Inside the enemy bunker

--Wait, youre not seriously going down there, are you?
He looked at me with a childish grin and began to lower himself down a hole, no wider than the width of his body
-- But, but WHY?
He paused, rolled his eyes and gestured for me to follow him
-- Pero, Por QUE!!!?
I shouted after him as he completely disappeared down the hole.
-- Porque es la puta madre. Vamos
He called back up to me in musical argentinian spanish. There I was in Lower Austria, crawling into an abandoned world war two antiaircraft bunker. Who wouldve guessed Id be speaking spanish. But it was not the time to muse over cross cultural ironies. I needed to figure out whether or not I would squeeze myself down that hole. And, perhaps more importanly, how Id convince myself it wasnt a bad idea.

We were at least twenty feet undeground. At least. The floor of the bunker was covered in sand. I half expected to stumble upon a magic carpet and a genie bottle which housed a large blue man with Robin William´s voice. My lighthearted musings were put to a dead stop when I looked at the wall of the bunker. In front of me, in red spraypaint was a swatstika, about 10 feet tall. Next to it was a peace sign that was crossed out. The two austrian boys infront of me, who were until now chattering in dialect german, fell silent.

I always hesitate when I talk about things like ´energy´ and ´vibrations´. Im not some super new age thinker or anything. But walking in that bunker, you could feel the energy being sucked out of you. The worst part was not seeing the racist graffiti on the walls. The worst part was seeing the date next to the graffiti, which indicated its recent creation.

We wandered through the gigantic caverns of the bunker for hours,with the light of a small lantern to guide us. And with each step, the pace slowed, the mood darkened and the air got colder. We were all afraid- but of what? It was the feeling that we shouldnt be there tha was scaring us. Not that it was private property or that we should be somewhere else. It was the simple, gut wrenching feeling of being on the wrong side. Your heart races for no reason. You are out of breath but not tired. Your eyes and ears play tricks on you and you see figures in the dark shadowy crevaces of the caves. We shouldnt be here, yet its just so interesting. Just 5 minutes more.

Finally, when I couldnt take it anymore (and I could tell the boys wanted to leave as well, yet said nothing perhaps due to some ridculous macho mentality that escapes me) we turned around and climbed towards the exit. One at a time, we squeezed ourselves through the tiny rabbit hole entry to the bunker.

Outside the air was fresh. The trees were dark and radiant. The stars were glowing. I know I wasnt the only one who felt the energy shift. We three sat on gigantic rocks for a moment, awkwardly taking large gulping breaths and not talking. Only looking at the dark night sky spotted with branches of pine trees covered in snow.