Munich, Germany

This weekend was another boys weekend.  There were six of us who traveled to Munich for Kyle's 21st birthday.  It was my room (John, Steve, and Tim) plus Kyle and Chris Masla.  Friday night was Kyle's actual birthday.  We heard about an authentic German meal at this restaurant and decided to check it out.  We ate real Bavarian food and it was delicious.  The place reminded me a lot of Oktoberfest.  There were really neat kegs in actually barrels that needed to be tapped.  We stuck with liter beers that were really cheap and very good.  For my meal I had two different kinds of pork, duck, red cabbage, and dumplings.  It was the best pork I have ever had and the whole meal was great.  After dinner we went back to our hostel and had some drinks before going out to a local bar to celebrate with Kyle.  He had a really fun time.

The next day was our site seeing day, but not of Munich.  We took a train to Dachau, where the first concentration camp was implemented.  It was a very humbling experience and our tour guide was amazing.  We learned there was a difference between a concentration camp and an extermination camp.  Concentration camps were not for the purpose of killing, however, they estimate that about 30,000 died or were killed at Dachau. Records were not very clean and that is why there is a discrepancy in how many people came in and out of the camp.  Before the war, prisoners were actually released if they behaved according to standards, but this was very rare.

We took a three hour tour of the camp.  Many of the original buildings are not still standing.

This is the "Whipping Table."  The whip is made of a bulls tail and prisoners were placed on this until they were hit 40 times each by two different officers.  Sometimes they even made friends of the prisoners do the whipping.  

Dachau was heavily guarded.  Only two people ever escaped.  One was later found and brought back to the camp. 

The bunks that prisoners slept on.  At one point the camp was so over crowded that three people were to sleep in one little section at once.  

The darker patch of stones are where the buildings used to be.  They were very long and housed a lot of people.  

One of the things that caught my attention was the number of different memorials at this camp.  Naturally when thinking of concentration camps I think of the Jewish religion but they were not only against the Jewish religion but anyone who didn't follow their ideals.  This is a picture of a catholic memorial. 

This was the last row of houses.  This building housed all of the religious  priests.  

This is the Jewish Memorial

This is the one that shocked me the most.  This is a Lutheran memorial. 

A Russian Synagogue

By far the most eye opening part of the trip was the crematorium.  It was very eerie just to be around it all.  There was a separate crematorium building and then a larger one which had a disinfecting room, a waiting room, a gas chamber, a crematorium, and then a room to put the bodies in.  Outside, there is a walking area with a path through the woods where all of the ashes were spread.  

After our concentration camp experience we went back to Munich for dinner.  We were really excited throughout the day for it because we found a Mexican restaurant that had all you can eat burritos, fajitas, and more.  We went in and they told us that deal was only on the weekdays... we went on a Saturday.  We still ate there and it was very good, just not as much as we were hoping for.  

None of us did too much that night.  I think starting this weekend is when it hit me that I was tired from the long month and a half of management class.  There were a lot of late nights.  So we all stayed in and watched a pretty bad football game against Duke, but we still won so that's all that matters.  

Sunday we actually walked around and saw the city, took in the sights, and of course at some fast food before our train home.  We had a nice time in Munich together.  

Brussels, Belgium

Six of us took a bro weekend to Brussels.  It was my roommates plus Kyle and Eric.  It was about an eight hour train ride from Riva.  It was funny when we got to Basel to switch trains we had to walk through an archway that said, "FRANCE."  We joked around and said how when we walked through we were actually in France, but we actually found out that it was the division and there was a customs agent checking people's passports.  It wasn't a bad train ride, but all of these trains are starting to get to me a little.

We got to Belgium late and walked around for a good half hour not having a clue of where we were.  We ended up back at the train station until we found our bearings and headed to our hostel which wasn't too far away.  We were pretty centrally located close the main square, a busy main street, and all of the bars and restaurants.  We hadn't had anything to eat that night and were starving, but it was too late and everything was closing as we got there.  So we had to wait till morning.  Being hungry and also the fact that it was late, we didn't do anything that night. 

The next day we woke up pretty early to eat the really bad breakfast that was free to us before leaving and actually eating a real breakfast.  When we took off around nine we noticed that we were early.  It was a Saturday morning and you would think that there would be a lot of people around and stores open but that wasn't the case.  I don't think most of the places opened till around ten.  The first thing we did was stop by the main market Square.  We were a little early.  Most places were still closed and there were not any people.  We stopped in a really nice cafe type place and had the waffles that are popular in Belgium.  They were so good we went back the next morning and had them again.

By the time we got out of there the square was more alive.  More places were open and street artists were out.  It really is a beautiful square.  But the lighting was bad and it was very closely enclosed so it was hard to get pictures of.  

From there, we went to see the famous peeing kid (fountain), that was one of the top sights to see apparently.  We were very disappointed in the fountain because it was the size of my head.  Definitely not something I would recommend seeing.  But we saw a plastic one holding a waffle and we had some fun with that.  Also, standing there a Ferrari parked right next to us.  It was probably a late 80's model but I honestly have no clue.  The guy driving was very proud of his car. 

We walked around some more without a plan of what we were really doing, but saw some nice things along the way.  The first thing we saw was a little park area and government buildings situated on a hill.  One thing about Brussels is that it is almost built on two levels.  At one point you can walk up and down some streets and go in stores and then directly above you you can take some stairs and do the same thing.  As we kept walking up we got some really good views of the city.  

Up near this building they have a really big park a lot of joggers go to.  It was very interesting because on the tour map it explained the park and said that it was known for, "rough gay sex at night." Luckily we went through it during the day and didn't see any of that going on. 

We continued up the hill and went into a very nice church that had beautiful stain glass windows.  It was the Sablon Church and we actually saw a baptism going on as we were walking through and touring.  

When we made it to the top of the hill, which actually didn't seem like a hill, we had a great view and literally could see everything in Brussels for a few miles.  We had to take an elevator to get down because we wanted to see the market that was at the bottom of the hill.  Our luck, the elevator got stuck at the bottom and we were locked in the elevator with about five other people for around 25 minutes before someone came and helped us.  Thankfully there are buttons on elevators to contact people in those situations.  It also really helped that there were people that spoke french or else we probably wouldn't have gotten out of there.  It turns out the market was actually a really crappy yard sale and just had junk.  

We went and got lunch and was introduced to my first doner which means rotating roast.  It was delicious.  A few of us our actually starting our own doner store in Blacksburg when we get back.  

The meat is delicious. 

After lunch we made our way to the chocolate district, which is the second thing Belgium is known for.  Walking into these high end stores is liking walking into Louis Vuitton.  These are what some people consider the best chocolate in the world.  We went to a place called Pierre Marcolini.  This is a fairly new store and has some of the tastiest and most different chocolate coming from coca all over the world.  We got lucky and Mrs. Marcolini actually came to talk to us about the chocolate, where it comes from, and what makes it so unique.  We got free samples from chocolate all over South America.  They have a very strong taste.  

She also drove a really nice car (Bentley). 

What we did next, had to be my favorite part of the trip.  We went to see the Atomium, which is a really big modernized structure built for the the World Fair.  They have a rotating restaurant we wanted to eat in but they were booked and you need a reservation in advance.  We got there at a really neat time though and got to see it during the sunset and then light up once it turned dark.  

We perfectly executed a pyramid on Kyles camera in the 10 seconds before the camera took the photo. 

I know I might get yelled at for this part, but for dinner we went to McDonald's.  I have to admit though, and we all agreed, it was the best McDonald's we have ever had.  It was very high quality, if that's possible.

We went out to a bar that had really cheap drinks that night as the warm up for the club were planning on going to.  But it turned out we just stayed there the whole time.  They had a club on the second floor and it was a lot of fun.  Great music and a lot of people.  We even met some American's there too.  

That pretty much sums up our trip.  I did go see St. Michael Cathedral too before we got on the train to go back to switzerland.