main shopping center is vendor after vendor selling candied nuts. The smell amazing smell fills the streets every time you pass by and Lily and I could not resist! So good. That night we went to Hofbräuhaus for huge beers with lemonade, a huge pretzel, a gingerbread cookie, and a cheese plate. We also got a potato dumpling in gravy which was basically a big squishy ball of mashed potatoes. Very weird consistency and I wasn’t a big fan.
That night was our first time in a hostel that we shared the room with total strangers. It was a weird experience but we barely spent any time there so it was bearable. The next morning we got up again at 5 am and headed to the train station. We had time to grab a pastry and water before getting on the train, little did we know about the fiasco we were soon to endure. Once on the train, Lily and I had our own little cabin, reminded us of the train ride in Harry Potter. When the woman came to check our tickets, she spoke close to no English. The only thing we could understand was she was telling us that we needed to switch trains. We asked her when and she said that she didn’t know. We asked her what train and she said that she didn’t know. This alarmed us a little bit but we disregarded it because our tickets did not indicate any sort of change. Just to make sure I decided to call the company that we booked the train ticket with, Omio, and ask them. After a long conversation of the customer service agent not understanding what I was trying to ask, she said that I would need to call the actual train company to get the information that I needed. Lily and I now were in a panic. First of all, why don’t our tickets say we need to transfer trains at some point? Where do we get off? What if we get stranded in the middle of nowhere in Germany? What if this train really isn’t going to Prague? We were confused, stressed, and anxious all before 9 am. Within the hour, a man came into our cabin and just started speaking to us in German. At this point, we simply had no idea what was going on and it was only getting worse. Thankfully the man spoke much better English than the first person that we tried to communicate with. What he was able to tell us was that we needed to get off on the next stop because the train that we were on normally goes all the way to Prague, but of course that day it didn’t. We asked him what train we needed to get back on and he said he didn’t know. We grabbed our backpacks, waited by the train door, and the second it opened we jetted toward out to look for our next train. Turned out that most of the people on our train were transferring too and that calmed us down. When we were about an hour away from Prague the train made one of its last stops and a ton of people got on. This train, unlike the one we had been on before, had assigned seats. We were kicked out of where we were sitting by people who were yelling at us in Czech even though there were a ton of other open seats in that coach. When we finally got to Prague at 12:30pm we couldn’t stand to be on that train for a second longer. Moral of the story, it was a tough morning ride into Czechia, but it was well worth it.
We immediately went to drop off our backpacks at our hostel, The Czech Inn, and were pleasantly surprised that we were able to check-in;) two hours early. The place was pretty cute and basically like a hotel with a communal bathroom. We had our own room and you didn’t have to pay for towels! From there we took an Uber into the main city center, which was so cheap! Most everything in Prague was super cheap the entire weekend. The first thing that we did was walk across the St. Charles Bridge. The weather was gorgeous and the view was amazing. From there we couldn’t help but stop to get one of their most popular sweet treats! It’s basically a pastry that’s called Trdelník and you can fill with chocolate, ice cream, whipped cream, berries, candy, and so much more. They were so good and they haunted us everywhere because they sell them on literally every corner, so of course, we had to have two in the 24 hours that we were there. Next, we went to see the swans. Prague truly feels like you’re in a fairytale, but more specifically in the movie Shreck for perspective. And just my luck I got pooped on by a bird for the second time in a month, but I shrugged it off. That must mean double good luck for me, right?
From there we hiked up what seemed like a million stairs to the Prague castle. Considering the fact that all we had in our stomachs was pastries and ice cream that definitely wasn’t helping. The castle is huge and beautiful, very well worth the climb. Next, we went to see the Lennon Wall. I loved the art and graffiti but it was nearly impossible to see over the crowds of social media crazed people taking photoshoots in front of it. The picture below took a good 10 minutes to get because you had to dart out in front of Lennon’s face before someone else beat you to it. After that it was over with we walked to the old town square and let me tell you, so beautiful. The entire walk there we were in awe of how cute everything is in that city. The best part about it though was definitely the mini castle in the square that was what Disney was inspired by in creating the animation of Sleeping Beauty’s castle, so cool!
The next day we went on a tour of Klementenum which is a historic complex and we got to see the Baroque library, which is stunning, and the Astronomical tower that has an amazing view of the city. Outside of the library was a replica of the first book that was written in the country. It was huge and had cool calligraphy and pretty illustrations inside. This totally reminded me of the book in Shreck! Next, we went into one of Prague’s amazing candy stores and got another Trdelník with icecream, sugar overload but what’s new? We had a super late flight that night so to kill some time we decided to go to the Ice Bar. We paid $8 to freeze trapped in there for 15 minutes and have a mini cocktail in a cup made out of ice. It was fun and unpleasant all at the same time. Then we went into the robot bar right next door and it was a pretty cool set up. You sat down at a bench that was a kiosk where you picked and paid for your drink. Then you got to watch the robot arms make it. The last thing we wasted our money on there was a vapor shot of rum in a balloon. The last thing we did was walk to a cute little street market next to the St. Charles bridge and have some chicken kabobs.
This trip, just like this post, was jammed packed with activity. I really don’t have much more to say other than, wow. This was yet another amazing weekend. Each one makes my grateful heart so darn full.
Nicole Danigelis 