munchen

we've been in munich since thursday! we had a bit of trouble getting here. at the gatwick airport in london, aer lingus forgot to mention that we were only allowed 20kg of luggage total. well i had 25 extra kg and had to pay a ridiculous amount of money to get my luggage to munich. then our flight was delayed, but we finally got here. ok last complaint i promise - the cab driver broke my luggage! i dont mean a minor break, he broke off a wheel and an entire chunk of my suitcase! i was not a happy camper. it is now a tripod that doesnt really function. o well, you live and you learn!

our first day, we walked around munich, went to a few beer gardens and let JP give us the tour since she worked here last summer. last night we went out to eat with JP's boss and his wife. they took us to this really neat beer garden outside of the touristy part of munich. it was so good. it was fun to get to talk to americans who have made a life for themselves here. they are great people!

today we went to salzburg (known for the sound of music and mozart!). Jessica-Phillips and I rode a cable car to the top of a mountain. we got to see all of salzburg, the surrounding villages, and mountains from the top! it was a pretty cool view. we also went and saw the gazebo where the scenes in the sound of music were filmed. we went to the fortress which in on top of a hill. it was built in 1010 and wasnt destroyed in the wars. it was pretty cool. we took the last train back into munich and are calling it a night. tomorrow we might go visit a concentration camp (Dachau ended up being such an amazing experience. i never thought i would get to see a concentration camp and it was definitely life changing. it feels so different when youre actually standing in the same rooms as all of those brave people who suffered through the Holocaust. the barracks and crematorium were eerie and sobering but so powerful. it was very hot the day we went and i couldnt help but think of the conditions the prisoners lived in. i was uncomfortable being there for a couple of hours, it is incomprehensible trying to imagine weathering all of the season for such a long time there)