Day Seventeen: Vienna to Munich

As we left the hotel this morning, Lewis (Justine’s CEO friend from last night) came over to say goodbye. He even offered to carry our bags, but I think Justine was too embarrassed to let him! So we hopped on the bus to take us out of Austria and into merry Germany. After driving for a few minutes we were dazzled by a pink and orange sunset until we passed some mountains and the colour silhouetted behind them.

We drove for a few hours before arriving at Mauthausen concentration camp. Mauthausen was a work camp where prisoners were forced to carry great slabs of granite from the nearby quarry to help for building projects. Many died on the steep stairs, the stairs of death, from sheer exhaustion and collapsing, or a prisoner further up the mountain collapsing and taking the others down in a domino affect. From studying Hitler’s regime to being in the camp, nothing can describe the surreal feeling you get standing in a gas chamber where thousands of people needlessly lost their lives. Everything about the camp was eerie. Beforehand we had watched a video detailing the specific horrors of Mauthausen, and it was a very subdued group that left the theatre and walked slowly through the camp. It was such a confronting and emotional experience, but I feel so enriched for it. Every journalistic bone in my body has flared up, because atrocities like this should not be allowed to happen.

We piled slowly and emotionally back onto the bus after our visit. There was not much talking as we starting the journey, and I slept and read until our next service stop. There was some more stunning scenery as we drove from Austria to Germany before arriving in Munich in the afternoon. Then it was out of the hotel to have a quick look around and buy some souvenirs.

At 6pm we then met to walk to the Hofbräuhaus Beer Hall. We managed to get an entire table, and in the spirit of things Justine and I both had a Radley stein, which is a combination of light beer and lemonade. It still tasted disgusting, so I skulled the majority of it to get it over with. Justine then had another half stein before leaving. We both treated ourselves to German pork sausages with sauerkraut for dinner. Justine and Lee got distracted in the gift shop so when we tried to catch the bus home we managed to see it driving by instead. So it was into a taxi, then down to the hotel bar to play some nice and mature truth or dare. While Justine chickened out, I was made to have a cement mixer (Bailey’s and Raspberry liqueur as there was no cordial) swivelled around in my mouth. It was not very pleasant. Fortunately, tonight was.