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"Work will set you Free" sign entering Dachau
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And so begins my backpacking blog. Five countries in two weeks, not bad. I started my journey in Rennes going first to Paris, and from there taking an overnight train into Munich. My friend Rachael and I got into our little sleeping cabin with our enormous backpacks (we are girls after all notorious for overpacking) and found our couchettes to be the top two. Getting our bags up there was not fun. I highly recommend over night trains, there is nothing better than waking up and finding that you are already at your destination. We rolled into Munich about 8:00 am and from there went to our hostel. Luckily, it was only a block or so from the train station . After depositing our bags we learned that there was a tour to Dachau starting in 20 minutes so we hurried over to the meeting spot to meet with the guide.

Markings of where the barracks used to be
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We spent the day at the Dachau concentration camp learning about what had happened there. Our guide recounted individuals' stories about their time in the camp. We toured the buildings and went to the crematoriums. The original barracks are no longer standing thanks to the 1960s German government, but there are markings of where they once stood along with two re-contructed models.

After getting back into Munich, we walked around town and looked around for a place to eat. We found the Augustiner Beerhall. It was packed! Apparently in Germany you just walk around the restaurant till you find a place to sit. Rachael and I couldn't find an open table so we asked the waiter if he had any suggestions of what we should do. He merely looked at us and then threw two chairs on the end of a table where a large groups of Germans were already sitting. Talk about awkward, but we sat down anyway and enjoyed some sausages and sauerkraut. YUM!

Crematorium
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That night we went out with some people from our hostel, but I swear everything in that town closes around 1 am.. sooo early.. The next day we went on a bike tour and saw all the most historic sights in Munich. We went to Marienplatz and watched the Glockenspiel. We visited important sites dealing with Hitler and the third reich. We also went to Englishgarten where there is a nudist meadow.. WOW, did we get a show, there is a local "attraction" called Tri-pod there, I will let you guess why. After that we road our bikes to the Chinese Tower Beergarden, the second biggest beergarden in the world. It holds around 9,000 people and it was packed! Rachael and I along with some other girls got ourselves some big beers and pretzels. After leaving the beergarden we went and watched the riversurfers, probably one of the neatest things I have seen in my life. There are people who actually surf on a river in the middle of Munich! After the tour Rachael and I had to run to the trainstation to catch our train to Prague. Munich, was one of my favorite places on the trip just because of the atmosphere. Everyone there was very friendly and just wanted to have a good time, plus the German men are pretty damn good looking. I will for sure be looking to go back in the future!