A look through my Ize (Part 3)

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But first we would be stopping in Bratislava, Slovakia for the day to explore. After a local hearty meal time was slipping away. We walked the streets of Bratislava Old Town and ended up at ‘Bratislava castle’- The massive rectangular building with four corner towers stands on a quite isolated rocky hill of the Little Carpathians directly above the Danube river in the middle of Bratislava. It is an outstanding feature of the city.

It provides an excellent view of Bratislava, of Austria and, when there is good weather, of Hungary. Many legends are connected with the history of the castle.

200km’s later and we were checked into once again the wombats hostel in Budapest, Hungary. The twin cities of Buda and Pest, which sit either side of the mighty River Danube, and together are better known as Budapest! Upon arrival, we took a driving tour on the bus to see some magnificent sights, such as Heroes’ Square, the National Palace, Parliament House and Fisherman’s Bastion. A group dinner of some local goulash and many glasses of wine would be consumed. A group of us, the gang- had a very large night getting home at 6.30am. I did happen to meet a nice 18year old Swedish girl- Josefin whom I keep in touch with occasionally and reminisce on that night in the girl’s toilets of a local nightclub.

With a couple hours sleep under my belt our first stop after our big night was ‘The house of terror museum’- Not sure if learning about the darker side of Hungary’s communist past was completely what I felt like.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: top !important;" />A memorial to the victims of these regimes, including those detained, interrogated, tortured or killed in the building was also to view. The exhibition contains material on the nation's relationships to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Its not a massive place, it can be done in an hour and a half.

This museum is very interesting but very sad and I could not believe that such atrocities carried on so long after the Second World War.

After a depressing morning it was time to kick the hangover and go check out one of the Cities famous thermal baths, a soak in the heated waters of the Széchenyi.The three outside pools are decorated with various statues of water gods and marine life. Many of the statues have hot water shooting out, creating popular spots for hot water massages.

Visitors have their choice of 18 pools, five swimming pools and 13 thermal baths. The water temperatures range from 20 to 40 Celsius. A very interesting place but also very crowded, don’t expect to find a chair. We found a spot on the hot concrete.

Later on, we found some great bars and clubs and partied in to the Hungarian night, until I was chased by 2 massive Hungarian Bouncers for urinating in a bush outside a club. They would have turned me into goulash.

I Class Budapest as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.



Close to 400km later and we arrived at our next destination Krakow, Poland. one of the most exciting and affordable countries in Europe. The ancient town of Krakow miraculously escaped the worst of World War II, and remains as the cultural heart of Poland. We cruised around with our laidback topdeck leader- Emma exploring landmarks around the charming Old Town, including Wawel Castle, Market Square, Cloth Hall and St Mary’s Basilica. That evening we had a group dinner at our accommodation.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: top !important;" />Something that I remember about our accommodation was the size, our room was tiny. I was washing 2 weeks worth of clothes in the small shower in our room with shampoo, Ivan was very ill. He had the sweats, was shaking and all blocked up. I could feel the germs floating around this tiny room, and knew I would be sick in no time. I had better kill them with some local liquor.

We had a day to roam around and explore Krakow’s mysterious and intriguing streets. Instead of going to check out the famous ‘Oscar Shindler factory’ or the Wieliczka Salt Mine, we just cruised around taking it all in. We ended up at a massive department store, here we would do some shopping for an upcoming event in Berlin, Germany. It was here, in the shopping complex that I made the call, that Polish women were the most beautiful in Europe I had seen thus far.

We had a reasonably quiet night in, all not feeling to crash hot and we knew the following day would be a sombre one.

We departed from the city of Krakow heading for ‘Auschwitz’ and ‘Birkenau’, former concentration camps.

I thought I was mentally prepared for what was to come, but I was wrong. I had no idea that it would be this depressing. The place has a very eerie feeling, gives you the magnitude of how horrible the Holocaust was.

My mum and dad visited here many years before I did, I remember mum saying she had to leave the tour and sit outside on the grass- was too much.

The rooms with cabinets full of glasses, personal belongings, shoes and the worst of all- their hair.

The 100’s, 1000’s ‘mug shots’ of innocent people hanging about the place- watching every step you take.

Outside and see the ‘Black wall’, where over 20,000 Jews were lined up in front of this wall and executed.

Down into the infamous gas chambers. We were told by our guide that the prisoners were told it was shower time and marched into the shower rooms-Here a poisonous gas- Zyklon B was released through the shower heads.

There is not an exact figure as to how many people were executed in this camp, but the number is over 1million.

As sad and depressing as this place is, I would still recommend checking it out.

It was time to make the near 5 hour bus ride to Prague, The Capital of Czech republic. The first few hours were very quiet. Still coming to grips with what we had just witnessed at Auschwitz.

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