Danke Shoen part deux

I'm back in Germany as I wind down to the end of my trip. On our last night in Budapest we all, like 50 of us, went out to a really nice dinner. We were serenaded by a string quartet and had dessert cakes brought out with shooting sparklers as candles. It was pretty cool.

Later that night about 20 of us went on a river cruise down the Danube. It was so incredible. The entire city was lit up. The bridges, castles, parliament and palaces were all lit and the river was peaceful. We ust floated along and they brought us a glass of champagne. It was the perfect way to say goodbye to Budapest.

After that Denesh, who is from Budapest and was our liason and guide with the hotel in Eger for the past week and a half, took a few of us our to a little hidden bar he likes to go to. It was a chill place with and outdoor courtyard with seating and great music. It was fun to see a reall Budapest bar, a place not a single tourist knows about.

Back at the hotel I said my goodbyes to Lissy and Michelle, my wonderful roommates for the past 10 days. They, along with most of the other volunteers were heading to the airport at 4 am. I grabbed coffee with a few remaining volunteers in the morning and then headed to the train station to catch my 8 hour train to Munich. When I finally arrived it was late and I was tired.

The next morning I went to Dachau, the concentration camp just outside of Munich. It was one of those things that I didn't actually want to do, but I knew I needed to. As someone who was raised on the Holocaust by history books and Hollywood I felt like I really needed to see an actually place where it had happened. It was disturbing and painful. I'm glad I went, but it was horrifying to see the videos, photos, and read the information about piles of emaciated dead bodies and starving prisoners. I stood in an actual gas chamber and crematorium. It made me feel sick and angra and the sheer evil atrosities humans are capable of doing to each other.

On the way back to Munich I met a girl from New York named Amanda. We hit it off and decided to go check out a famous beer garden. We went to the Augustiner Keller and had a beer and dinner and chatted about travel, politics and what we had just seen at Dachau. She was just at the beginning of her trip, while my was coming to an end. It was cool to get to hear  about where she planned to go.

I hopped on a train to Frankfurt and tried to enjoy my last European train ride for awhile. I did one thing that I had wanted to do all month. I had a beer on a train. As I sipped my brew I watched red-roofed villages fly by and soaked in the last few hours of my ride. I'm now in Frankfurt at the Hotel Europa.

The next time I talk to most of you will be in the states. I will still update this with pictures from my trip, which I haen't really been able to do much. Thanks to all of you for coming along with me for the ride through my stumbling words and thoughts. There are just so many things that can't be put into words when you travel, but I did my best.

Love to all.