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Published: November 29th 2011
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Next stop on our Eastern European trek was back to Krakow, which after this trip, has firmly cemented itself in one of my top cities in Europe. This night train was quite luxurious – we had it all to ourselves and it even provided breakfast, water and more room. We woke and stumbled out of the train still half asleep and it took us a few seconds to realise Clay was standing there looking at us with the same bleary eyed expression. Clay (who’s nick name became ‘Ray’ for.... well, I’ll let him tell his own story on that one....), after getting lost in Germany trying to get to Prague, managed to make his way to Krakow and was on the same train – though not in quite as luxurious conditions as we were.
We braved the public transport and made our way to the hostel where we found our room – a mini-apartment thing all to ourselves! We showered and it was still early enough that we made our way to the bus station to head to Auschwitz. I have been to a concentration camp before (Buchenwald in Germany), but this is certainly the most famous one. We jumped
on a tour starting soon after we arrived and wandered around and saw some truly horrible sights.
For the majority of them, I didn’t take photos because, frankly, it made me a bit nauseous. As parts of the exhibition, they had briefcases, suitcases and shoes of prisoners killed. But the most horrific sight was a room filled with human hair that had been shaved from the victims before they were executed to be used in making clothes, etc for Nazi Germany. We went around the sites of the execution yard and the dungeon where the mass gas killings took place.
We also saw stories and photos of victims who managed to smuggle grainy photos and stories out to England about what was going on in the camps, but they were not believed because the English could not believe that any man could do that to another. If I hadn’t heard of this sort of thing before, I don’t think I would have believed it either.
After seeing both ‘parts’ of the camp, we headed back into Krakow and headed out to dinner to a recommendation thanks to one of Rachelle’s friends. It turned out to be one
Krakow #1
Main square of the best decisions we would make. We walked into this hidden little restaurant in the Jewish quarter and were easily the noisiest people there. We struck a conversation with a guy by the name of Chris at the table next to us who was born in Krakow but now lived in Dublin so spoke very good English. He gave us recommendations on the food and as usual, we shared each other’s meals and it was all amazing. I had a pork dish with potato pancakes that has my mouth watering right now.
After dinner, Chris showed us some of the best bars in the area and we hopped around having shot after shot of vodka. At one point, we were having so much fun, we were even attracting followers, but thankfully we managed to ditch one guy (who we nicknamed Paul) who was doing far too good a job of stalking us. We ended up in a club for several hours before getting back to the hostel around 4am.
The next day, after a bit of a sleep in, we walked through the Old town centre before heading out to explore the Wieliczka Salt Mines. As the
Krakow #2
Rachelle and I in the main square name suggests, they were former mines which formed the most important part of Krakow’s economy for several centuries. Now they are a tourist attraction due to the caverns and carvings made out of salt, culminating in a few huge chambers with bible scenes – where the Pope has actually visited and weddings have happened!
In the evening, we headed back out to the Jewish quarter without much hope of finding a restaurant as good as the night before, but we were to be surprised. We finally found one that looked alright and again the food was stunning. We all had different dishes and tried each other’s and no one could find a fault. One of my sides was mashed potato mixed with pesto and pine nuts – simple but so delicious.
On our last day in Krakow, we headed out to the site of map Oskar Schindler's Factory. We knew there was a museum there but didn’t expect it to be so comprehensive. We wandered around amongst some in depth and sometimes shocking exhibits so long that we were almost late in getting back for our plane! But thanks to a taxi, Rachelle, Leah and I headed off
Sunset
In the main square to Berlin, where Clay was going to meet us later. It was a farewell to Krakow, but we were already planning a 10 year reunion!
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