Today was the last day of our trip. It was sad, but yet, I felt like we accomplished a lot; and we did! We left the place were staying at 7:00a.m. From Zakopane to Ostrava, it’s a three and a half hour drive, so we arrived at the airport at around 10:30. We waited for our flight which was scheduled to leave at 12:15p.m. When they announced that our plane was ready to board, we stood in line and soon enough, we were back on the plane. It felt like we were just on the plane coming here to Czech Republic. [View Full Entry]

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We woke up early again today, to finish the other half of our concentration camp tour. Yesterday, I learned a lot from our tour. Seeing with my own eyes, the buildings and places where many people died just touched me greatly. Today had an even greater impact on me because the camp we visited today was where most of the people were executed, it’s actually known as the extermination camp. In planning on where we wanted go, Abby and I had to think of a place in which it would give us spiritual enlightenment. We picked Poland because it contained these [View Full Entry]

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We woke up this morning at around 6:45, ate breakfast, and left the house by 7:30 a.m. We drove for almost two and half hours, to a town called Oswiecim. This town is a very popular place for tourists because it is home to the concentration camps. The camp that we visited today is called Auschwitz I. The reason why it’s called Auschwitz I is because there’s another camp called Auschwitz-Berkenau. But we’re going to that camp tomorrow. For those of you who don’t know what kind of concentration camps I’m talking about, they’re camps that were established durin [View Full Entry]

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Krupowki. That’s where we spent our day today. This place is the center of tourist life here in Zakopane. It’s a pedestrian street that has all the typical things a European street contains, restaurants, shops, pubs, things like those. The street is called Krupowki. This place is so cheap!! A famous cheese that is sold here is only $1.50. This kind of cheese is unpasteurized goat or sheep’s milk that is smoked. A hand-carved chess set cost only $20 and a beautiful, hand-knit, wool sweater was only $7! Can you believe that? Everything was just so cheap, I was i [View Full Entry]

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Today we woke up a little late, we were tired and we didn’t really want to get out of our warm, cozy beds this morning. But when we did, we went into the restaurant and helped ourselves to the complimentary breakfast. I swear, we carry hot chocolate everywhere! Actually no, not just hot chocolate, but anything that will help keep us warm. We went back to our place and got properly dressed, because we were going to go snowboarding! Abby and I were so scared, but it seemed really fun, so we decided to go. We took the cable car up [View Full Entry]

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Changing homes again. With all of this moving around, Abby and I are getting exhausted! But our trip isn’t over yet. Today, we ate breakfast at the house, and when we finished we packed our bags once again. As soon as we were ready to go, we were on our way. The couple led us to a town in the valley, between the Tatras Mountains and Gubalowka Hill; it’s called Zakopane. We followed them the whole way. (Whole way meaning six hours!) That’s right! It was a six hour drive! But the scenery was beautiful, from afar you couold spot the [View Full Entry]

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We woke up late today and just watched movies. We didn’t really understand anything, but it was hilarious. They were like Austin Power movies, so funny! Right after eating lunch, we went on a sight-seeing boat trip. It was really cold! It reminded us of the trip we took to New York. When we went to New York, we went on something like this boat trip we took today. It was a two-decker boat that went around the whole Manhattan Island. It was really cool because we got to see beaches and forests that I never knew were there. The same [View Full Entry]

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Today, another competition was held. It was the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition. There over 20 competitors and they all were just amazing. Before the competition started, we met a girl, who helped us find out what was going on. When we saw her she was bringing food into a school nearby and later on in the day, we saw her perform. She reminded us of the manciple who was good in what he did and what a person who brought food to those in monestaries or schools. Another person that we met that was performing was the guy that reminded [View Full Entry]

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Today was the famous Stanislaw Moniuszko Vocal Competition. It was really interesting. There were vocalists from all over the place and they all were really good. Listening to them just inspired me to get better at singing. They were incredible! When Abby and I got tired of all the singing, we went walking around. We saw many different kinds of people. One of the people that Abby and I encountered is one that we’ll never forget. He was like the squire, in the Canterbury Tales. He was serenading us by kissing our hands and buying us bouquets of flowers and things [View Full Entry]

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Today we hung out with couple, who by the way goes by the last lame of Gustaw. We all ate breakfast at the house and then they brought us into the city. It was big! It was so beautiful. There were so many historical buildings that we went to, I can’t even name all of them. We visited the National Museum, the Palace on the Water, and some of its many theaters. We went to one of the largest stadiums in Poland, it’s called Stadion Dziesieciolecia. It’s the biggest open-air market. It had all kinds of things that were being sold. [View Full Entry]

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