9/7/08 Dachau Germany
It’s a cool rainy and we just toured the Dachau concentration camp. Dachau was a surreal and solemn place. The camp consists of a vast empty area filled with the foundations of the long bunkhouses that have become synonymous with concentration camps. The whole time I was on the verge of breaking down but it never happened. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs at everyone who ever told a holocaust joke, I wanted to drag people from all over this planet to this place and show them this horrific blemish in Europe. It’s so strange to be in a setting where so much torment and aguish has taken place. What made it worse was that it was a very peaceful calm morning, gray and raining with crows cawing gloomily in the distance. It was eerie. When we set out from Dachau towards Salzburg I felt like I had witnessed a car accident, thankfully the feeling soon subsided and I found strength in my new friends Kris and Mike through laughter and good conversation. We arrived in Salzburg in the late afternoon and even though it was raining Salzburg looks beautiful. Our hostel reminds me of an elementary school back home. It’s filled with colored lockers and smells of cheap disinfectant, but I’m sure it will be a lot of fun. One of the girls on our trip left her bag on the bus and after it had driven away I tried to help her chase it down but sadly it was all in vain. To cheer her up Kris, Mike, and I took her with us to find a café. While we didn’t find one, we ended up in a Mexican restaurant of all places. I had an espresso while the others sipped on margaritas. The walls were covered in graffiti so we asked if we could add some of our own. Our waitress kindly obliged. We each tagged the ceiling and dated it with UWSP 08.