Krakow

◊ I have returned from Krakow. Actually I got back in about 7:30 this morning, but then I went to bed. The trip was great... pretty much. I guess I will start at the beginning. We almost missed our train going there. My parents have always warned me about the stupidity of groups. My own experiences in the past have confirmed their warnings. TRAVELING with a large group is another matter altogether. People can't read time. People can't read signs. People think they are the ones who should be running the show. People are stupid. We made it despite our best efforts to the contrary. The train ride was terrible. I spent 8.5 hours on a train that seemed specifically designed to be impossible to sleep in. Thankfully, our compartment was not full. Four bodies can sleep in a space made for eight. It wasn't easy, but at least I got a couple of hours in.
◊ We arrived early Friday morning and I began to question the value of the money we saved on tickets for buying them in a large group. We had to choose a hostel, and certain party members were fixated on going to a single one very far out of they way. Why? Because someone they had met had stayed there once. We found a very nice one right on the Market Square, but that was not the one being sought. We eventually found it, again despite all odds. I was not as nice or as close to the sights as some of the others, but it was ok. I had never stayed in a hostel before, but this one fit every expectation of what I thought one would be like. I only paid about $33 for two nights, and they provided some nice services. The trade off was a complete and total lack of privacy. There were rooms full of bunk beds and you just grabbed one for the night. That was just fine by me, however some people with us had different expectations of what a hostel would be like and did not enjoy the idea of sleeping in a room with a bunch of total strangers. To that, I say "too bad". After all, the name of the place was 'The Stranger' and it had a really creepy logo.

◊ Before Krakow, I thought that Prague was an extremely cold and snowy place. Once there, I rethought my definition of 'cold and snowy'. It was freezing, windy, and the snow did not let up for more than an hour at a time all weekend. This is especially bad when you are in a city for the sole purpose of sightseeing because staying warm and dry means not seeing the sights. So, we locked up our bags and headed out into the city. Nelson, Nathan, Lisa, and I decided to catch a bus to the nearby salt mines. That was spectacular; salt domes stretched into a black infinity upwards. There were tunnels that just kept going down and down and down into horrible black voids. Everything is carved out of salt: the floors, walls, statues, altars, and even chandeliers. It was a very expensive tour to go on, but I loved every minute of it. Afterwards, I let Nathan and Nelson get us lost in the small town. Something you need to understand about them is that they both act like ADD children hopped up on too much cotton candy. They have a way of finding some of the neatest sights in any city, but they have no idea what they want or where they are going. Eventually, I got cold enough to backtrack and find a bus back to the city.

◊ That evening we around looking at churches. I had known that Poland is a very catholic nation, but after living for a month in atheist Prague, it came as somewhat of a shocker to have a cathedral on every square with mass offered thought the day every day. I also found out from speaking with the Catholics traveling that they feel that they are constantly discriminate against back in the USA. I never knew they felt that way. They were very excited about getting to see all of the churches and attend mass. By the end of the weekend I was totally cathedraled out and catholiced out too.
◊ We tried a lot of traditional Polish food starting that evening. All I have to say about Polish food is that it is very tasty and cheap, but not filling at all. Later in the weekend, I finally convinced everybody to try Kebabs. I had tried one when I was here in high school, and had forgotten how incredible they were. They are kind of like a gyro, but somehow are just incredible. All of the Czech and Polish food seems to be bland and lacking in the meat department. But these things are spicy and full of meat. By the time we were ready to leave my digestive system was letting me know that it was not happy with the sudden re-introduction of meat into my diet after a month of almost none.
◊ Saturday morning we loaded on a bus for the 1.5 hour trip to Auschwitz. It was incredibly cold and as windy as Kansas out there in the stark open. This part of the trip was a serious downer, but that was why we went. We simply had to go and no one questioned it. Seeing this place took a serious emotional toll and due to the terrible cold, wind, snow, and slush it was physically exhausting too. Since there is no adequate way to put this place into words I will let my pictures speak for me.

Auschwitz I

A small gas chamber, the only one not destroyed



Loot taken from victims were stored in giant wearhouses to be sent back to Germany. In the end, what could not be carried off was destroyed. Only a tiny fraction survived when the warehouses were burned by the retreating Nazis. Even this tiny fraction seems huge though. These pictures do not convey the sheer magnitude of how much stuff there was. And yes, that is one of several room filled with noting but human hair intended for use in cloth.






Block 15, the only building preserved inside, and it's execution wall. The basement contains various torture cells for starvation, isolation, suffocation, etc. The ones that can be seen here made the prisoners stand all night.





"Arbeit Macht Frei"
"Work Brings Freedom"


Auschwitz II - Birkenau

The location of the mass executions and crematoriums. This is where they sent people to die. There is nothing more to say.

◊ On the bus ride there, I sat by an interesting fellow from Liverpool. It was a long ride, so we just talked and talked and talked. When the tours were over and it was time to go home, my group was having trouble finding transportation back to Krakow. It seems that the last bus simply never arrived, stranding us and several other people at Auschwitz. For a while I was beginning to think that the bus company must be getting kickbacks from the local hotel industry for stranding people there. One of the other stranded people was the same guy I had sat with on the bus in the morning. There were a couple of taxis there and he began to negotiate a price with them for all of us. He talked the taxis down to a price that would have been unbelievably low back in the states, but it still just seemed unfair that we should have to pay ~$10 each to get back when the bus had been only ~$1.00. In the end he found us a minibus station and we caught a ride that was cheaper, faster, and more comfortable than the bus had been or an overcrowded taxi would have been. And we had the return trip to spend talking with the man we eventually nicknamed 'Grandpa Liverpool' because we neglected to ask his name. I did however, give him the address of this blog so he can see what we have been up to.

◊ Ok, so this post is getting to be very long and I am becoming very tired of writing it. Therefore, I present to you: "The Rest of My Pictures"

Market Square by night

Krakow Castle. Normally I would have jumped at the chance to see this. However, I was beginning to have tourist burnout by this point. It was still awesome.






One last cold one before heading to the train station

◊ If the train ride there was bad, the train ride back to Prague was worse. Karma saw fit to put us in the same compartment of the same car on the same terrible train that carried us east. Creaky seats and all. Only this time there were six of us in the compartment instead of four. We drew straws and I ended up in the middle of a seat. No wall or window to sleep on for me. For Lisa, the person stuck in the middle on the other side this was not a problem because it is socially acceptable for women to use any random acquaintance as a pillow. It does not work the same way for guys. Nelson was being a jerk and would not let me sleep on his shoulder, which was the only option. So I did not sleep for the entire ride except for 15 minutes where I was so tired that I took a nap on his shoulder while he was asleep. It was a very long night.