The first stop on this trip was to see The Dead Guy, he's buried in the first city I stayed at.
A little background information, the people here basically deify him. According to them, he is the reason for all things good and right and true in the country. To be honest, he did lead the local army to kick out pretty much the entire world after they had all occupied various parts of the country, set up a new republic from nothing, and owned a cane-gun. (It's a cane and a gun in one! I saw it with my own eyes.)
On the other hand, he definitely wasn't a saint. He enacted some very oppressive measures, and was generally not a very moral man.
Anyway, so my friend and I went to see the Mausoleum, the shrine built for this man's honor. I must say, it was a pretty sweet place. As we walked toward the building, we saw impeccably dressed guards standing in these little phone-booth things. How hardcore are these guards? Let me tell you, they're not pansies. They stand in their little box with one hand holding their fully automatic rifle, and the other behind their back gripping their daggers. I didn't act up.
We went into the place and saw every scrap or possession this guy had that the country could get their hands on. We saw his guns, his pajamas, his toiletry sets, his pocket watches, his citizenship papers, his library, his stuffed dog (I kid you not), and more things too numerous to mention. It made me hope that no nation ever tries to deify me.
As we continued on we walked through hallways that told the story of the country. I had no idea of the kind of history this place has, and I ended up learning a lot from the Mausoleum. Every now and then we would pass a bust of some famous guy, and I would recognize the name because it's a name of some street in my city.
Then we came to where we thought he was buried. There was a huge, ornate room complete with a gold-laced ceiling with walkways leading to a big casket. No one was allowed to go near it of course, but we could ooh and aah from afar. It was nice, but we realized later that's not even where he's actually buried. He's actually buried under the place somewhere, and they have these cameras on his casket so people can see "the real thing". How weird is that?
