Misery in Munich

We got to Munich around 10:15 on Friday and quickly got our luggage off our hands at our nearby hostel. After that, we had lunch at the train station before catching an S train (kind of a mix between metro and regular train) to Dachau (the concentration camp about 30 min outside Munich). It was one of the most haunting things I have ever seen. The remnants of the camp today are much, much smaller than the site was when it was in operation, but it was still plenty to give us an idea of how it used to be. We entered the camp through the path and gate that prisoners would have entered, then found ourselves in the "roll call" area in front of 2 reconstructed barracks (there were approx 30 at one time). The barracks showed the progression of the camp as it eventually help over 30,000 people (while it was intended to hold 6000). We also saw several religious memorials constructed after the camp was shut down after the war. The original barracks holding the crematoriums are also still in place off to one end of the camp and that was probably the most disturbing for me to see (I'm sorry, but there are just some things you can't even take pictures of, you know?). We also walked through the prison within the camp where horrible things were done to people who disobeyed even the most mundane of rules. At least for me, I left with this horrible chill that had nothing to do with the weather. Nevertheless, I'm glad I went and saw something that was such a major part of modern history.

We then took the S to the U to the Olympic Park, where we walked around until it got dark. Then we came back in to the main part of Munich for dinner at a traditional beer house. Elizabeth and I had amazing soup while Kelly and I tried one of the five famous beers from Germany. All day I had been feeling a little sick...my cold that I had a while ago seemed to be coming back...so I barely ate anything. We went back to the hostel and got cleaned up and ready for bed and I just felt progressively worse. I thought a solid night of sleep would help, but I ended up tossing and turing all night because my throat and head hurt so badly and I was alternately burning up and freezing. Oh and my stomach staged several revolts. Pleasant. I decided that 4 or 5 more hours outside in the cold on my feet was not going to help matters, so I bit the bullet and paid way too much money for a new ticket back to Venice from Munich at 7am instead of 4pm. I had a not so pleasant train station interaction with a very sketchy German man, but managed to evade him and catch my train. Don't get me wrong, I was very, very happy to be heading back to Venice, but, I was miserable. My entire body just ached and the stiff train seat was doing nothing to help that. Plus, my head was still pounding and my stomach was still NOT happy. By the time I finally collapsed on my bed that afternoon, I could've cried tears of joy but I was too exhausted.

Today I've been very, very lazy. My only successful endeavor was getting groceries and since then, I've just been watching good old American TV in bed and drinking tea like it's my job to try and make my throat stop hurting long enough to either eat or cough-two things I definitely NEED to do, but hurt too much! I have SO much to do in the last few weeks here that I can't afford to be laid up for too long....