Get out of my head!!! (April 22nd)

Today was a big day for us. We were heading to the Dachau memorial, where the very first concentration camp was located.

Getting ready to go, we both had no idea how to act. This was such a huge part of history and some of the most dispicable acts ever commited by one human being on another. Plus, we were in Germany and we both didn´t really know how to talk about the subject because it felt almost taboo to talk about.

Luckily, we had a very good tour guide by the name of Matt who told us to ask any and all questions that we had...especially the ones you feel that you maybe shouldn´t ask. His whole concept was that people needed to ask these questions so that it can never happen again.

I brought my camera there and although other people were taking pictures, scott and I agreed that it just didn´t seem right to do it. Not cause we didn´t want to remember....because we will remember this FOREVER.

Walking through Dachau was very disturbing. Pictures and movies can pretty accurately depict what went on there, but until you see it with your own eyes it doesn´t quite sink in just how terrible things were.

Now I didn´t know this before, but Dachau was a work camp, not a death camp. People were brought here to work and near the end a lot of people were being murdered here, but it primarily a work camp. And it was also the only concentration camp that was open all 12 years of the 3rd Reich. It opened up 48 hours after Hitler seized power and closed 24 hours after he was dead.

I won´t tell any stories here of some of the horrible things that went on, but if you ever get a chance to go you really should do. Very much worth it.

Once we were done at Dachau we headed back to Munich. It´s hard delicately segue from such a depressing and serious topic to another one, so I´m not even going to try.

We went out and found a beer hall where we each had another huge mug of beer and shared a sampler platter of fine German foods. Germany has DEFINTELY been my favorite place for food. Scott prefers Italian, but still really enjoys the food here.

Meat + Potatos + Beer = AWESOME

I recently noticed a trend that has developed over the last 5 days or so: Scott and I have eaten the exact same food for every meal. It started with dinner at our hostel in Florence. Ever since then, I think we´ve ordered the exact same thing for every meal.

It´s funny how in sync you get with someone after you spend so much time together. And add to that how Scott and I already act around each other and you can imagine how it is. On numerous occasions I will be getting ready to say something and Scott will beat me to the punch. It´s actually starting to freak me out that it happens so much...get out of my head, Siepker!!!

However, it does makes communication a lot easier.

After our meal that night, we pulled up a chair around the TV and joined the
masses and watched a soccor, eh football, game. Scott loves soccor and can´t wait to tell you about it in tomorrow´s blog.

We actually ran into our tour guide, Matt, who had taken us to Dachau earlier today. Matt really knew his stuff about Dachau and we both enjoyed hs tour. He was kinda strange though, which has prompted constant impersonations of him over the last few days.

Despite the days tough topic, we both learned a lot about the injustice and ugliness of the time. Very ugly.

(PS - the plastic bag on scott's head was his "umbrella'' for the night. despite it's comical appearance, it actually seemed to get the job done pretty well. can't have scott's hair messed up, no sir.)