Germany: Munich

My time in Germany was eventful. After a few immediate plans changes I ended up spending most of my time in Munich where it was both cold and nice. Being in the "West" was wonderfully familiar. I loved that my friend Christian had a toaster, a hot shower, and a sofa. It was no surprise to me that I fell very sick within a day or so of my arrival. Seeing all that is familiar my body simply decided to unload the fatigue of 5 months of travel. I spent a few days moving very, very slowly and waking up in the middle of the night to change my clothes and bed sheets because I had night sweats that made me shiver. Christian was great and took care of me with tea, bread, juices and his clothes since I had only summer wear and all of that was sweated on after the second night.

The sick time allowed me some time to watch DVDs, listen to music and simply enjoy the wonderfulness of home - the warmth, the smells, the love and energy we all give to the places we create. Christian has a great apartment. As an opera director and set designer his sense of style is totally unique, minimalist, and in his case, with a great deal of budhist influence. He chants every day is a yoga devotee and someone who believes in following the energy that rushes through us all. This made for great conversations and also introduced me to some new outstanding ways to meditate, to chant and to enjoy life's energies.

He introduced me to his chanting group in Munich, a set of fabulous people who welcomed me into their home. Specifically, there was a couple that had spent a lot of time in Brazil, and this allowed for a great flow of conversation and cultural exchanges. Did you know that German's touch others at an average of 20 times per hour, while a Brazilian touches others at an average of 300? Interesting, no? HeHe.

As I recuperated we decided to go to a bath. Baths are popular in Munich. They were around before the war and continue to be a place where people gather to socialize, do sauna, and after eat food and drink beer. We stayed there for 6 hours and it was great. I think the most amusing thing was that women and men sauned together, and all naked. I was pretty impressed with the body liberation. And, in case you were wondering, this is not a gay sauna. In fact, "the gentleman behaved badly" is the buzz Christian told me was going around for why there were no longer male-only days. Ah, the gays!

My last day there we went to Dachau (http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005214) the first and the model concentration camp for Nazi Germany. What can I say? It was horrible, awful, disgusting and another show of how humans can be animalistic. It was especially hard to be there after having been to the War Remembrance Museum in Vietnam and the Khmer Rouge Museum in Cambodia. It's amazing the horror human kind can create. We have so much potential to love and create, yet so much destruction occurs. Of course, this reality was made even more evident as we arrived back at Christian's metro stop and saw on the cover of TIME: GERMANY - AMERICA's SHAME with pictures of Abu Ghraib. And the madness continues. Are we participating if we are not in the streets about this? Christian and I spoke a lot about the national psyche of Germany and the post-Nazi world. Is there a national psyche of America? I don't know on most days.

Finally, Germany was also great because it allowed me another amazing friend in the world of travel. I have met so many people in my time out of the States. So many people have touched my heart in so many ways and have made me so happy. People I know I will know forever and whose life energy really affected mine. Atimati, Romina, Magda, Pancha and now Christian have all been amazing presents in my journey. I want to thank them all, and in this case, thank Christian from the bottom of my heart for all that he did for me while I was there.

Julio

"Into the Woods to Find the Giant..."
www.brazilbean.net