Krakow with speed

---

Well my journey began when I left Sebdog's apartment at 11:00pm and I knew it was going to be weird for the first few nights not having him to share a bed with. The train journey I was embarking upon was around 20 hours long and I knew my arse was going to feel it. My first connection was in the wee hours of the following day and then again at around 7 am (when I got onto my final train at hamburg). And there I remained for the following 12 plus hours until finally I arrived at Krakow at around 8pm. I, after battling to find my way out of the train station (in a huge shopping complex), found my hostel quite quickly. After settling in and showering I was ready for bed, but after meeting a few nice people from England and brazil there was no time for sleep (they weren't going to let me) as there was a Saturday night in krakow to enjoy. And so it was enjoyed! After returning from the bars/clubs, even with all the tiredness I was feeling from the train journey and the alcohol in my system, I began the worst night's sleep I have ever had. Full credit goes to the english or Irish chap sleeping on the bunk below me! This man (so I found out) was always the first to bed and the last to wake up, he was always there when you tried to sleep. Not only did this wankstain snore louder than a jackhammer but when he wasn't snoring he was quite literally yelling (amongst some talking) in his sleep. With my iPod blaring I could still here that shit. It was that bad that one of the girls in the room went out into the dining/kitchen area to sleep. Lucky for her she left the following day, I had to endure it for a second night which became the second worst night of sleep I've ever had.

After conversing the night before hand about krakows offerings, I decided to squeeze a free tour of krakow in before catching another tour out to what most come to krakow for, Auschwitz. After half of the free tour (seeing mainly the centre of town and spotting all the clubs we went to the night before) I had to make a dash for the tour I actually paid for. Following an hourish long bus ride we arrived at Auschwitz 1 where the main part of the tour was to begin. I'm not going to describe the tour in detail as I think most people should see this atleast once in their life. However, after grabbing the walkie talkie radio thingamabobs we were off an a great but shocking tour. We were walked through the remarkably well kept and original Auschwitz 1 camp seeing all there was to show, hearing many, many horrific stories, seeing many, many objects, photos, rooms, areas that made even the most hardened people gasp is disbelief. The most shocking things I saw would have to be a room (at a guess 20m x 4 or 5m and on average 1.5m deep) full of human hair, a rug made from the human hair and the mug shots of perhaps a thousand of the victims with their age, camp entering date and date of death. Some didn't even last 2 days. After seeing the well preserved Auschwitz 1 we were driven to Auschwitz 2 (Birchenau) and saw what was left of that camp. It was mostly destroyed but there were a few original remains, and few things rebuilt also. Even though it was the most amazingly beautiful day and I didn't think it would get to me (especially on a day like that), it did. After returning to Krakow it was time for dinner and another sleepless night!

On my final day in Krakow (Short stop, i know, I had to squeeze it in before Macca arrived) I decided to take the advise of my previous day free tour guide and catch the second half of the tour. After arriving early at the point where I left them the previous day and waiting atleast 45 mins after they were supposed to be there, I decided to go searching for them, an hour later I decided to give up and go see the rest of the city on my own. After checking out the castle thingo I entered the Jewish quarter where schindlers list was filmed. After walking around for 15 mins not knowing what I was looking at I stumbled into the tour! Apparently (the previous guide didn't tell me this) every guide does the tour slightly different according to his or her preferences and unfortunately for me they didn't visit the spot where I was waiting, grrrr. After a brief tour of the Jewish district it was time to head back to the hostel and prepare myself for another 20 hour train ride to Frankfurt...tbc

---