Salzburg - Dachau - TUM — ALEXANDRA.MBK

Hello everyone!

As mentioned in the previous blog post, the first few weeks were pretty stressful trying to get our lives in order, but we still managed to do a couple of day trips! For a breakdown of our timeline: we arrived on Monday, my birthday (spent entirely in bed) was Tuesday, we closed on our apartment on Friday (yay!), went to Salzburg, Austria on Saturday, and moved into our apartment on Sunday. Because I didn’t start work until the next Monday, we had a week to get moved in, explore the area, find a gym and an amazing cafe, and take a tour of Dachau Concentration Camp.

Salzburg, Austria

We really wanted to start traveling as soon as we could, and everyone kept telling us, “traveling in Europe is so cheap - it’ll be so easy to get anywhere!” Well, people lied. Traveling in Europe is very cheap if you plan FAR in advance, but since Salzburg was so close (~3 hours) and on the German regional train (Deutsche Bahn), we totally lucked out and had an amazing, quick day trip!

Stag Party on the train. Note the kitten :)

The train on the way to Salzburg was extremely packed. Matt and I rushed to get the earlier train (even though trains run every few hours to and from Salzburg and Munich) and were completely crowded until we reached Lake Chiemsee. Lake Chiemsee is the biggest lake in Bavaria and beautiful to walk around in the summer, so many people on the train finally exited here and we could sit next to each other for the remainder of the trip. At this stop, a “stag” (bachelor) party came aboard and they were all wearing matching shirts for the horseshoes league they play in (Matt was super jealous - apparently he loves horseshoes?). After conversing with the group for awhile, we found out that the bachelor was required to carry a stuffed kitten with him all through the stag party, and if he lost it at any particular point, he had to buy all of his groomsmen obscene amounts of alcohol at his wedding. I must say, watching a grown man carry around a tiny stuffed kitten all day was hilarious and we could not stop laughing every time we looked at him. The views from the train were beautiful as well, but beautiful because they reminded us so much of home.

So after a few hours on the train, we arrived in Salzburg! Thanks to Matthew googling the perfect one-day itinerary, we went to Mirabell Palace and Gardens, Getreidegasse (a shopping street where Mozart happened to be born), Altstadt (Old Town area), Salzburg Cathedral, St. Peter’s Abbey, and Hohensalzburg Fortress. It was a LOT of walking, but everything was so picturesque and bucolic. We definitely loved the Mirabell gardens, and clearly so did many other people because it was packed and there were a few weddings taking place. We also loved walking through Alstadt, which is where we saw the Cathedral and St. Peter’s Abbey. There are many breathtaking cathedrals throughout Europe, but this one was a pleasant surprise. The gothic architecture and the huge domes were stunning - and also going inside to somewhere with cool air for a bit was also much needed haha! Getting up to Hohensalzburg was certainly an adventure - we took the funicular, which went surprisingly fast. The view from the top was SO worth it. I’m sure Matt was annoyed that I kept singing, “The Hills are Alive” from Sound of Music, but trust me, THEY WERE.

Mirabell Palace and Gardens (click the image for more pics!)

Alstadt + Salzburg Cathedral (click the image for more pics!)

St. Peter’s Abbey and Hohensalzburg Fortress (click to see more)

Overall, we really enjoyed Salzburg. We really wanted to see the salt caves, but we could not have accomplished all that we did within a day if we did that. If you ever come to Munich to visit, I highly recommend a quick day trip to Salzburg. You will not regret it!

Dachau Concentration Camp

The big blocks are where the other “houses” were located - they only have one of the barracks up now, which was reconstructed for visualization purposes

During the week before I started work, we decided to do a day tour of Dachau Concentration Camp. Interestingly, Dachau was one of the first concentration camps, but it did not house many of the captured Jewish people. The Jewish people were sent in mass numbers to extermination camps (such as Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland). Dachau was comprised primarily of political prisoners, homosexuals, Jehovah’s witnesses, and other abused dissenters within Nazi-Germany. It is never easy to go to a place where the worst of humanity existed, but it was a powerful and eye-opening experience for us both.

The Unknown Prisoner: (roughly translated to) “To Honor the Dead, to Warn the Living” - this is a particularly powerful tribute as the man depicted here is doing everything against the Nazi’s orders. His hands are in his pockets, he is not averting … — The Unknown Prisoner: (roughly translated to) “To Honor the Dead, to Warn the Living” - this is a particularly powerful tribute as the man depicted here is doing everything against the Nazi’s orders. His hands are in his pockets, he is not averting his gaze downwards, and he is not standing up straight with his feet together. This is located right outside the crematorium at Dachau.

TUM

Finally, on September 1, I started work! It takes me about 20 minutes by walking and public transportation to get to work, and we are located near Olympia Park. I share my office with two other people, and on clear days, I have a view of the Alps :) I have truly loved continuing my doctoral work here and cannot wait to start teaching in the middle of October when the semester starts.

This was a LONG post, but we have already done so much together. Until next time!

Love, Alexandra