On the way to Kosice

On the way to Kosice
June 14, 2010
On the train again. Just woke up from a 2 hour power nap. We had to catch the train at 630am today, which meant we woke up around 4am. No, I didn’t go to bed early in preparation, that’s not my style. Last night I went in search of a café that was recommended to me by a friend, but couldn’t find it or it wasn’t open. Sunday night in Budapest doesn’t seem to be a crazy eventful night. I did, however, find my way to a really relaxing café where I could smoke some hookah. I chose grape flavored tobacco. No, there’s no other substances other than tobacco. It’s really not that “wild”. It was nice to sit and watch the World Cup. I think I was rooting for Germany. Soccer’s real big in Europe. Duh.
My time in Budapest went nicely. We met up with my aunt and uncle, who are heading to Kosice with us right now. We had some nice dinners, went on a tour of the town, took a Turkish bath, and ate on a dinner cruise on the Danub River, which is not blue at all, by the way.
My favorite thing was the baths. I wish I could have taken pictures, but that wasn’t really allowed, might catch a glimpse of a naked person. It was an awesome relaxing experience. Soaking in hot mineral water is supposed to have tons of health benefits, and apparently these baths are prescribed to patients by MDs as a part of the healthcare system out here. I know I felt good after I was done. My aches and pains drifted away, well except for that sunburn I got myself. Oops.
I also went to some club that I won’t even try to spell the name of my first night in Budapest. It was it was near by my aunt and uncle’s hotel. This girl recommended to me while we were out shopping. I guess it started out with a fashion show and then it became a dance party around 11pm. It was interesting. There were lots of girls who looked like they could be 16. Awkward. But that’s kind of the norm in that city. I made friends with a guy who was catching me up on all sorts of politics and healthcare and whatnot. He said that it’s normal for guys in their mid 20’s to 30’s to date 17 year old girls, and society doesn’t frown upon it. Hrm. Guess I’ll just take his word for it. The mojitos were really good, fyi. Good and cheap. Finally, something cheap. My experience in Europe is that nothing is really cheap. Stupid dollar devalued…

Still on the train to Budapest

Still on the train to Budapest
June 12, 2010
We are about halfway to Budapest. The lavender fields are amazing. If they weren’t swarming with bees, I’d love to just run around in one. We will meet my Aunt Joan and Uncle John there for a couple days. We told my grandma we were all going when we found she left us enough for this trip. How thankful I am that we got to tell her before she passed. She was probably very happy at the idea. The expression on her face led me to believe so. I believe we carry her energy with us, and because of that, she knows somehow and is very happy seeing us on this trip from wherever she is.
Anyway, so Vienna. That city is awesome. I didn’t really get to test our queer culture there, but I did get a taste of the skate(boarding) culture, which is very strong there. I love supporting local skate shops when possible. I went to two different ones in Vienna, Rock and Roll and Stil. Bought a new backpack and T-shirt from Rock and Roll (I seriously have a bag buying problem, please help). And, I bought a complete (a skateboard with all its parts put together) and a T-shirt from Stil. The reason why I decided to get a skateboard now is because it will be a fun way to explore cities when I’m not with my dad. He’s going back on the 17th and I will be heading to Paris. Also, I am interested in local(ish) brands from out here. The guy whole sold me the skateboard is a co-owner of the brand of the deck (the part of the skateboard you stand on with the pretty picture on the bottom), Yux. I plan on grabbing some skate shoes in either Budapest or Kosice. We’ll see. These Chucks work okay for skating, but are not ideal. They are also sun bleached to an almost brown. (Yes, I also have a shoe problem. Please help. And by “help” I mean help me find more shoes!).
Other than the skate culture, the city has a great art culture and a bunch of awesome shops I wish I had gotten to go into but closed at 5 or 6 so I could only window shop at… The food from Café Europa was especially delicious. We both ordered some pretty much perfectly done pasta dishes and I also tried the gazpacho, which was also pretty much perfect, especially in the 80 something degree heat (in F). Oh, we finished off the meal with mojito, one of my favorite alcoholic beverages. My dad had a local beer, some cognac, and that mojito and was still standing. Impressive. I do not have his tolerance.

Mauthausen

Headed to Budapest
June 12, 2010
While I’m thinking about it, I’ll start with Mauthausen. Unsurprisingly, this was another intense experience. This camp was not originally intended as a mass extermination camp, but somewhere around 200, 000 people died there as either a result of being worked to death or brutal murder. This place was known for the rock quarry, from which the prisoners built the camp. Our tour guide put the nutrition issue into perspective. Each prisoner was maybe given 1400 Kcal/ day, maybe, and that’s pushing it. They were probably burning 3500 to 4000 Kcal/ day doing brutally hard labor, especially at the quarry where they were required to carry rocks that were probably 1 and a half square feet on their backs that more often than not weighed more than they did up 186 uneven jagged stone steps. Most prisoners at this camp didn’t make it past 3 months. They were required to do this rain, snow, or shine. The guards would sometimes push prisoners, or rather, make prisoners push each other off the cliffs hundreds of feet above the quarry, while those who were working had to watch. Just that thought makes me feel such an intense sadness and anger that I feel physically ill. We walked down to the stairs about a quarter mile down a jagged rocky path to see the quarry. The way it looks now is unreal. It’s the picture of total serenity, as if you would take a long hike in the woods to find this small lake where you could walk up and see this pristine view of the countryside.
We went into another gas chamber. The experience was still intense, but felt different from the first time. I guess it didn’t hit me like a ton of bricks, but I could still feel the residual energy. I made sure to take a picture of the inside of the door and thought about the fact that thousands of people tried to push their way out as one last attempt to escape, although it was futile. Our tour guide reminded us that it took hours to clear the room after everyone was murdered. They would be in such a panic that they would kind of curl up and hook onto each other in ways that they would be tangled. The crematorium was in the same building, in three separate rooms.
One other thing I noticed there more than the other 3 camps we’ve visited was that there was a lot of graffiti. High School students are often taken to camps such as Mauthausen as part of their curriculum. It felt so surreal to see these kids running around, joking, and kind of playing around in such a horrible place. There’s that disassociation again. I mean, I kind of identify with the inability to have a true idea of the horrors that actually took place there, but I dare not even say I felt hungry and wanted a snack while we walked around for a couple hours talking about how these people starved to death for months. The graffiti didn’t seems to have anything to do with the Holocaust or come across as being directed at anything at the camp, but damn, how distant does somebody have to be to write something like “so in so was here, 2008!”?
Some things that got to me:
The gas chamber and looking at the door from the inside.
Disrespectful graffiti.
Feeling hungry, but refusing to even say it while learning about how people starved to death. I had a full breakfast that morning and was carrying a bottle of water, waiting until the 2 hour tour was over to eat became a non-issue.
The pictures of prisoners who threw themselves on the electric fence, or were thrown on the fence by the SS, or were forced to run into the fence by the SS.
Pictures of naked skeletal children.
The thought of the SS forcing prisoners to push each other off the quarry cliffs.

On the train to Vienna

On the train to Vienna.
June 10, 2010
Wow, it’s hard to believe we left 8 days ago. It really doesn’t feel that long at all. We left Munich on the Eurorail about 2 and a half hours ago. I’ve heard Vienna’s beautiful, I just hope we don’t end up at another hostel. That was an unpleasant surprise. Not saying that hostels are bad or anything, it’s just that we were told hotels the whole way. It was a weird experience for my dad because there were all these High School/ younger college students running around, having the typical hostel experience, and we stuck out a little bit, or rather maybe we noticed that we didn’t fit in so much. Either way, the good news was that we got to use the laundry facilities. I don’t know how I do it, but I seriously go through tons of clothes. I brought something like 9 t-shirts, and had already worn them all. Right, and we’re on day 8 of traveling… I’m supposed to wear t-shirts twice and all that. It’s been really hot out though, so I’ve been sweating. I dunno, I don’t really do wearing clothing over and over. That sort of thing makes me feel uncomfortable. That attitude is not so helpful for me as a traveler. Oh well. Guess I need to start buying new clothes! Hahahahahahah…
Anyway, Munich was cool. Hit up two beer gardens. I am definitely a fan of the beer that’s mixed with lemon soda. The food was interesting, not that is was very diverse, but it was stuff I would not normally eat. Bratwurst, German meatloaf, frites, other pommes…. Yeah, not a normal part of my diet at home. When in Rome, right? Or, Germany for that matter. And, if I don’t think about it too much, have to say it was pretty tasty. Also, got to splash around in some fountain in the middle of the park. I love novelties like that. Can’t really think of anywhere I could do that at home.
So, sitting first class on the way to Vienna. It’s nice. This is a high-tech train. The monitors tell you how far you have to go, and how fast the train is going. We went 200km/h at one point. If you do the math, that’s not that impressive, but you know, still fast. Passed by the Alps. Still had little snow caps.

Dachau

Dachau
June 10, 2010
Yesterday we visited Dachau. It was the model camp of all the concentration camps in WW2. It had actually been there since 1933, before the war actually started. It was a “reprogramming” type of camp that Hitler claimed to be for the protection against civil war in Germany. We know that was a total lie. But think about if you were in Germany post WW1, totally impoverished, angry, looking for some sort of answer… how easy would it be then to believe in this sort of propaganda? What if you were in the majority group who wasn’t being scrutinized? How easy would it have been to take what Hitler said at face value. Then not too long after we find out the horrors occurring at Dachau, and if you even made someone thing you were in opposition you or your family could get sent there. There was no easy answer. Hitler gained the support of industry, the military, and the government, otherwise none of his plans would have gone through. We have to look at money. It’s disgusting, but think about how it relates. Dachau prisoners slave labored to keep industry alive in Germany at that time, which brought back the economy and fueled Hitler’s cause. Does this ring a bell for anyone with issues at the present time? Anybody thinking about not letting this sort of thing happen again?
We often think of the number 6 million when we think of the holocaust. That’s the estimation of Jews who died. What about 27 million? That’s how many people were killed in Russia, says our tour guide.
Things that got to me:
The methods of torture- hanging people by their arms behind their backs.
Using prisoners to enforce the rules at the camps on each other, which led to extreme punishments or death of other prisoners.
Giving up all identity, property, or identifying document.
Standing inside the gas chamber. It wasn’t use regularly because most of the prisoners where tortured, worked, and/or starved to death. However, since Dachau was the model camp, they tried out different gases in the gas chamber to use at places like Auschwitz.
The crematoriums. They had to build a second industrial sized one after 1938 to take on the amount of bodies from Dachau everyday. There is still lots of ash inside.
Looking at piles of bodies and having to take a moment to see each body as an individual. I had to recognize my natural response to disassociate.
The buildings and scenery around the crematoriums were serene. This was one of the many psychological mechanisms used to make mass murder easier.

I’ve been listening to a book on tape called Don’t Bite the Hook, by Pema Chodron. It deals with anger and fear. It’s been a helpful tool for dealing with my feelings at these places. It’s just so much to process.

Random clips from Berlin, Prague, and Munich...

Still on the train to Munich…

Still on the train to Munich…
June 8, 2010
So, more to add about Praha. Went to Friends, a gay bar, last night for a bit. Since it was a Monday night, it was dead, like 4 people were in the bar dead. Have to say they were quite hospitable though. Got to smoke some hookah with this one guy I met. Headed home pretty quickly though.
I am currently drinking a Munich Lager, Lagerbir Hell. I love that I am drinking on the train, and it’s good beer. Had to stop at Dovalzce, a small rural town somewhere in the Czech Republic and hop on a bus to another train stop due to the Rhine river flooding. I think we are still on schedule, but I really have no clue. I haven’t been able to pick up Czech at all.
Oh and have I mentioned the weather has be absolutely amazing everywhere so far? Not to jinx it or anything, but the grass is bright green and we’ve been passing by tons of bright red poppies and it smells so nice outside, sans when my nose is stopped up with allergies. And, it’s so warm. They call this spring, but it feels like summer to me. I think we hit it at just the right time. Don’t worry, I AM wearing sunscreen and drinking plenty of water. Thank God for my Go-Girl, makes peeing and traveling a million times easier, and if you know me, you know this is crucial.