Of Camps and Castles

Happy Valentines everybody! I hope you are all having a fantastic day whether you are in a couple and having a romantic date, or single and eating chocolate and Nutella by the spoonful. Either way, today is a special day.

Last Monday was spent recovering from our exciting weekend by getting up for German class on anywhere from 2-4 hours of sleep thanks to the Super Bowl, and going about our every day life. Needless to say, much of this day was a painful and tiring blur. Tuesday was a much nicer day, as we had a normal night of sleep, but it was spent doing plenty of homework to prepare for the weekend. Wednesday was spent in a similar fashion, as we had to also pack for our trip the next day.

On Thursday we woke up just before the sun to board a train headed to the city of Weimar. Weimar is a small town with the classic small town feel. There were plenty of buildings and shops, but the crowds were sparse, and the cars were rare. It felt quiet and quaint, like if you spoke too loud the whole city would peek through the curtains to see what the ruckus was. However, we did not travel there to simply enjoy the town. Just 20 minutes outside of the city of Wiemar lied the concentration camp Buchenwald, which is where our day's focus laid. Next to Buchenwald is a massive clock tower monument to the dead. Three circles that were used as mass graves line the path, and 13 torches sit along the massive path. After visiting the tower, we turned to the camp.

Buchenwald is an old concentration camp from the Nazi era that is left now as a haunting memory to the monstrous acts committed there. It was used as a work camp, but unlike some other camps, it had no death chambers. This is not to say it was a happy place. Over 50,000 prisoners died in the camp due to overworking and starvation. Even after the Nazi's were defeated it was used by the communist regime in the GDR, causing strife in Weimar again.

Buchenwald is not a place that is easy to describe. For as real as everything is, it is hard to take the stories told by our tour guide, and not simply feel that they were a fairy tale. The atrocities committed on the mountaintop were, without a doubt, some of the worst in human history. They were so terrible that it caused you to want to believe that they weren't real. Being in the camp caused the stories told by prisoners to feel different. Almost like your brain tried to pull itself out of your body if only to not experience what it was.

Mass Grave

Tower from afar

Statue of prisoners

On Friday, we had time in Weimar before leaving for our next stop. We went to a small cafe where I had the best waffles in my life. Two golden brown waffles, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. Neither too heavy, nor to light, they were coated in Nutella and drizzled in white chocolate. On the side of the plate was a huge dollop of whipped cream, and another of vanilla ice cream. All waffles in the future may be inferior by comparison, but I am glad to have had this one.

We boarded the train after breakfast and went to the town of Eisenoch. We took a bus up the mountain right after we arrived, and emerged at the base of Wertberg castle. This castle is remarkable. A massive castle on the mountain top with a peaceful and vital history. The most amazing part of this castle is that it is where Luther translated the Latin bible into German. We got to stand in the actual room where he took 10 weeks translating the new testament. That moment in history is so pivotal that it has affected every aspect of the world that we live in.

Not only was the castle beautiful, the mountain it was on was filled with surprises. In the spare hour before our tour, Reuben, Nevan and I sprinted down the mountain to follow a trail up the other side of the mountain. We encountered a series of massive rocks that were just asking to be climbed. We scaled them, and enjoyed our time on the top of the mountain before running down to join our class again. After returning that night from Eisenoch, we had a movie watch party for Love Never Dies, and Moulin Rouge.

View from the Castle

View of Wartburg

Reuben sprints to climb the rocks.

View from atop the rocks

Epic movie fight scene #2

Epic movie fight scene #1

Nevan climbs a cliff due to sheer willpower

Classic Senior photo pose

Copy of Luther's translated bible

White doves in the castle

We spent early Saturday in the local park playing 4 on 4 basketball and frisbee. Let me tell you though, our professors are tough. I certainly didn't expect to lose to them in basketball, but they proved their talent, and I'll be playing much harder next time. The park is a heavily used city area, and we got so into it, we even caught the local German's attention. If that's good or bad, I'll let you decide.

That's all for now, and it's late here, so I'm going to call it finished. Goodnight to all, and once more...

Happy Valentine's Day