prague

we arrived in prague 2 days ago. it is such a beautiful city!! it has a very old, european feel to it with its cobblestone streets, prague castle and old architecture. yesterday we visited the area where the castle is. we didn't go inside, but we had a chance to walk around it and enter a very old and ornate church. all the churches here in europe are so fancy. it is beautiful, but at the same time it makes me uncomfortable that churches can have so much money to make their buildings so ornate, yet people are starving. i know that churches are supposed to be honoring god and jesus and such, but i also think that you can honor god by using less money for the buildings and giving more to the people. but i am not religious, so maybe i just don't get it.

we are staying in a hostel dorm and have met some really cool people. annette and i are the only girls in our room, but the guys we are with are such fun. yesterday we went out with 3 of the guys and shook a tail feather. it was so cold and my acl hurt, so i didn't want to go out at first, but i am glad i did. we went to a couple of bars and then headed to do some dancing. i found my dancing kindred spirit in a young guy named thomas, from france. as i was out on the dance floor doing my interpretive dance, he participated. at one point he, his friend francois, and me were playing air guitar, drums, and singing to paradise city by guns and roses on the dance floor. it was so funny!!! i also met this slovakian guy at a bar who was talking to me about east coast and west coast rap. that was seriously hilarious! he knew way more than me, but really wanted my input. i haven't really listened to rap all that much in the recent past, but i tried to answer his questions as best i could. but i was beaten out when he started reciting lyrics from songs that i don't think i have ever heard. i have to say that nothing is weirder than hearing a guy with a strong slovakian accent "rap" about "bitches, hos, and niggas". very strange, indeed. we are here until tomorrow, and then we are off to krakow for a couple of days.

two of our roommates, stefano (the shirtless italian) and allen (the scottish guy)...both of them are absolutely hilarious together with their banter...


annette and me about to go out and shake a tail feather


some of the natural beauty in prague


the inside of the ornate church...so much detail...


standing in front of prague castle


a close-up picture of prague castle


the buildings in prague...aren't they pretty?


a view of prague from the hill where the castle is located


annette dressed as a scottish man...thanks to the help of our scottish friend, allen

fun in munich

being in munich and visiting dachau was quite intense; but there was also some fun to be had. here are some of the highlights.

the food

the bavarians LOVE their meat. i mean love it to death (literally)! i have never eaten so much meat in one sitting in my life. and it was so delicious! sausages, crackling pork (the meat on the bone had a hard, crackly shell. it was weird, but also delicious), and all kinds of roasts. i had a jolly old time devouring the food here. one of my favorite experiences was going to a traditional bavarian breakfast. we had weißwurst on our last day in munich, which translates to white sausage. it is eaten along with a pretzel and then dipped in this sweet mustard sauce. the kicker for me was when annette's cousin said, "you have to order a beer, is that ok?". if you have met me, you know that any situation where it is socially appropriate to drink in the morning is right up my alley. we HAD to order beer with breakfast at 10 in the morning. incredible. i love bavaria and i am now convinced that somewhere back in my egyptian ancestry, some family member had an affair with a bavarian, hence my strong love of beer and fatty meats.

here i am devouring a piece of crackling pork. i devoured this whole slab of crackling pork, in addition to some sausage and roast, in one sitting. i was unstoppable.








here is the crackling pork before my big paws and mouth got a hold of it








this is the roast with a side of potato dumplings (kartoffel-knödels). the texture of the dumplings is a bit rubbery and chewy, which i actually liked a lot.





sausages, sausages, sausages!









in addition, to all the meat that the bavarians eat, they also know their sweets. we went to visit neuschwanstein, the castle that the disneyland castle is based on, and as we were waiting to start the tour, we had these delicious pastry balls. they are made from a cottage cheese based dough and it literally melted in my mouth. my mouth is watering right now, even as i write. annette is going to learn to make them, so hopefully i can have them soon...




annette showcasing that we are drinking beer in the morning (10:16 am)








me getting ready to drink my beer and eat my pretzel at breakfast












bavarian breakfast of a pretzel, weißwurst, and beer...yum!









hofbrahaus

munich is filled with beer halls and beer gardens (biergartens) that are always populated with tourists and locals alike. due to the cold, we obviously did not sit in any biergartens, but we did visit the hofbrahaus, one of the biggest and most famous beer halls in munich. when you get inside, there are rows and rows of long tables and you just sit anywhere, joining different groups of people that are already sitting there. therefore, you actually get to interact with different types of people. also, there are people who have been coming here so long that they get their own special stein and seat. so whenever they come in and someone is sitting in their seat, they have to relinquish that seat to the old-timers. the demographics here were pretty interesting. there were people as young as 10 (and drinking mini beers) and as old as 80. there was also a band playing all night, dressed in traditional bavarian clothes. they sang old songs that all the regulars knew and would sing along to. there was one song (sung many times throughout the night), to which everyone sang along and then you had to cheers your neighbors and then drink.

annette and me with our massive steins of beer...










sledding

although i do not like being in the cold all that much, i decided to go along for a hike and sledding in the snowy mountains. i figure that even if i don't like something, i do have to do things outside my comfort zone. walking up the mountain in the snow and pulling the sled turned out to be quite difficult, but slowly we meandered our way up. i was unbelievably impressed with annette's 72 year old aunt who led the way at such a brisk pace. there was no way that i could keep up with her, but she was kind enough to stop every once in a while to wait for us to catch up.

the hike ended up being totally worth it, because after stopping at the top of the mountain for lunch and a spectacular view, we got to sled down all the way we hiked up. i have never been on a sled before and coming down this mountain was such an adrenaline rush! i can actually see myself going sledding again (and i have never said any such thing about anything done in the cold or snow). the mountain was steep in parts, so i tried to go down as slowly as i could, but there were times when gravity propelled me down. i still have to work on the turns and stopping, but i quickly learned that if i can't stop, i can throw myself face first into the snow (which i did quite a bit).



annette's amazing bavarian family. they were incredibly kind to us and surprisingly funny!










a typical sledding experience for me




starting off strong...








somehow the sled escapes...








i become one with the snow and get showered by the powder








but i am still smiling...no broken bones. so despite the lack of grace, i think this was a success...

dachau

to me, one of the most tragic periods of recent history is the holocaust. every time i think about how such an atrocity could have happened, my head spins. i made a decision to visit the concentration camp of dachau so i could get a deeper understanding of why such a nefarious thing could have happpened and to maybe answer some questions about the detachment of a humanity that could cause so much suffereing. of course, being in such a place where great tragedy happened, it was quite emotional. and in all honesty, i left with more questions than answers.

dachau was used primarily to incarcerate communists, social democrats, trade union leaders, spies, resistance fighters, religious dissidents, common criminals, gypsy men, homosexuals, asocials and others who were considered "enemies of the state."
dachau was opened in 1933 and closed down in 1945 after american liberation of the camp. dachau had 206,206 registered arrivals and there were 31,951 certified deaths. although, the number of deaths is probably much larger since the record keeping of the camp was not the most reliable. The jews were always kept isolated from the other prisoners and were treated far worse than the others. when dachau was built, it was supposed to house only 6,000 prisoners, but at its height 32,000 prisoners were living in close quarters.


this is a sculpture created to showcase the thousands of emaciated bodies that were part of the concentration camp. the sculpture stands in front of the main building where the prisoners were brought to after they first entered the camp (it is now a museum that tells the history of dachau).


after getting off the train at dachau, the prisoners were walked down the main road and then had to walk through this gate to get to the main building, where they were stripped, showered, all the while being belittled. this gate had these words written on them, translated to "work will set you free". the nazis did this to maintain the illusion that this was not a barbaric prison, but rather a work camp, that the prisoners would eventually be able to leave once they paid their debt to society. and while it is true that some prisoners were released, it is not clear as to who, why, or when these prisoners were to be released. it was a seemingly random system. as the prisoners walked through these gates, their humanity was traded for a number that completely dehumanized them.

this poster highlights some of hitler´s propaganda as he was trying to come to power. after world war 1, the germans were required to pay a great deal of reparations as part of the treaty of versailles. this caused a great deal of inflation for the people because the government was printing paper money to pay of the debt, but had no real capital behind it. the people suffered greatly and were losing jobs, as well as any opportunity for a chance to better their lives. hitler capitalized on this fear and misery. this poster translates to "hitler, our last hope" and that is really what he was to some of the people beofre his megalomania came to light and showed who he really was.

there were a row of rooms in a building where many of the prisoners at the camp were terrorized. they were slaves of a system designed to destroy their human dignity. this is the shower room, where prisoners were sent after being stripped. the holes in the ceilings were built to look like showers so the prisoners could be convinced to enter. in reality, in this room, poison pellets were placed in grates and sprayed into the room. there is no evidence that there were mass murders in these shower rooms at dachau, like at auschwitz, but there is evidence that some prisoners were placed in here for medical experiemnts. whether there were mass murders in this room or not, it does not negate the fact of terror that destroyed the lives of thousands of people..

this is the grate (attached to an outside wall), where the poison pellets were to be dropped after prisoners were inside the shower rooms.

one of the hardest rooms for me to bear witness to was the crematorium. as the number of prisoners who were dying increased, due to being overworked, overpopulation, barbaric medical experiments, or just being shot, there needed to be a faster system of getting rid of the bodies. so attached to the shower rooms, were these stoves where the bodies were burned. at one point, i think in 1941, there was a coal shortage and so instead of burning the bodies, the bodies were thrown into mass graves. many people are unaccounted for because there is just no way to identify these bodies.

this is one of the many watchtowers that were strategically placed around the prison camp. from here the guards could keep an eye out on the prisoners who were working, as well as those who were trying to escape.

the prisoners´area in the camp was surrounded by an electrical fence and in front of the fence was a long ditch surrounding it. the ditch had trip wires along it to slow prisoners down who were trying to escape. if a prisoner came near the ditch, the guards were allowed to shoot. at times prisoners who just wanted to put an end to their misery went close to the fence, purposely trying to get shot. it is hard for me to even imagine the misery and terror that so many people must have felt. it is even harder for me to imagine the barbaric detachment of the guards who could not see the prisoners as human beings at all.


this is the road that the prisoners walked down as they got off the train. while i was there, i kept trying to put myself in their shoes. what could they have been thinking? what kind of hope or sense of doom did they have? did they believe that they were going to get out of there alive or were they convinced of their impending death? it is crazy to think that more than 200,000 people walked down this road at various times. i wish i could say that i left here believing that all of this was behind us, but i can´t help but to think that this part of our history will forever haunt us. sadly all kinds of holocausts are still occurring, if we think about it. there is the crisis in sudan, the past crises in rwanda and bosnia. but at the same time, being here has given me an oporuntity to learn more, which will allow me to teach my students and others. in this way, i hope that things can change for the better.

munich: the beginning

i am actually enjoying the snow...yikes!




i have to say that i was not all the excited to leave the warmth (literally and figuratively) of italy and traverse into the cold terrain of munich. we took a night train from florence to munich and as we were chugging along, i saw a patch of snow on the ground, and my heart sank. that being said, i LOVE munich, cold and all!

when we first arrived here, i was groggy and freezing , after only sleeping for an hour and a half on the train and not wearing proper clothes for the winter. but once we got inside the house and i looked outside at the snow falling softly and quietly, i felt a sense of peace. obviously it helps that i was indoors in a warm apartment, but still, i knew i would not be as miserable as i had first anticipated.

we are staying with annette´s cousin holgar and his girlfriend, isabel. their hospitality and company has been so incredible. first off, they gave us their bed (without a doubt the most comfortable bed i have slept on this trip), which is incredibly kind. our first morning here we were fed an incredible breakfast of eggs, coffee, and amazing bavarian pastries. did you know that the bavarians put butter on their soft pretzels? i normally don´t like butter on bread, but this is actually quite tasty. they have also gone out of their way to show us around the city and make sure that we are taken care of when we are on our own.

the first night we were here, annette´s 2nd cousin yanik came over. he and holgar made these amazing spinach knödles (dumplings) that were doused in butter. it was seriously incredible digesting that amount of fatty liquid in one gulp. my belly was (is) quite content. the next day, annette and i took a 3rd reich tour that discussed how hitler and the nazi party came to power. i am such a history junkie so being on this tour and hearing about, as well as seeing, the places where important history began, was really quite powerful. we were walking around while it was snowing and i still didn´t care that it was so cold, that is how transfixed i was.

annette´s cousin, holgar (right), and her 2nd cousin, yanik, preparing the spinat knödle (i love reading and saying german words!). they are so fun in the mouth, much like the food.

the spinat knödle, doused in butter and parmesan cheese...ambrosial!

this is where our 3rd reich tour started, at the marienplatz. the building there was a sight to see. it is the neo-gothic neues rathaus (new town hall). as you walk around munich, you see many buildings in this neo-gothic style of architecture.

before hitler got into politics and became a mass murderer, he was a struggling artist. a couple of times he applied to art school and was rejected. this tree and building were in a courtyard outside a hostel where he lived for a while. our tour guide said that hitler painted a watercolor postcard of this view.


this balcony is where hitler´s office used to be in munich, before the nazi party´s base moved to berlin. now this building is a music school for high schoolers.

this hall is where the nazi party useed to meet and discuss their propaganda and political agendas. this is also where hitler first started truly rising to power within the party and eventually became president of the nazi party. one way that he ensured that the nazi party would have power was by eliminating other political groups from having power. he particularly despised the communists. one day he sent out red invitations with the communist logo advertising a communist party meeting with free beer in this hall (to ensure that he would get lots of participants). over 700 communists came and hitler went on a rampage denouncing the stupidity of the communists. the members of the communist party of course became enraged (especially with alcohol in their systems) and started throwing things at hitler. he then nodded his head at one of his henchmen, who then instructed the muscle to attack the communists and throw them out. this confirmed hitler´s leadership in the nazi party because he was able to prove that the nazi party was a party of action, not just talk. the communists were many of the people that made up the population of the concentration camps. what a creep.

this is the door that led to a beer hall where hitler first attended a nazi party meeting, which was originally the german labor party. he did so, not out of interest, but because he was spying for the german army. apparently while at a meeting, he got incensed because a man wanted bavaria to secede from germany and become part of austria. hitler believed that munich should be the place where the revolution started, not an area that should become part of another country. he then made a passionate, albeit not articulate speech, that shamed the man, but also got him noticed by the members of the party. from here he gains serious power and the rest, as they say, is history. now this door leads into a storage room of the apple store (computers, not the fruit).

galiga and le cinque terre, italy

i think i have been out of blog commission for quite a while; not because i have purposefully tried to be lazy, but because i have been caught in the vacuum of beauty and serenity that is galiga and le cinque terre in italy. i have visited italy a couple of times before, but this time is the most powerful because of the great connections i have made with people and places.

after going to rome, which i will not elaborate on because i did a whole lot of nothing there (which was so perfect!), we took a train to pisa. originally we had planned to stay in pisa for the night, but a fortuitous turn of events took us to galiga, a small segment (of a larger segment) of a town in tuscany. it only had 5 houses that comprised it and was in a remote section near florence. here is how we ended up there: a couple of months ago, we met chloe (who incidentally is also from san francisco) in sevilla, but knew that she was now traveling in italy. when we got here we emailed her and she told us to come to galiga and hang out with her. instead of staying in pisa, we decided to take the train back to florence and meet her (thankfully!). we did get off the train in pisa to take the obligatory photo with the leaning tower (which was a lot smaller than i thought it would be); but then we hopped right back on the train and headed out to see chloe.



me doing the stereotypical leaning tower of pisa pose...you have to do it, right?




as we drove up to the house, i was blown away by the tuscan beauty (even at night, driving up the windy roads to the house was magical). this place was really in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by hills, all kinds of plants, and massive trees. when we got into the house, we were met by at least 20 italians having a great family dinner, to which we were welcomed with open arms. we hung out with some pretty incredible people, who went out of their way to make us feel at home, even with the language barrier. the house we stayed in is inhabited by 8 people, but on any given night there can be 20 to 30 people in the house. it was almost like a commune because of the shared aspect of the living space. the house was also huge and in the living area was a powerful stove that heated the place and contained a brick oven (we even got to eat home-made bread!). this is where the majority of the people would gather to soicalize. being there was like being part of the italian version of "the real world". we were meant to stay there for only one day, but we were drawn into the warmth and fun that is galiga. my favorite part of the stay (besides the amazing company, food, and wine) was the one day when chloe and i took a rainy day walk. we walked through the rolling hills to a small lake, with 5 dogs following us the whole way. we also walked to a a church that is 800 years old and stood within it for a while. i could feel the age within the building, as the broken light passed through the bedraggled windows. sadly, i did not take any pictures here, but these images will forever be imprinted in my mind (at least until the dementia hits).


i was able to get a picture of giampaolo (who was our host in galiga) and chloe with annette and me.

after our short stay in galiga, we headed over to le cinque terre, which is a group of 5 towns on the meditteranean coast of italy. these towns jut out of the water in a magnificent way. there are trails so that you can walk between them, which is about a 10 kilometer distance. some people walk the trails all at one time, but i spread them out between the towns over a few days. in the winter the trails are closed so we had to be sneaky and take the train up to towns further away and then walk back to the first town (riomaggiore) where we were staying. the trails were high up over the water so the views were spectacular. it really felt like i was walking through a painting. although reality hit a few times. once, when i stepped on a patch of green plants, thinking there was solid ground underneath, only to straddle the trail with edge of the cliff to my right. if i was a boy, i would be sterile. another time was when we had to climb a fence to cross to the other side and i had to climb these spikes with my slippery, uncoordinated feet. i made everyone turn around because of my sheer nervousness, except for this kid mark, who had to walk me through every step of the process. i made it, but barely. and the last time was when i was walking with our new friend jason along the trail only to come face to face with a landslide that had occurred after a thunderstorm. jason was able to hug the dirt and go across with no problem. i, on the other hand, got so far into my head that i decided i was to be the next part of the landslide and just could not go across. so instead of just climbing over the dirt and rocks, i slid down on my bottom and decided to wrestle with cacti and vines of death (who incidentally decided they were madly in love with me so would not let me go). regardless, i survived it, although my dignity did not.

the great thing about le cinque terre, besides the obviously beautiful scenery, was the amaying people we met. the first day we got there, there were just a few of us, but by the end of our one week (which was supposed to have been 2 days) stay, 11 of us inhabited the tiniest hostel in the world. but somehow it worked. also, the guys we stayed with enjoyed cooking so we ate unbelievably well. seriously every night we had multiple course meals. pesto gnocchi, eggplant parmesan, pesto risotto with cauliflower and broccoli, polenta, proscuitto, fresh mozzarella, and my favorite was ribbollita. ribbolita is a traditional tuscan peasant dish that is more delicious than anything else on the planet. annette made it and my mouth still has not stopped watering. it is basically a vegetable bread stew that is twice boiled, which is what the word ribbolita literally means. i have never eaten so well on such a consistent basis. every meal was cooked and served to me. i felt like a queen (which i am). every night we had amazing family dinner that was coupled with amazing conversation (and of course wine). what a magical time. italy was unbelievably (maybe too?) good to us. i submitted to many of my hedonistic tendencies here.

alas, we had to say ciao to itlay (all good things must come to an end) and are now saying guten tag to germany. we are staying with annette`s cousin in munich. tomorrow i go on a 3rd reich tour and will visit drachau, the 2nd biggest concentration camp. so i will report back and share the atrocities that i will learn about in the morgen. my gluttony in italy has to be tempered with the tragic realities of the world. balance is key. auf wiedersehen.

annette and me on one of our many hikes...this time we were going between the 3rd town of manorola to the second town of corniglia






here are paul and jason, the guys that we spent the most time with in riomaggiore...unbelievable guys and exceptional chefs!







this is what each of the towns looked like as you walked up into them...the colors of the buildings were so vibrant






a view from further back






while hiking from one town to another in la cinque terre, there are the most amazing coastal views. obviously the sky was not that blue, but this is one of my new favorite camera settings...






another breathtaking view...






here is mariana, who we met the first day we got to riomaggiore...one of the cutest and sweetest girls i have ever met!