From Bad...to Worse

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Leaving Vienna, we arrived in the border town of Gmund and approached the ticket office at the small, deserted station. A few minutes later we had managed to communicate the need for three tickets to Cesky Krumlov to the ticket guy (despite his complete lack of English) and he wrote down the platform from which our train would leave twenty minutes later.

At the appropriate time, we wandered out to the platform and were surprised to see a dilapidated, single carriage sitting forlornly by itself on the track - after checking the platform we got on certain that an engine would attach itself to the carriage before departure. A few minutes later the "train" pulled off under it's own power and we realized that this one carriage train was our ride into the Czech Republic.

A combination train / bus / train journey later, we arrived in the quaint, cobble-stoned town of Cesky Krumlov, recently the location for the horrifying backpacker film, "Hostel". Wandering through the narrow streets of the UNESCO listed old town, we eventually arrived at our hostel on the bank of the Vtlava river after climbing several flights of steep steps.

Built early in the 13th Century, Cesky Krumlov was originally home to the House of Rosenberg and remained an important region until the mid-nineteenth century when the events of World War II and the subsequent Communist regime caused the city to fall into disrepair. Following the Velvet Revolution and fall of Communism in 1989, the town has been restored to its former glory and is very high on my list of most beautiful places I've been in Europe.

With its wooden bridges, cobble-stoned streets and fresco covered castle perched high on the hill it is easy to imagine yourself back in medieval times as you wander through the old village. That evening, we met up with a French girl that we had met on the train for dinner and she took us to a riverside restaurant that specialized in Czech dishes from the Middle Ages - the food was delicious and watching the town darken while the river flowed by was a great accompaniment to the excellent Czech beer.

The next day we took a tour of the castle - wandering through the various rooms, looking at tapestries and old furniture quickly became boring, but one point of interest was the bear moat surrounding the outer courtyard of the castle. Since 1707, the lords of the castle have kept bears in the moat - not really clear on the reason, but I guess it would have been a pretty good deterrent.

Late that afternoon after another great medieval lunch (pork knuckle anyone), we boarded a bus and made our way through the Czech countryside - rolling green hills, small farms and mountaintop villages - to the jewel in the crown of Eastern Europe, Prague. Regularly referred to as one of Europe's most beautiful cities, Prague has a great reputation among travelers as a beautiful place full of things to see, affordable accommodation and cheap food and beer (unfortunately the cheap food and beer is a thing of the past). A settlement since 200 BC, Prague became a city of note in the 9th century when the "High Castle" was built and became the seat of the Dukes and Kings of Bohemia. The city continued to rise in importance until, in the 14th Century, it became the capital of the Holy Roman Empire under Charles IV. It was during this period that many of Prague's architectural attractions were built, including the Charles Bridge, New Town, Saint Vitus Cathedral (inside Prague Castle) and Charles University.

On our first evening in Prague, we visited the communist museum, an interesting display covering the history of Prague from the time of "liberation" from the Nazis until the fall of Communism in 1989's Velvet Revolution. Although the annexation of Bohemia and Moravia in 1939 by the Nazis, led to some absolutely horrific events for the Czech people (particularly the Czech Jews) the next forty-four years of Communist rule was definitely no picnic. In 1967 Czech politicians attempted to introduce a 'softer' form of Socialism, but any hope of revolution was dashed when the Soviets invaded the capital with 7,000 tanks in 1968. From then on it was clear to all that Czechoslovakia was firmly under the iron grip of their Russian rulers.

The following day, we did a walking tour of the city that visited all of the major sights and was a great education in the events leading up to, during and after World War II, including the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, an act for which the Czech people paid dearly. Walking through Wenceslas Square (named after Good King Wenceslas), we heard about how student protests in early November of 1989 ultimately led to a gathering of 500,000 people that forced the Communist Party to relinquish control and dismantle the single party state on 28th November. That evening as we were walking back into the Old Town after visiting Prague Castle (the largest ancient castle on earth), we ran into our French friend from Cesky Krumlov and had dinner with her in a recommended local restaurant. It turned out that it was "museum night" that evening, so after dinner we went back up to the castle and spent a couple of hours wandering through the art museum in the castle grounds.

The following day, even though the sky was gray and heavy with rain, we took a trip out into the Czech countryside to visit Karlstejn Castle. Founded by Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV in 1348 the heavily fortified castle perched atop a hill high above Karlstejn village was used to safeguard the Emperor's crown, holy relics and other royal treasures. After a pretty average tour through the castle (you can only see so many rooms and tapestries before they all start to look the same), we wandered down into the picturesque village and were able to admire the castle from below - from the village you can really see how imposing the castle is and can truly appreciate the beauty of the building. Then it was back to Prague and a quick change of clothes later we were at the Opera House for a performance of Puccini's Tosca (despite our concerns that our "best" travel clothes wouldn't cut it, they still let us in). After the Opera we met up with Andrew at a pub to watch the Turkey - Czech Republic game in the Euro Cup; unfortunately Czech Rep lost, but the crowd in the pub didn't seem too upset.

On our final day in Prague, we went back up to the Castle to visit the Toy Museum (the second largest display of toys in the world) and saw the first ever Barbie (exciting stuff!) as well as a collection of toys spanning history from Ancient Greece to the latest Star Wars saga. Afterward we explored our sense of nihilism at the Franz Kakfa museum (very strange) and then made a pilgrimage to the John Lennon Wall before boarding the overnight train for Krakow.

Half-asleep, cold and tired we struggled to get off the train in Krakow (it was 6.30am) and then spent several minutes on the platform searching through my bags as I'd come to the realization that my mobile phone was missing; unfortunately this realization came after the train had pulled away from the platform and my phone was gone forever (sorry to anyone whose text messages I've missed).

After studying the tram maps, we finally worked out how to get to our hostel and boarded the tram for the longer than expected trip to our accommodation (when we booked it we thought we were in the center of town; not the outskirts). Once there, we showered, changed and were treated to a free breakfast before heading out for a day of sightseeing.

Once the capital of Poland, and with a history going back over one thousand years, Krakow has some great historic sights, the prime one being Wawel Castle, built in the 13th Century by Casimir III the Great. We spent almost all day visiting the various parts of the castle which contained some interesting pieces, including arms and armour, tapestries and ancient documents; although we were definitely growing tired of visiting castle interiors, this was one of the more interesting ones. Our final stop in the Castle was the Dragon's Lair - complete with a dragon statue that breathes fire every few minutes. The Dragon is integral to the myth of Krakow as it was Krakus, a commoner, who managed to kill the dragon that terrorized the region - an achievement that the knights of the realm had failed at. As reward, he married the Princess and went on to found the city of Krakow.

The following day we took a trip out to one of the most infamous places in Europe; the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz. Founded in May of 1940 shortly after the annexation of Poland by Germany, Auschwitz was originally populated by Polish intellectuals, prisoners of war, homosexuals and Jews. As the war progressed and the Nazis pushed forward with their hideous "final solution", the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp was built and the gas chambers brought 'on-line' in March, 1942. Rudolph Hess, Commandant of the camp, testified that up to 3 million people had died at Auschwitz; 90% of them being Jews - modern scholars now believe that this number was somewhere between 1.5 - 2 million.

Although Auschwitz is arguably the site of one of the worst atrocities in human history, it lacked the emotional punch that we experienced at the S21 Security Prison and Killing Fields in Cambodia. Part of the reason is that there were hundreds and hundreds of people slowly shuffling through the camp behind their tour guides, the other issue is that we have learned so much about Auschwitz through history, popular culture and movies that we have become somewhat desensitized and the place itself seems like little more than a tourist attraction - personally I was far more moved by the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.

After walking through some of the former barracks and seeing the piles and piles of empty luggage, their contents ransacked by the SS, the bales of human hair and the thousands and thousands of pairs of glasses, we took a shuttle over to Auschwitz II - Birkenau and this is where the true extent of the horror became obvious. Walking through the gate, the first thing you see are the railway tracks stretching off into the distance; these were the tracks on which the rail-cars arrived that brought Jews from all over Europe to their deaths. Not far along the line was the railway platform where the prisoners were unloaded and put through the "selection" process; to the right meant a slow death by starvation, overwork or disease; to the left meant an immediate execution in the gas chamber. Looking through the barbed wire at Birkenau, all you can see are the ruins of hundreds and hundreds of barracks that once held prisoners; this is when the sheer scale of the death machine becomes clear.

With our WWII sightseeing completed, we moved on to Communism and on our final day in Krakow went on an entertaining tour with Crazy Guides in an East German Trabant (typical socialist car, made of fibreglass that people waited up to ten years for) to the "model" Communist town of Nowa Huta. Built in 1949, Nowa Huta was designed to attract working class folk and peasants from the countryside to the Krakow region to 'balance out' the bourgeois element in the city. Today, the town is relatively sparse with buildings with harsh straight lines (ie. concrete boxes) being the norm. The highlight of our visit was when we stopped to look at an old tank and were approached by an old (eighty or over) Polish guy in full Army uniform that had fought on the side of the Allies during the war. Although he had just come from the funeral of his son (who was apparently sixty and had just passed away from cancer), he was very excited to meet a group of Australians as he had fought with an Australian regiment in Italy. After a brief visit to the Jewish quarter, including a short stop at Oskar Schindler's factory, we headed for the station and boarded the overnight train once again.

Another city, another early morning; we made our way to the Berlin hostel and were delighted when we were able to check into our room straight away. After resting for a couple of hours we headed out to see the sights of the famous city, once the capital of Nazism and then the symbol of division between the world's major ideologies, Capitalism and Communism.

Our first day in Berlin was spent on an all day walking tour with New Berlin Tours (highly recommend them if you're in Berlin); the guide was excellent and although I'd been to a lot of the major sights before (Jewish Memorial, Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, etc) it was great to see them again with a guide who was passionate and knowledgeable, while being sensitive to the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis and Communists.

After wandering around all of the major sights, we took a walk together along the river stopping every so often for a beer and to watch the locals and tourists wandering around. The next day I went on a tour (with the same guide) out to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp while Janice and Andrew spent time at the Wall Museum near Checkpoint Charlie.

Visiting Sachsenhausen was a very different experience to Auschwitz as there were relatively few people there and the camp seemed far less touristy than what we had experienced in Poland. Established in 1936, Sachsenhausen was the "model" for all the other camps and was used as the training ground for many of the SS Officers and personnel that were later sent to run other camps in the Third Reich. In fact, Rudolph Hess started his "concentration camp" career by being assistant to the Commandant at Sachsenhausen. In 1940, he was sent to run Auschwitz and a couple of years later it was his bright idea to create the gas chambers. In a rare example of karmic justice, Hess was executed by hanging at the Auschwitz gallows in 1947. The stories told by our guide were quite vivid and at the end of the tour we were in the cellar morgue of the Pathology building (where brutal experiments were carried out) when an American girl passed out and collapsed on the floor which caused quite a stir, considering where we were.

One aspect of Sachsenhausen's history which I found quite interesting was what happened after World War II; despite being 'disgusted and appalled' by the conditions in which the Nazi's kept their prisoners, the Soviets wasted no time in converting Sachsenhausen into a political prison which they used between 1945 and 1950 and in which 12,000 people died from torture, malnutrition and disease.

After returning to Berlin, Janice, Andrew and I went out to see the East Side Gallery - a one and a half kilometre section of the Berlin Wall that still stands and has been covered in paintings and satirical graffiti. The following day we took a walk through the weekend markets along the river before visiting the Pergamon museum - unfortunately the Babylonian section was closed (for which the museum is most famous), so we didn't bother going in and instead headed down to the "Topography of Terror", a great outdoor museum at the former headquarters of the Gestapo and SS. We then visited the very interesting (and big) Jewish Museum before I headed off with Andrew on a quest to find the headquarters of the "Stasi", Secret Police, while Janice went to visit the Reichstag.

Taking a tram out into the suburbs of East Berlin, we asked at a cafe for directions and then set off to find the museum which is located in the former headquarters of the Stasi, renowned as one of the most feared and effective secret police organizations in the world. At its height, one in every 50 East Germans were informants for the Stasi - talk about having to watch what you say! Anyway, thanks to my brother's complete inability to understand the address, we walked along nondescript streets bordered on both sides with austere East German concrete buildings for miles until we realized that we had passed the headquarters long ago and that it was now closed!!

Later that evening we boarded the overnight train and made our way to the land of massive beer steins and men dressed in funny shorts; Munich. While only in Munich for a couple of days, we hit all the major sights - the Hofbrauhaus beer hall built in 1589 and site of one of Hitler's early speeches in 1920, the English Garden (home to the world's biggest outdoor beer garden and the only river I've seen where you can surf almost stationary) and of course the Old Town and its Glockenspiel.

As the previous few weeks had been very hectic, we took it pretty easy in Munich (I got the most expensive haircut and shave I've ever had) and we spent a lot of time just sitting around drinking beer....after all, it was Munich! Then it was time for a slight detour to the land of music and the Alps, Salzburg!!

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Photos

Castle, Cesky Krumlov
The 2nd largest Castle in Czech Republic, this was the home of Cesky Krumlov's ruling families since the 13th Century

Bear Moat, Cesky Krumlov
Bears have been kept in the moat of Cesky Krumlov Castle since 1707

Eatin' Medieval Style
This joint of pork can only be eaten with your hands...just like the good 'ol days.

Wenceslas Square, Prague
This square (named after "Good King Wenceslas") was the site of a 500,000 person protest that led to the fall of the Communist government in Czech Republic

Old Town Square, Prague
Town hall with Astronomical Clock on left; Church of Our Lady before Tyn with towers on the right

Karlstejn Castle
Built in 1348 by Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV as a place for the safekeeping of Royal treasures

Great Barbican of Krakow
Over 500 years old it helped defend the city during medieval times

Dragon of Wawel, Krakow
Legend has it that a dragon dwelt in a lair under Wawel hill until it was eventually killed by a young apprentice who married the princess as reward

Every Chimney Tells A Story
Remains of barracks at Birkenau section of Auschwitz camp

Commie Tour, Nowa Huta
Visited Nowa Huta, model Communist town, in an East German Trabant

WWII Veteran
WWII Polish soldier we met in Nowa Huta who fought on the side of the Allies during the war

East Side Gallery, Berlin Wall
Famous paintings on remains of the Berlin Wall - now known as the East Side Gallery

Entrance, Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
"Work Shall Set You Free" was the ironic slogan at the entrance to each of the Nazi Concentration Camps

Andrew Enjoying a Stein...
at Munich's Chinese Pagoda beer garden (largest in the world).

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Death poles at Sachsenhausen Concentration camp - Stalin let his own son die here.

Capitalism and Communism
A McDonald's right next to the Communist Museum...how appropriate

Peeing Statues
These peeing statues are outside the Franz Kafka museum

St. John of Nepomuk, Charles Bridge
This statue of Saint John is rubbed for luck and is supposed to ensure your return to Prague