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Published: July 30th 2006
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After a grueling 7 hour train ride on a train with no air conditioning that also decided to split along the route (however, this time, I wised up and clarified with half of the train’s staff that I was on the right train), I arrived in Krakow, Poland. I probably would have bypassed Poland if it weren’t for the train pass I bought that allowed me to visit five countries (Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, and Czech Republic) for five days within a month. After figuring out that I paid way too much for the train pass unless I went to Poland (because, as already mentioned above, it was a long and, therefore, expensive train ride), I, of course, decided to go to Poland. Although not the most beautiful of all of the places I visited, Krakow probably made the biggest impression on me for two reasons: 1) my visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau, the two major Nazi concentration camps and 2) my visit to a salt mine. Oh yes, you heard right, a salt mine.
I was going back and forth on whether or not I should do the tour of the concentration camps. Although I felt that it’s important
to acknowledge that this horrific act occurred and learn more about it, I also didn’t want to be a part of some commercialized, Disney-esque over-touristy tour. I finally decided to go, and I’m glad I did, as the emphasis was most definitely on the former and not the latter. Auschwitz has now turned into a museum and the tours, in addition to being extremely informative, serve to fund the research and archiving necessary to answer questions from Holocaust survivors and families.
I won’t really say much about the tour. I believe the photos speak for themselves. I wasn’t allowed to take photos inside the buildings at Auschwitz, which is probably for the best, as I felt sick at certain points on the tour. Just to clarify a few things that I wasn’t too sure about before going on the tour. Although more well-known between the two, Auschwitz is actually quite small compared to Birkenau. It was a former Polish military base and used brick buildings to house the prisoners. However, most of the administration was done from this location, so that’s why is more well known. Birkenau is where you will see the traditional wooden framed buildings that you’ve
probably seen in movies like “Life is Beautiful” and “Schindler’s List”. However, the Nazis burnt down most of Birkenau when they caught wind that the Russians were coming. If you look closely at the photo, though, you can see rows upon rows of chimneys, which gives you an idea of how large of an area it was (and this is just a small sample—it stretched on far beyond what my camera could capture). I won’t get into the details, but this was definitely a somber day, but I still feel that it was a necessity to go and learn about our horrid past in the hopes that, one day, we will learn.
On the tour, I met three really nice Americans (you would think that’s an oxymoron, right? Just kidding!). Christy, Katie, and Erin were all from the Northeast and, in fact, two of them (sisters) lived 20 minutes away from Kingston, Ontario! I went out for dinner with them that night (yay, I finally found friends!) and we indulged in Polish cuisine. I opted for the good ‘ol perogies that reminded me of home (although, these were much, much spicier) and the other girls indulged in cabbage rolls
and potato pancakes. The meal was delicious, but we were all put off by the bread that preceded our meal. There were two containers that came with the bread. One was obviously butter with some garlic in it and the other looked like mashed potatoes. Being the picky eater I am, I convinced one of them to try the mashed potatoes concoction and let me know how it tasted. The face she made said it all…it was obviously disgusting. Well, when her sister returned from the salad bar (or, more apropos, the cabbage bar), she informed us that it was lard. EWWWW. It was used lard to boot. Double EWWWW.
After dinner, we all ventured over to the Jewish Ghetto to check out the big Jewish Cultural festival. It was packed and fun. Jewish bands were playing on rooftops However, we’re pretty sure that it was packed with tourists and Jews from other parts of the world, as we learned that day that there are only 200 Jews left in Krakow—very, very sad.
As the girls were heading to Warsaw the next day, I spent the next morning touring around Krakow on my own. I quickly discovered that
Krakow’s “thing” (as I’m convinced all cities have their own “thing”) is amber jewelry. Tempted to go nuts on the amber, I had to pull myself away from the market that marked the city centre and try to fill up my time with other, free activities, including a walk around the park, a walk up to the castle, and a visit to the church (of course!).
After a full day of touring, I caught my next tour to a famous salt mine. Why is it famous, you may ask? Because the miners got bored a few hundred years ago and decided to start carving statues, pictures, and scenes out of salt. The carvings were amazing and they were all done by the miners. Even more amazing than the carvings was the cathedral 130 m below surface. It was amazing. The floors, the ceiling, and even the chandeliers were made of salt. There was also a carving of Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” and a life size statue of Pope John Paul II (obviously, done more recently). The piece de la resistance of the salt mine: it was borderline cold. When walking around cities in a heat wave, you welcome
anything that is cooler than 30 degrees.
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