POLSKO

Hello everyone! I am finally back on my blog and have A LOT of updating to do.  I have seen many places within the Czech Republic and will surely tell you more about those places soon.  For now I will leave you with some tales and pictures from my trip to Krakow.

 Last weekend I went on an optional overnight trip through CIEE to Poland.  Since I am Polish I was very excited to see the homeland.  We left Thursday at midnight and drove through the night, arriving at an Auschwitz-area youth center for breakfast on Friday.  After a quick bite to eat, we headed to Auschwitz itself.  The concentration camp is a popular spot with tourists so we arrived right at opening time to avoid the crowds.  We began our guided tour through the camp stopping in many of the former barracks.  Each different barrack had an exhibit inside, ranging from stories to pictures to actual artifacts remaining from World War II.  The experience was very powerful and it was hard to imagine what the camp would have been like during the Holocaust.  I did not know before I visited Auschwitz that it was an execution camp not a labor camp so most people there were killed in gas chambers.  As we were leaving Auschwitz for Auschwitz-Birkenau (a second part of the camp where the trains arrived) we spotted a large mass of paparazzi and some security men.  It turns out that we visited Auschwitz the same day and Prince Albert of Monaco and he drew quite the crowd.  Seeing his private group entering the camp and joking about the paparazzi helped lighten the depressing mood of the visit.  We then made our way to Auschwitz-Birkenau.  The camp was so enormous you couldn’t even see the fence around the whole thing.  We visited several barracks before following the railroad track to its end.  Here we saw remains of gas chambers that many of the people were herded into straight off the train. 

 A possible relative?

 Guarded watch tower.

 Barbed wire fences surrounding the barracks.

 Empty cannisters of gas used in the execution chambers.

 Shoes of prisoners.

 Suitcases of prisoners.

 Shoes of imprisoned children collected by the Nazis.

 Execution wall where many prisoners were shot. The flowers there were left by Prince Albert!

 Cremation room inside the only remaining gas chamber.

 The entrance sign reads "Arbeit Macht Fret" which translated means "work sets you free".

 Auschwitz-Birkenau

Inside a barrack where 400 prisoners slept.

 End of the railroad track.

Chimneys left behind when some barracks burnt down.

 Remains of the gas chambers at the end of the railroad track.

            By the time we finished at Auschwitz it was already midday so we continued to downtown Krakow.  Upon arrival we dropped our bags then headed into the town square to have lunch.  We wanted to sit outside overlooking but unfortunately the restaurant we chose had to be the only non-Polish restaurant in the square.  We wandered around the main square after lunch and did some shopping.  Not after long it was already evening so we headed back to the hotel to shower and nap before heading to a late dinner.  Luckily this time we found a Polish restaurant and enjoyed some pierogi.  Saturday was spent touring the downtown as a group.  We walked through the former Jewish ghetto, the Jewish Quarter, the Castle area, the beautiful Krakow Cathedral, and the Old Town Square area some more.  For dinner we went to a Hungarian festival and enjoyed kielbasa and pierogi while listening to bagpipes.  On Sunday morning we drove to the Wielicza Salt Mine near Krakow.  It is a huge underground salt mine that you can tour.  While in the mine you can lick the floors and walls—they are extremely salty!  You also get to see many statues and even an underground cathedral made out of salt.  The history and mining process information part was quite boring but once we saw the cathedral and lake (or some sort of body of water inside) the tour became much more interesting.  We then headed back to the bus for our 8-hour drive back to Prague.  

 Approaching the Castle.

 Krakow Cathedral--the inside was stunning!

 Courtyard in the Castle.

 Franciscan Church and home of Maximillian Kolbe.

 St. Mary's Church

 The main altar in St. Mary's Church.

 Inside St. Mary's Church.

 Schindler Factory museum.

 Nazi memorabilia at the Schindler Factory museum.

 Old Town Square

 The market where we did a lot of shopping.

 Enjoying a sunset on the river.

 Krakow Castle at dusk.

 Cathedral in the Salt Mine.

 Salt version of the Last Supper

Salt statue of John Paull II

Overall visiting Poland was an interesting and informative experience and I am already yearning to return! My favorite thing about Poland was seeing Pope John Paul II’s face everywhere! The Polish people are very proud of their pope and most everywhere you go you will see portraits or statues of him.  They even sell commemorative coins with his face! 

Tomorrow morning I head to Barcelona to meet up with my friends Sami and Alexandra from Tufts and I will let you know on Monday how the trip goes.