Kraków, Poland used to be the capital of the country, and they basically call it the capital of "Southern Poland." And from the moment that I stepped off the train platform into one of the numerous squares throughout the city, I fell in love with the city. One of the bonuses? I saw a CAT sign on the station, so I knew this city was going to treat me well, right Dad? The station is located next to a splendid square where the buildings are magnificently beautiful. The further we got into the city towards our hostel, the buildings and atmosphere somehow became more and more beautiful. Our train ended up being a little later than we had thought, so we missed any of the walking tours for the city. That didn't stop us from exploring on our own.
After grabbing a bite to eat, we headed south of the Old Town (where our hostel was located) to visit the factory of Oskar Schindler, a German factory owner who helped thousands of Jews avoid deportation by having them work in his enamelware factories. He was able to make his factories into smaller "sub camps" through bribery and wit. Even after being arrested multiple times, he still worked hard to save thousands of Jews. Many of you have hopefully seen (or at least heard of) the Spielberg movie called "Schindler's List." If not, stop reading this and go watch it. It's a powerful movie and pretty historically accurate. Unfortunately, the museum was closed. But to be there was simply inspiring.
We walked back towards the center of town but planned on stopping at some monuments along the way. We visited the Temple Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter that was displaying some photographs of Jewish Poles being deported. It was haunting, as it usually is, to actually put a face to people who were affected by the Holocaust. When you see the faces, it's no longer a story or movie where the characters are fabricated, the plot is fictional, and you just walk away like it was nothing. It's our true past, and these images are hard to forget. We got back to the hostel to book our tour of Auschwitz, have some dinner, and take it easy for the night. It ended up storming outside, so we didn't mind relaxing and watching some Shakespeare. Yeah, we're weird, okay?
The next day started early since Auschwitz and Birkenau were well outside the city center. There were five others from our hostel that were also going, but I'll get to them later. After little over an hour in the bus we arrived at Auschwitz and were divided into three large groups. We received our audio guides and made our way to the entrance. Here we go...
We approached the entrance gate that all the prisoners had to walk through when they arrived at Auschwitz 1. In bold letters, the iron gate says (more like shouts) "Arbeit Macht Frei." It means "Work Brings Freedom." The camp opened in 1940 and started as a prison, a medical ward, and extermination camp. The tour brought us to some of the bunks that held prisoners that now display photos, explanations, and possessions. There was one room that really made me choke up and that was the room of hair of the women and young girls. The Nazis shaved their heads to "clean" them before they were sent to the gas chambers. The hair, some still in braids, were stacked on top of each other; some were blonde and long, others short, brunette, and black. There were also stacks of other possessions, such as glasses, toothbrushes, razors, hairbrushes, and shoes. All these people came to Auschwitz with their prized possessions and were promised that they were going to start a brand new life there. The final thing we saw was the reconstructed gas chambers in where thousands of people lost their lives. They were reconstructed because once the Nazis saw that the war wasn't going to turn out well for Germany, they destroyed them all to hide any evidence of their heinous crimes. This part of the tour was one of the hardest. There were two vases of flowers and burning candles in the center of the gas chambers in memoriam of those who lost their lives. That was be an image that will be hard to forget.
We took a 15 minute ride to Auschwitz II, also known as Auschwitz-Birkenau. This was the larger sub-camp that was established in 1941. This was also a much larger extermination camp, and where many of the prisoners were brought to be "sorted." The train tracks were where families last saw each other, friends said they'd see each other soon, and the men were separated from the boys. Many of the barracks were destroyed by the Nazi's themselves. They destroyed the two gas chambers to hide the evidence, and all that remains are the giant heaps of rubble full of ben metal, blackened bricks, and little trace of what actually occurred there. We visited a woman's barracks where I was struck with how terrible the living conditions were: no lavatories, no washrooms, little windows, and three-level bunk beds that, at the time, were stacked with occupants.
Two things struck me as disturbing as I continued through both camps. The first was how eerily peaceful both areas were. With the green grass, flowers growing and isolated from civilization, there was almost a serenity that masked the horrific events that occurred there. The second was that there are plenty of people in the world who believe that the Holocaust and the events of WWI and WWII were a myth. As a lover of history, humanity, and culture, how anyone can believe that boggles my mind. Some states in the US don't even mandate Holocaust education, which hurts me. Overall, Auschwitz was extremely difficult to experience, but it was one of the most rewarding on this trip thus far.
The tour did have an upside to it, fortunately. We met a wonderful group of fellow travelers that will also be at Oktoberfest the same time as us. Three Australians, one Canadian, and one guy from Seattle. We decided to go out for some drinks to decompress after Auschwitz, which led to much needed laughs and smiles. We spent the rest of the day with this little group and had a wonderful night overall.
The next day we were able to sleep in just a bit since the walking tour didn't start until 10:30. Our guide was magnificent and showed us some of the wonderful hot spots around the center and told us some lovely little quirky stories, like that of the dragon. In the den of the Wawel Hill (where Wawel Castle now stands) lived a terrible dragon who terrified the citizens as well as the king. The king declared that whoever slays the dragon will marry his daughter and become king. Many knights fought to their death, and the task became more impossible. One day, a clever shoemaker took some lambskin, filled it with sulfur, pitch, and mustard seed, and set the trap for the dragon. He ate the lambskin thinking it was a sheep, and a fire lighted in his stomach that caused him to explore, thus killing the dragon and saving the town! Weeee! Now the symbol of Kraków is the dragon, and you see it just about everywhere. I even got my magnet with the little dragon.
The tour ended and we met up with some of the group to go on round 2 of tours. While Corinne, Meg, Andrew, and Nathan did a tour of the Jewish Quarter, I decided to go on a food tour! NOMS! The tour group itself was a little awkward (there were only 8 of us), but the food really was delicious. We had herring (a specialty to be had while drinking vodka), żurich (a sour rye soup), pierogis, and gołabki (stuffed cabbage leaves with meat and rice). I loved it all! Of course, I could go without eating the herring again. But I'm really proud of myself for giving it a shot. The rest of the night consisted of hanging with Meg and just getting to know each other better. Plus, the weather wasn't all too great.
The last day, not much happened. The weather wasn't all the cooperative, and our overnight bus to Budapest didn't leave until 11pm. We walked along to check out more of the Jewish Quarter, had lunch, and just browsed more of the amazing buildings in Kraków. The one thing that worried me was that I woke up with a terrible sore throat that kind of put a damper on the rest of the day for me. That night at the hostel was "Sangria Night." I didn't drink due to the sore throat, but we hung out until we all walked to the train station late at night, helped Meg get on her train to Prague, and then waited for our bus to arrive to bring us to Budapest.
Overall, Krakow has definitely been one of my favorite cities. I made some wonderful new friends, had delicious food, and explored just a little more about my heritage. I would most definitely love to visit again, but next time with the family. It would be marvelous to explore our past and heritage together.
After grabbing a bite to eat, we headed south of the Old Town (where our hostel was located) to visit the factory of Oskar Schindler, a German factory owner who helped thousands of Jews avoid deportation by having them work in his enamelware factories. He was able to make his factories into smaller "sub camps" through bribery and wit. Even after being arrested multiple times, he still worked hard to save thousands of Jews. Many of you have hopefully seen (or at least heard of) the Spielberg movie called "Schindler's List." If not, stop reading this and go watch it. It's a powerful movie and pretty historically accurate. Unfortunately, the museum was closed. But to be there was simply inspiring.
We walked back towards the center of town but planned on stopping at some monuments along the way. We visited the Temple Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter that was displaying some photographs of Jewish Poles being deported. It was haunting, as it usually is, to actually put a face to people who were affected by the Holocaust. When you see the faces, it's no longer a story or movie where the characters are fabricated, the plot is fictional, and you just walk away like it was nothing. It's our true past, and these images are hard to forget. We got back to the hostel to book our tour of Auschwitz, have some dinner, and take it easy for the night. It ended up storming outside, so we didn't mind relaxing and watching some Shakespeare. Yeah, we're weird, okay?
The next day started early since Auschwitz and Birkenau were well outside the city center. There were five others from our hostel that were also going, but I'll get to them later. After little over an hour in the bus we arrived at Auschwitz and were divided into three large groups. We received our audio guides and made our way to the entrance. Here we go...
We approached the entrance gate that all the prisoners had to walk through when they arrived at Auschwitz 1. In bold letters, the iron gate says (more like shouts) "Arbeit Macht Frei." It means "Work Brings Freedom." The camp opened in 1940 and started as a prison, a medical ward, and extermination camp. The tour brought us to some of the bunks that held prisoners that now display photos, explanations, and possessions. There was one room that really made me choke up and that was the room of hair of the women and young girls. The Nazis shaved their heads to "clean" them before they were sent to the gas chambers. The hair, some still in braids, were stacked on top of each other; some were blonde and long, others short, brunette, and black. There were also stacks of other possessions, such as glasses, toothbrushes, razors, hairbrushes, and shoes. All these people came to Auschwitz with their prized possessions and were promised that they were going to start a brand new life there. The final thing we saw was the reconstructed gas chambers in where thousands of people lost their lives. They were reconstructed because once the Nazis saw that the war wasn't going to turn out well for Germany, they destroyed them all to hide any evidence of their heinous crimes. This part of the tour was one of the hardest. There were two vases of flowers and burning candles in the center of the gas chambers in memoriam of those who lost their lives. That was be an image that will be hard to forget.
We took a 15 minute ride to Auschwitz II, also known as Auschwitz-Birkenau. This was the larger sub-camp that was established in 1941. This was also a much larger extermination camp, and where many of the prisoners were brought to be "sorted." The train tracks were where families last saw each other, friends said they'd see each other soon, and the men were separated from the boys. Many of the barracks were destroyed by the Nazi's themselves. They destroyed the two gas chambers to hide the evidence, and all that remains are the giant heaps of rubble full of ben metal, blackened bricks, and little trace of what actually occurred there. We visited a woman's barracks where I was struck with how terrible the living conditions were: no lavatories, no washrooms, little windows, and three-level bunk beds that, at the time, were stacked with occupants.
Two things struck me as disturbing as I continued through both camps. The first was how eerily peaceful both areas were. With the green grass, flowers growing and isolated from civilization, there was almost a serenity that masked the horrific events that occurred there. The second was that there are plenty of people in the world who believe that the Holocaust and the events of WWI and WWII were a myth. As a lover of history, humanity, and culture, how anyone can believe that boggles my mind. Some states in the US don't even mandate Holocaust education, which hurts me. Overall, Auschwitz was extremely difficult to experience, but it was one of the most rewarding on this trip thus far.
The tour did have an upside to it, fortunately. We met a wonderful group of fellow travelers that will also be at Oktoberfest the same time as us. Three Australians, one Canadian, and one guy from Seattle. We decided to go out for some drinks to decompress after Auschwitz, which led to much needed laughs and smiles. We spent the rest of the day with this little group and had a wonderful night overall.
The next day we were able to sleep in just a bit since the walking tour didn't start until 10:30. Our guide was magnificent and showed us some of the wonderful hot spots around the center and told us some lovely little quirky stories, like that of the dragon. In the den of the Wawel Hill (where Wawel Castle now stands) lived a terrible dragon who terrified the citizens as well as the king. The king declared that whoever slays the dragon will marry his daughter and become king. Many knights fought to their death, and the task became more impossible. One day, a clever shoemaker took some lambskin, filled it with sulfur, pitch, and mustard seed, and set the trap for the dragon. He ate the lambskin thinking it was a sheep, and a fire lighted in his stomach that caused him to explore, thus killing the dragon and saving the town! Weeee! Now the symbol of Kraków is the dragon, and you see it just about everywhere. I even got my magnet with the little dragon.
The tour ended and we met up with some of the group to go on round 2 of tours. While Corinne, Meg, Andrew, and Nathan did a tour of the Jewish Quarter, I decided to go on a food tour! NOMS! The tour group itself was a little awkward (there were only 8 of us), but the food really was delicious. We had herring (a specialty to be had while drinking vodka), żurich (a sour rye soup), pierogis, and gołabki (stuffed cabbage leaves with meat and rice). I loved it all! Of course, I could go without eating the herring again. But I'm really proud of myself for giving it a shot. The rest of the night consisted of hanging with Meg and just getting to know each other better. Plus, the weather wasn't all too great.
The last day, not much happened. The weather wasn't all the cooperative, and our overnight bus to Budapest didn't leave until 11pm. We walked along to check out more of the Jewish Quarter, had lunch, and just browsed more of the amazing buildings in Kraków. The one thing that worried me was that I woke up with a terrible sore throat that kind of put a damper on the rest of the day for me. That night at the hostel was "Sangria Night." I didn't drink due to the sore throat, but we hung out until we all walked to the train station late at night, helped Meg get on her train to Prague, and then waited for our bus to arrive to bring us to Budapest.
Overall, Krakow has definitely been one of my favorite cities. I made some wonderful new friends, had delicious food, and explored just a little more about my heritage. I would most definitely love to visit again, but next time with the family. It would be marvelous to explore our past and heritage together.