bonjour!
ummm so i think i updated everything about munich, what i forgot to mention i think in the last blog was that we also got to see the deutsch museum, it was alright, saw a fair fair aeroplanes, cars and musical instruments.

so after the americans left i hung out another night and a half in munich.

saw the americans off and found wombats hostelm which was a cool place, cheap and in the middle of town. i met some nice americans there also. at night i met one of marks munich family friends and we went out with some of his mates, had a good time, ,et lots of new people, saw the town at night.
the next day i went with americans i met to the dachou concentration camp, the first one to be made because as you all should know the nazi party originated in munich. we went on a tour, the tour guy was and irish version of hugh laurie and gave a different perspective on the concentration camp, and discussed alot about how they didn't want it to be a re-enactment but preserved it as more of a memorial (as it is also technically a cemetary) and a tribute to humanity (as it is seen that the people in the concentration camps stood up against the nazis and is a tribute to those who survived). so all of the camp wasn't there, but 2 of the old living quarters remained, aswell as the main maintenance centre which is now a museum.

i learnt that originally this camp was set up as a display to the world of a new high tech prison centre, where inmates would be showered multipl times a day to ensure that everything seemed 'clean' and the world wouldn't suspect anything. this is how the nazis gased them as they always were being cleaned (and when in the showers alot of the torturing would occur here as it was an easy method to clean up after the torture). in the showers random inmates would in pole hung, hung up on hooks from the skin on the back of their next, whipped the bone from a goats leg (it was bine i forget the exact animal) etc. inmates would never try and escape because if if anything was done incorrectly by one inmate, other inmates at random would be punished. the tour guide said it similar to the army in that they brake you down and build you back up, except here they don't build you back up, you're always in constant fear that you'll be punished because another inmate forgot to make his bed correctly.

qlso here was a line arpund the camp, if anyone was to cross it, they'd be shot instantly, after this line, about 5m is an electric fence and beyond the electric fence more armed gaurds. the nazis set up thousands of sub camps, constantly moving inmates so they never make friends, there were rail way systems in place, intrigate recording systems about people in the camp, food allocation etc etc. i was amazed at the effort they put into these camps, if the nazis actually spent more time and money on fighting they may have actually won the war!

Mark (irish) and i went and saw the 'english gardens' the next day, wasn't that great, just some small rivers going through a park with some naked people sunbathing, not as good as some made it out to be. i'm updating this only today, so i'm sure we did other stuff that day but i've forgotten.

so from there the big decision of where to go next whas decided on a place inbetween balcelona and munich, zurich. spent two night here, very beautiful city, but very expensive! the streets are filled with people in designer outfits, every woman looked like a supermodel, all guys looked like fags and the food was out of this world expensive. i stayed in a hostel outside of town for a rip off price, but there was only this and other cheaper option in town that was booked out already. it was suppose to be a youth hostel but it was filled with school groups and old people, i was lucky to find a canadian there staying my room who was actually above 18 but below 40, he was 19. he stayed at the other hostel the night before so that night we went there, in the meantime i slept. the other hostel was cool, it had a rooftop that you could go and hang out on, and this provided awesome views of the city. we met 4 other canadians and went out, one of whom stayed in zurich for a year so knew where to go. we ended up crashing what seemed to be a wedding reception in an old early 1900's industrial warehouse, the lighting was really well set up and there was a live band at some point too, the locals there didn't seem to mind us and even tried to talk to us and ended up being a better than expected night in zurich.

the next day i just went sight seeing with one of the canadian girls i met the night before (the one that stayed there for a year) which was helpful, we saw some awesome views of the city, some churchs/clocks (apparently saw the largest clock face in europe, but i still think the one in prague was larger), went to a flea market and the lake which was beautiful. stayed another night in zurich and had plans to go to barcelona, but the next day found out it would take more than 16 hours and about 4-5 stopovers to get there, so in the end i went to frankfurt for a night as my canadian friend was leaving for the airport the next day and i decided i'd go to brussels. frankfurt train staion at night is not a place i'd recommend, so i just stayed in and caught up on sleep. the next day went to cologne, the hostel there was cool, with a guitar so i took advantage of that for while as i had been craving guitar for the whole trip. met some english guys there and some finnish girls and went out with them that night. the next day i saw the cathedral, walked to the top (509 steps) and saw the amazing views. the steps leading to the top had been worn down and there were indents as to where people have walked for centuries.

i forgot to mention that i also went to a cathedral in munich which looked quite boring on the outside with mainly just bricks, but inside it was up there with prague castle, it also had the skelton of a saint in there also, which was covered in jewels. in a different cathedral (i think) in munich was the devils footprint, and i'm pleased to say i have a bigger foot than the devil himself.

anyways i went to brussels after cologne. here i met another canadian and they were going to waterloo the next day so i went with. here i went to the museum which was located in the HQ of wellington. then we went onto see the memorial with the lion on the steep hill (forget the name) this provided awesome views of the battlefield and you could really make out where all the different forces of the battle where they were located in the battle. also went to the waterloo parnorama, which was really good. there was even sound effects and in front on the painting some realistic looking ground with bodies, horses etc. that added to the effect. it also had labels as to where the different forces where lacted and what was going on in each section of the painting. after this we went across the raod to the wax museum which also provided some interesting insight as to ehat everyone looked liked, and the actual outfits they wore (they were dressed in the originals), here was also a plastercast of napoleons face. that night tried out the beers at dilirium, some were really nice, some didn't even taste like beer and more like lemonade.

so now i'm in paris and plan to see everything in one (possibly one and a hlaf depanding on the train back) days.