Poland-A Visit to Eastern Europa

Walking up to Wawel Castle
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Ah-finally a time to catch up! Well last journal I believe I had just returned from Rome. A lot has happened since then. The weekend after Rome, February 9^th through the 11^th, I traveled to Krakow Poland. Our trip began in an interesting manner as three of the five individuals missed the flight! Luckily, Kenna, a girl in our house who I had not yet traveled with yet and didn’t know that well, as well as myself both made the flight arriving in Krakow around noon on Friday. A bit overwhelmed by the language, currency change, and atmosphere we had a slow start. From the airport we took a bus to the main center of the city. Interestingly enough the train station exit went straight into a mall. It was so bizarre! We grabbed a quick bite at the cafeteria. As all the tables were packed we sat on a bench in between two tables. Well, a man sitting at one of the tables offered for us to sit in the chair by him, and thinking he was getting ready to leave we accepted. However, instead he stayed. He seemed nice enough and offered to help us find our hostel, so we thought why not let him set us in the right direction. Well, go figure, nice man turned weird and we left. No worries though we were never in any danger at all, we just got a really weird vibe. I feel the need to explain him and the situation since as it happened, all I could imagine was an author describing such a scene in a book.

Wawel Castle
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He was a short, thick man with a heavy accent apparent in his English speaking. He sat across from us, his pudgy, ring covered fingers holding the map, beads of sweat on his bald head, his tongue slowly licking his toad-like lips, and his think face resting upon his body without a neck. As we walked toward the exit he asked us if we were going to Auschwitz at which we replied yes. He said, “It will smell like rotting human flesh,” in his slow, thick voice. “So are you going to cry?” he continued to ask with a smile creeping onto his face as he struggled to walk without losing his breath. At this point we just wanted to get away from him. “Oh…we don’t know,” we replied entirely confused and creeped out. Once we got outdoors we immediately left saying, “Oh we know how to get there know, it will be all right.” And that was how our visit in Poland began.

We visited two camps, both Auschwitz and Birkenau.

Wawel Castle
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We did of course find the hostel, although it took some effort on our part to navigate the streets of Krakow. After we dropped off our bags we left to visit the Wawel Castle. Although the inner portion was already closed for the day we toured the grounds and enjoyed the rest of the day light. From there we returned to the main square to visit St. Mary’s Basilica, which was one of the colder and darker cathedrals I’ve visited yet. We also looked through the market in the main square before heading to a local restaurant for the traditional Polish pierogis. There were pretty good I will admit. Feeling exhausted but not ready to head back to our hostel quite yet we opted to visit the mall where we ended up eating giant ice cream desserts as the exchange rate was so good. That evening we went to bed early as the next day we planned to tour Auschwitz. At 10:30 the next morning we left on a small shuttle for a tour of Auschwitz organized by our hostel. The tour took up most of the day as we visited two camps, both Auschwitz and Birkenau. It was one of the most interesting things I have done in that while it is absolutely incredible to be in the actual location where some of the world’s most important history has taken place it was also so difficult to even fathom what went on in these camps. It is a cold, barren place, the square brick buildings uninviting and dirty. What affected me most was the exhibition on the exploitation of human remains. Upon arrival at Auschwitz all prisoners had their heads shaved. The Nazi’s, experts at efficiency, though in an entirely backwards and sickening manner, saved such hair, packed it up and shipped it back to Germany to be used in the making of textiles. At Auschwitz, enclosed behind a glass case, lies 2 tons of human hair that the Allies discovered upon liberation of the camp in 1945. Furthermore, such displays also included large piles of shoes and everyday utensils, confiscated from the suitcases of prisoners upon arrival. The other most affecting part of the tour included viewing the large cement room in which millions of individuals were gassed as well as the conjoining room, which housed the crematories. In reality it is difficult to fully describe the experience of visiting Auschwitz. I was under the impression that we could not take photographs and thus refrained in respect of the museum as well as for the individuals who suffered and died there. I did find out later that in certain areas photos were allowed. By the end of the tour Kenna and I were both exhausted. We return to Krakow only to be immediately surveyed by two Polish University students conducting information on hostel visitors. That evening we again ate at an authentic Polish restaurant and spent the rest of the evening wandering around the city as HUGE snowflakes began to fall. While our trip was fairly low key I greatly appreciated the opportunity to visit an Eastern European country and most specifically the opportunity to visit Auschwitz.