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Published: June 30th 2014
KrakowWe arrived in krakow and quickly found our way to the tram stop. The tram ticket cost the equivalent of about 35p and we only needed to go a few stops to the hostel we booked the night before.
In typical fashion for this trip after one stop the tram stopped moving. There had been an accident which the bus in front couldn't get round and so was stuck on the track. The tram quickly emptied but not knowing where we were going we stayed on and waited.
Eventually we found our way to our stop (stradom) and our hostel was about a minutes walk. We stayed in hostel B movie. Each room had a different film name, including the godfather, dirty dancing, the matrix, Casablanca and we stayed in sin city. And the walls where covered in pictures of actors like Marilyn Monroe. The man at the front desk didn't speak a lot of English but he was very smiley and gave us a quick tour of the hostel.
It was a great little hostel and was a taste of what we had to come. The polish people where very friendly
Church in krakowand incredibly helpful. Even when on our second day we didn't buy a ticket for the tram (couldn't find a machine and only had two stops to go) and we got fined they let us off most of the fine and then gave us loads of advice about places to visit and directions to different things. Hands down nicest ticket inspectors we have ever dealt with.
On our first night we found a lovely little restaurant run by a little old lady who cooked us up some amazing potato cakes (thin hash browns) and goulash. She didn't speak a word of English but was so happy it was contagious. It only cost £2-3 for our dinner which was a bonus!
We loved the city and found it very beautiful. It's filled with little boutique shops, trendy fashion shops, loads of shoe shops and lots of great little bars and restaurants.
On our first night we got a little carried away with the cheap price of alcohol and after having drinks whilst out we bought a bottle of rum and a bottle of whiskey which we drank back at the hostel whilst
Aushwitztalking about the Arab spring and following events with a couple of Egyptian teachers who where also staying at our hostel. Needless to say we didn't get up the following day to sight see and ended up booking an extra night at the hostel!
The next day we decided we would go and visit aushwitz. It was easy enough to figure out the bus route to get there. Though the bus turned out to be a packed out mini bus with people standing the whole 90 minute journey. Luckily we where quick to get seats. We ate these rings of bread almost like a half pretzel that we got at the station and enjoyed the views on the way.
Walking towards aushwitz felt really strange. I got knots in my stomach, nervous as to how I would feel when we walked through the gates and what we might see. As we entered I could imagine soldiers and prisoners walking down the path we stood on and under the ominous gates.
The feeling of doom passed fairly quickly as we began walking around the buildings that had been turned into museum exhibitions.
Pictures lining the walls of aushwitzThough filled with chilling quotes from the nazis, horrible pictures and lots of information about the effect of the camps and the war on Poland and the Jews it had the feeling of being in a museum. Even when we entered the rooms filled with human hair, glasses, shoes and clothes (including a lot of children's stuff) I wasn't effected in the way I thought I would be. It's difficult to quite comprehend that level of evil and I wasn't overcome by the dread I thought I would be. Instead it felt like an educational trip.
That was when we arrived at buildings ten and eleven and the mood changed. A wall for shooting people against and wooden posts with metal pegs to hang people by there arms lined the middle of the buildings. Candles where lit in remembrance at the foot of the wall. Inside, the first room had a long table with seats for nazis who would decide the fate of those brought before them. Then rooms with hay on the floor to break prisoners when they arrived, triple stacked bunk beds (where each tiny bunk would have been shared by two people) and a
Aushwitz memorial at firing wallroom lined with horrible toilets (with only a handful of toilets for thousands of people). The walls where lined with the pictures of those who had died in the camp, blank eyes and stone faces stared at you from both sides, most not living longer than a few months before being worked to death or executed. Teachers, labourers, farmers, students, doctors, old, young, male, female. Then a room with two sets of gallows and a bench for whipping. We descended the stairs and the realisation of where we were washed over me. Small dark cells where set to either side of the dank corridor, some marked as having such little ventilation that suffocation was common. There were even standing cells with barely enough room for a person where people would be left to starve in the dark, alone. This basement is where the first experiments gassing prisoners where held. Now I felt the way I thought I would. We where standing where the atrocities of the camps began. I could almost feel the people who had been there, all sorts of images rushed through my head.
We got the short bus ride over to aushwitz 2 where
Building 11 aushwitzthe train tracks ran straight into the camp. This is where 70%+ of people where separated to be killed immediately upon arrival whilst the others where filed along pathways lined with barbed wire fences. They had a carriage showing what the trains where like and buildings stretched almost as far as you could see in each direction. It was bigger than I had imagined. We had arrived fairly late and didn't have time to look round for long though I think we had more than our fill of the camp and where actually quite pleased to be leaving. How relatives of those who where sent here haven't torn it completely to the ground is beyond me, though I appreciate it is there to make sure what happened is never forgotten it is a horrible place.
We saw someone take a selfie, smiling to himself like it was any other tourist attraction which we found incredibly distasteful.
After that we decided we needed some happy vibes and head into krakow to look around. We ate at a rather posh restaurant (though still only paid about £12 each for our food and drinks) eating pheasant, wild
Aushwitz guard towerboar, cheesecake and drinking local beer and homemade lemonade. The wild boar was amazing, very tender and a great taste. We walked through a lovely market and next we got free entry into a little club round the corner which had all sorts of crazy lights and mainly remixes of music from the 90s. Smoking was aloud inside which is always a shock! It was a nice way to unwind and fins in off the day.
The following day after 3 nights it was time to leave Poland behind us. We really liked krakow and the people where absolutely lovely, everyone was so helpful whether they spoke English or not (though most did) and I think we'd all quite like to return to Poland one day.
We head to the first little restaurant we ate in and got more potato cakes and goulash to fill our stomachs before our next adventure - a sleeper train to Vienna!
We thought the train only went as far as a small town in Czech Republic where we would have to change onto another train to Vienna. But once on the train after a quick
Mmm wild boarchat with some other English travellers it turned out the train went far beyond that point. We had a chat with the conductor (who was very helpful and very smiley) and he told us the front two carriages went straight to Vienna! So we would have to jump off the train at 2 in the morning and run down to the front carriage where they still luckily had 3 beds available.
The first compartment we had to ourselves despite it having 6 beds and was really comfortable. We slept no problem other than about 10 minutes where the train bumped up and down so hard we where falling out of our beds! Then we jumped off with our bags and made for the front carriage. We where quietly ushered into a room with an Austrian couple already sleeping. We did our best to quietly put our bags down and get into our bunks. I had to sleep on the top bunk of 3 and was too tall to fit so had to sleep with bent legs. It was boiling hot and we had no drink. We lay sweating in the heat, tossing and turning, trying to get
The slipper train...before moving...to sleep. And that's when the snoring started. The couple below both began to snore, the woman was fairly quiet but the mans snores reverberated through our beds, it was so loud it was unreal. And as if it couldn't get worse Marc managed to fall asleep and joined in the snoring orchestra. Myself and Rachel got the odd 10 minute spell but otherwise lay awake all night, at times literally crying out in frustration.
We arrived in Vienna hot, bothered and incredibly tired. Sleeper trains are off the agenda.
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