Today was our first (full) day in Krakow,
Poland. We had to wake up early in order
to get on a bus to go to Auschwitz. I
was having a nightmare and I realized it so I just woke up. Luckily it was like 7:25 and so I was only
waking up like 10 minutes before my alarm.
I was dreaming that I was teaching but then whatever lesson I was
teaching I hadn’t prepared well and things weren’t organized and it was just
horrible. Woke up and got ready super
quick and then went upstairs for breakfast and get our premade lunch. We had the cocoa puffs again with milk but we
really had to eat and run. We also had
to take the lunch (a normal roll with ham and cheese and a sweet roll) and put
it together hastily. Then we were off to
the races to get to the bus station.
We hurry to the train station/mall and then
realize that we needed to keep going through and actually find the bus
station. By the time we find the Kassa
it is 8:30 which is the time that the micro-bus leaves. So I paid for tickets on the 9:00 bus and
everything was cheeky-pookie. We got on
the bus and on the way there a couple people that had to stand. The guy and girl nearest to me played the 20
questions game. I ended up taking a nap
and listening to music and playing the game flow free for a while.
Upon arrival at Auschwitz it was difficult
to know where to go. There wasn’t very
good signage. We eventually found out
that since we had already purchased an English tour then we could go on the
right to the shorter line and get through security. That is off course after we had checked our
bags and left them there for the day.
Once through security then we had to find
the next kassa in order to pay the 5 zlota in order to rent the
headphones. One all of that was taken
care of we were finally ready to start on the tour. Our 10:30am tour had already left
though. They weren’t too far away so we
just ran and caught with them. For the
whole tour I could only hear out of one headphone. I am not sure why. Even when I switched to my iPhone headphones
I could still only hear the tour out of one ear. That was kind of annoying.
The tour was good. I was glad that I went. I don’t have a favorite part of it
though. The whole thing was the place of
a terrible series of events. Atrocities
were committed there and it wasn’t a place that I would like to spend a lot of
time.
I was surprised at how nice the blocks were
that the people stayed in. I found out
that the barracks used to be used by the Polish army and so that is why they
look so solid. At Auschwitz there is
Auschwitz 1, Auschwitz 2- Auschwitz_Birkenau, and Auschwitz 3 – Auschwitz
Malowitz. There were over a million and
half that died at Auschwitz. Adding to
the experience of being very somber it was very cold and the weather couldn’t
decide whether it wanted to rain or to snow so it did both the whole day. I was cold the whole day. I know that I had more clothes and that the
weather was warming than it would be in the winter but wow! That was pretty hard and I only experienced
it for a couple hours.
Going over to Auschwitz 2 reminded me of
when I was in St Petersburg and I went to the group cemetery of all the Soviet
people that died during WWII. It was a
huge area that had been preserved to look like what it looked like back during
WWII. There just plots of ruins from
barrack buildings. We didn’t walk
through them but there were a bunch.
This was also where most of the people were transported by train were
then selected to either go to a gas chamber or go into a work camp. At this time that was a little bit of
sunshine but not for very long.
We then got on a bus back to the first
museum where we picked up our bags. I
also bought a postcard. It was kind of
tough to find a good one because I didn’t want to get one of a gas chamber or
the death wall. I ended up getting one
of the gate leading into Auschwitz.
Then we found a bus that would go back to
Krakow. Unfortunately all of the seats
had already been taken so I had to stand the whole time. The bus ride back was a little more than an
hour. It was long but I didn’t want to
sit down in the aisle because I thought it was very dirty. I ended up just playing flow free more and
listening to music.
Once we got back to the bus station we then
came all the way back to the hostel and I had two mandarins. Then we went out for dinner. We went to Fabryka Pizzy. I got some penne pasta with red sauce,
zucchini, tomatoes, peppers and olives.
It was pretty good. Again, we
were there for a very long time.
After we went to Old Town square and lost
each other. I took advantage and just
did my thing. I walked all over Old Town
Square and looked at all of the shops.
Once I was finished and took all the pictures that I wanted to take I
went out trying to find Ashley and Kylie.
Once we found each other than we stopped by the hostel to drop off some
souvenirs and then headed back to the mall.
At the mall we started on the top floor and
went into a lot of stores. We didn’t go
into every one but in a bunch. In one of
the first stores I saw a shirt that I liked.
I tried it on but it was only a medium and so it was too small. Then I left because Ashley and Kylie were
waiting for me. We continued to go to
the other stores. Kylie eventually found
some really nice khaki pants that she bought.
We also found an H&M but didn’t buy anything there. It didn’t take too long for us to be shopped
out. So then we went and bought some
gelato from the fourth floor and made our purchases.
I was lucky because I went back to the
store and looked at the display. There
were a bunch of medium shirts but there were no larges. The medium that I had tried on earlier was
too small so I really needed a large. So
then the girl that I had talked to earlier went to the back room to see if she
could find the shirt in a large. After
what seemed like forever the girl came back with the shirt. I was excited! I went and tried it on. I walked out and sought the opinion of
others. The girl asked what I thought
and I said that I liked the shirt. I
asked what she thought of it. She liked
it. (of course) Then I said that I
wanted to buy it. I went to the cashier
and got checked out. Originally the
shirt was 120 zloty but it was on sale for 80 zloty. Then I tried to like the store on facebook
but I couldn’t actually connect to the Wifi.
But the cashier lady saw that I tried so she gave me the 20% off even
though I wasn’t successful in liking the page.
So I ended up paying only 63.99 zloty (about $17) for my shirt which I
think is a great deal.
On the way home we stop at the little
convenience store and Kylie and I both bought Lion bars and Ashley bought some
Kebab chips. We were all happy about our
purchases. We got back to the hostel and
chilled. There was a nice conversation with
the Brazilian roommates who are living in Budapest about Auschwitz and how that
all works. Then they went to bed. I stayed up and wrote this blog post.
Now I am going to post some of the pictures from Auschwitz.
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| Map of Auschwitz |
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| The gas canisters that would fall. |
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| Selection process right off the trains. |
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| Sleeping condition alternative |
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| Sleeping conditions |
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| Shoes were collected |
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| Everything was collected |
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| The Wall of Death. People were shot here |
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| People were burned here. |
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| In between fences |
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| 80 people would be crammed into one of these small train cars. |
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| Remnants of a gas chamber |
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| Gate outside |
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