Krakow. Igor Mitoraj sculpture in Rynek Glowny

We flew Polish Airways (LOT) from Tallinn, Estonia to Krakow, Poland via Warsaw. I mention this because LOT was one of, if not thee, most comfortable commuter planes, I’ve ever flown on. Who knew? There was nothing fancy. No blacklights and lounge music, or endless direct TV channels to distract you from the fact that you’re crammed into a sardine can, but you know what they did have??? LEGROOM!!! Wide seats and legroom! Virgin America, you can keep your fancy music and lights, I’ll take LOT 🙂 Plus they gave us yummy KitKat-esq treats and drinks. The end.

St. Mary’s Basilica. A bride.

Bed news folks, we’ve had our first casualty, if you don’t count my black tank top disappearing after taking it to the Irish laundry. This one is serious. Javier’s black G-shock watch grew legs at the Estonia airport. There one minute, gone the next. Very sad and frustrating. And now, I’m stuck looking at this huge obnoxious white watch every single day. Truly tragic. Javier handled the loss well, but there is now a little G-shock shaped hole in his heart.

On to Krakow! After landing, we realized that we needed to catch a bus to the central station. We missed the shuttle, and didn’t feel like waiting for the next, so we hijacked the luggage trolley and walked…oh, half a mile or so through main streets and airport construction. Thank goodness the bus driver was so helpful and patient with us. The Polish and subsequently we found out, the Germans, have this thing about validating your tickets after you buy them. What the purpose of this is? I have no idea, but it’s very inefficient if you ask me. The landscape we passed was very green. There were lots of parks, and the small communities gave precedence to this natural beauty.

Tourist trap market.

Our apartment was not too far from the station, and the walk was flat! Just one of the many things I have learned to appreciate on this trip…level ground. Our host was very kind and had a printout of restaurant recommendations as well as sites to see. We only had a couple partial days in Krakow, so the information was really useful. I had read on the plane that August was mushroom month in Poland.

Wawel

So, I was on the hunt for the perfect authentic mushroom dish. It was already late by the time we arrived, so after unloading our stuff, we headed straight to one of the recommended restaurants- they featured mushroom soup 🙂 The meal was amazing. The soup was fresh, not really creamy like I thought it would be, but just delicious! Javier had a steak smothered in mushrooms, which was also superb. We had this interesting apple pie-like dessert with strawberry ice-cream- yes, strawberry, with fresh berries. I only mention this because I have never had apple pie with strawberry ice-cream, and I would like to announce…it is quite good.

Main Square Krakow. Another bride. 1 of 4.

The second half of our experience in Krakow took a while to build momentum as we were emotionally and somewhat physically exhausted. We walked the main square and saw…oh, about 5 brides walking around. We tried to get Javier a much needed haircut, but we failed just like his hair. Ha! After a quick lunch, where Javier had this beer/ fresh squeezed orange juice concoction, and a visit to the tourist trap market, we lazily made our way to the Jewish quarter stopping by Wawel Castle, its church, and a few more brides along the way. We sadly did not do any research on Krakow before we arrived. Hence, we were surprised and a little regretful that we had not allotted ourselves more time. It was a beautiful city, and deserved more time.

The slogan on the entrance to Auschwitz 1: “Work makes you free” in German.

And now, the purpose for Krakow. We had decided to visit Auschwitz and Krakow was the closest city- about a two hour bus ride. We left at 8am and arrived just before 10. We signed up for a 10am tour and had a small group of 10. It was already crowded by 10, which was kind of a bummer in some ways, but I think a blessing in others. It was really surreal to walk through the entrance of Auschwitz.

Auschwitz 1

Auschwitz 1 was much smaller than I had envisioned. It was formerly used as military barracks, and was planned to resemble a small community. There was grass and trees, which gave it an ironically peaceful feeling. We were told that one of the things the survivors say about the camps, is that they don’t remember the grass. It was all dirt and mud when they were there.

I have written and rewritten this part of the blog, and have found it to be, by far, the most difficult to write. I don’t know how much to share, nor how much I want to share. Javier and I are currently talking about how we would like to share this part of our journey. There is no real way to describe what we saw without being emotionally charged. I had told Javier that I didn’t want to write about our experience, but after talking, we realized that most who read this, will not likely ever step foot in Auschwitz, so we’re going to share our sights, feelings, and overall experience. Inside some of the barracks, they have turned the space into museums. They display articles of clothing, and other personal affects that were taken upon arrival. The most overwhelming room contained hair. The nazis used human hair as a textile. The hair in this room was found after the liberation. It had not yet

Glasses

been sent away, nor destroyed. It was heart wrenching, and the volume of hair was overwhelming. That’s all I can say about that. There was an execution wall that was right outside of the block 11, which is, as our guide put it, a jail within a jail. Here people were tortured, and almost never made it out. There was a sad yet beautiful story of a catholic priest (Maximilian Kolbe) who volunteered to take the place of

Shoes.

another inmate in the starvation cell. The other man had a wife and children and had begged the officers to spare his life. The priest took his place, and died several days later. He was later canonized by Pope John Paul II, and the man whom he saved survived to see liberation day (V-E day). After a few hours in Auschwitz 1 we moved on to Auschwitz 2- Birkenau. Auschwitz 2 was built completely from the

Italian ceremony.

In English: “FOR EVER LET THIS PLACE BE A CRY OF DESPAIR AND A WARNING TO HUMANITY, WHERE THE NAZIS MURDERED ABOUT ONE AND A HALF MILLION MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN MAINLY JEWS FROM VARIOUS COUNTRIES OF EUROPE. AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU 1940-1945”

ground up by the prisoners. Most of the structures were made of wood and have since collapsed over the years with only the chimneys remaining. It was here, in Auschwitz 2 where the people were brought into the middle of the camp by train, selection took place and the children, elderly, and mothers of young children, were taken directly to the gas chambers. We walked the path to the gas chambers, which are now ruins as the German demolished them in their last ditch effort to destroy evidence. Between gas chambers 2 and 3 there is a memorial. On this memorial are plaques in 20 different languages representing the languages of all of the prisoners of the camp. It serves as a memorial of those who died as well as a reminder of the horrors that took place there, in hopes that they will never be repeated. It is really difficult for me to describe the camp. It seems almost disrespectful to write out what we saw.

More pictures click HERE.