Friday will be a quiet day

I haven't been on the pub crawl. I decided it's probably the tackiest thing I could do, so instead I went out with a group of people who work at the hostel. We ended up in this small bar called Sofia with a fairly large group of Spanish girls, which was - not unsurprisingly - quite nice.

Yesterday, I originally planned to catch one of the tours to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, but one of the guys I'd gone out with the night before wasn't ready to leave in time, so we decided just to head over when we were ready. After a bit of a mix up with which trains to get, we eventually arrived there around 1.30pm.

We split the cost of the audio tour and wandered around. There was loads to see, all of it terrible and disheartening. On occasion we'd come across one of the tours and listen in (which made me wish I'd caught one) and, as expected, it was all pretty nasty stuff.

The most amazing part, for me, was not just experiencing the disgusting cruelty so many people were forced to endure, but hearing and seeing actual survivors from the camp going touring the buildings they'd been imprisoned in and describing the conditions they went through. Not in person, I hasten to add - these were videos.

It must take astounding bravery not just to have survived this hell, but to return and relive those memories. These amazing human beings did their part to help remove this scourge from the planet, and for them and the many others who fought these creatures (one of whom, I'm tremendously proud to say, is my wonderful dad) I remain eternally in awe and in gratitude.

What I really need now is a joke to lighten the mood, but I'm all out of them.

After the trip back, I decided to chill out for a while and grab some food. Eventually I ended up in the cafe of the hostel with a bunch of other people having a few drinks, which lead to us all hitting the city for a night out. We wandered down the road and found a nice bar, then proceeded to chat and drink the night through - well, actually I don't know what time we called it a night. But it must've been late, I didn't get up until 12pm and I have a very, very bad feeling in my head so I can only assume.

Needless to say, I'm going to take things quietly today. It's raining here, anyway, so the tour I wanted to go on might not have been a good idea. I can always do it tomorrow.