Good, but not exactly fun.

Doug and Julien had brunch plans so I elected to venture out again by myself. I had determined that I couldn't do everything, so I was going to make it a priority to do those things that you needed to experience. That is any I went to the memorial yesterday. On this day, I made the difficult decision to visit a memorial/museum concentration camp. This required about a 50 minute train ride to the north end of the S1 train to Orenienburg. From there I walked about 20 minutes through this small town, which was pretty much closed up on this Sunday morning.

I had a lot of reservations about going there. I knew that it would be overwhelming and I was right. I was overwhelmed with the evil and couldn't help but wonder how people get to the point where they are able to do the horrendous things that were done there. I was equally as amazed at the fact that there are people who survived those atrocities and went on living. There were videos of survivors recounting horrific experiences that I feel certain I could not have endured.

I was glad for the walk back as I needed time to decompress. I stopped at what appeared to be the only place open to get food. I couldn't communicate at all,a but I pointed to a picture and ended up with what Doug later told me was classic Turkish street food. I really liked it and was quite proud of myself doe trying it!

The long quite train ride also provide some time to reflect. I concluded that as easy as it is to say that war is not the answer, I saw for myself that there are times that war is necessary. I am thankful, this Memorial Day weekend, that people interceded on behalf of people they would never know.

After some quite time at the apartment, we headed out to a beer garden to get dinner. I had a wonderful meal with leg of lamb and again, the evening was topped off by peppermint tea and one of Doug's wonderful cookies!