After Vienna, where I didn't find much destiny, I hightailed it to Munich, Germany, AKA Bavaria.
1. I did eat weiss wurst, real sauerkraut, and beer in a beer hall, across from the one where the Nazi Party was born (Haufbrauhaus).
2. Low points involved the incredibly high prices of everything, combined with not meeting anyone particularly cool, except my tour guide Christy, (who is from Montana)... but that was strictly professional. Christy showed us many of the suppossed total 118 small monuments to those who died in WWII around the city; mostly small, mildly unmarked, she said that they are Munich's way of providing a small but consistent reminder everywhere of the nearby atrocities, unlike, she said, Berlin, where they have chosen a few large, obvious monuments. One that was cool was a 's-curve' of yellow (and not gray) bricks within the cobbling of a side street, that curved the way you would walk if you are coming from one corner and heading for the other... this marker is an homage to those who used the sidestreet to avoid walking past a Nazi plaque, because there were apparently Nazi guards stationed at the plaque requiring all passersby to salute.
Side Note: I did not go to the concentration camp Dachau, and nor do I intend to go to any. Visiting one would be interesting, but as I explained to the irish couple on the ferry from Spain, I honestly feel well worn out in the way of respecting and spending time reflecting on the WWII atrocities. In middle and high school, we spent unit after unit studying, reading, and creating and visiting memorials. The museum in Washington DC is powerful and still with me; being inside a box car there or onsite at Dachau (outside munich) or Aushwitz (outside Krakow) is not something I consider a new experience at the moment. I think it's neat to be in, listen to the sounds of, and walk around, the cities, but no need to immerse myself in Holocaust memorabilia... it's rampant here anyway.
