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Sarah J's Fully Sick Travel Page
Greetings from Berlin!
This is the last full day of my tour and i'm very sad...I wish it was longer!
Anyway in my last postcard I mentioned that I visited Auschwitz, it really was one of the worst experinces i've had since travelling, the display and guided tour is very moving. The things that were imposed on the Jews and the things they had to endure were unbelieveable. It really is hard to believe what one human being is capable of doing to another.
We also went to Birkanau which is another prison camp near Auschwitz, the conditions there were just as shocking, most of the gassing took place at this prison camp.
We then continued our journey towards Warsaw, stopping at Czechtochowa to see the black madonna, the home to the most religious site in eastern europe...people still walk ridiculous distances to make a pilgramiage here. It wasn't that great, lots of crowds and no decent food around.
Anyway we made it to Warsaw and had a beautiful dinner in our hotel. We had an early quiet night, after Auschwitz we didn't feel like doing much.
The next morning we had a guided tour of the city of Warsaw, which was almost completely flattened in world war two and after the tour we got to watch a documentary about Warsaw before and after the war. The old town is really pretty, its such a shame most of it was destroyed.
After the tour we did the most important thing one can do in any city and that is sample the local doughnuts...which were delicious.
Later in the afternoon we went to a piano recital of Frederick Chopin's music. It was in a palace that was hired especially for us, the woman was really good at it, she didn't stuff up at all.
Later Jackie, Anneliese and I had dinner and took in the atmosphere of the old town, the weather has been really perfect (probably the first time i'm not compaining about the weather here), could't ask for a better night.
Yesterday we had the long haul on the bus from Warsaw to Berlin, which is an uncomfortable 12 hours on the worst roads imaginable, it was good to get back to the autobahn in Germany though. On the way we stopped for lunch in Poznan which used to be the capital of Poland, so now i've been to all three captials of Poland.
When we arrived in Berlin we had dinner and pretty much went straight to bed...we were whacked!
So today we had a little oreintation to Berlin on our coach then we went on a third reich walking tour...now i'm an expert in german politics leading up to world war two. We walked to the place where hitler's bunker used to be, of course where he committed suicide with his wife. Hitler not only too cyanide to kill himself (which is a painful way to die) but he also shot himself in the head (he was informed that a third of all people who attempt suicide this way get it wrong and just end up in a coma), so he did both just in case he stuffed up, and if he did, he would be unconcious and not feel the pain of the cyanide. But being the coward that he was he didn't do it for his wife, she had to take the cyanide without the bullet in the head (she must have been mental anyway to marry him in the first place).
Hitler left a will for his body to be cremated....to cut a very long story short, the soviets ended up flushing his ashes down the toilet, so he was appropriately buried in a sewer.
The site where hitler's bunker used to be is now used by germans who bring their dogs to defecate on the site...which I find very amusing.
The tour ended at checkpoint charlie, the border crossing between east and west germany up until 1989. We then took time to go to check point charlie museum and learn about the numerous escape attempts accross the wall which was cool.
So that sums up the last few days, I've had so much fun and this trip has turned out to be really good value for money.
So its back to Frankfurt tomorrow, then I'm off with the Müllers to the alps for 8 days. I'll have pictures really soon.
Lots of love.
Sarah.
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