Polska, "move your imagination"!

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"Move your imagination", that's the tourism slogan of Poland in eastern Europe!

I visited Poland for a week early November. This country is part of the European Union but uses its own currency called "Polish Zloty" which was approx. 4 Zloty's to the Euro. In Bratislava I took a night-train to Krakow in southern Poland. I had a sleeping compartment all to myself. The journey took about 8 hours because at a certain point the train was stopped and divided in different wagons going to different destinations. In Bratislava the train was very long. The first two or three wagons were going to Krakow and other parts to Warsaw and Berlin.
Poland was cheap!!! I enjoyed that so much I didn't cook much at the hostels because eating outside didn't cost too much! What I didn't like much was the fact that many people were staring at me a lot on the streets, like they haven't seen a black guy before. But Polish people were generally friendly I must say. I didn't see much sun in Poland and had two rainy days during which I couldn't really do much.

Krakow has about 1.5 million people and is the second largest city in Poland after the capital, Warsaw and lies in the south of the country. The city is very popular by tourists and there is a big group of foreign students too, especially exchange students. In Krakow I found the cheapest hostel I've ever been to, with a simple breakfast included! And the hostel wasn't bad at all. The city is big but the historic city centre is not that big. It's a colourful and gorgeous city and worth visiting! I met with Magdalena, a Polish girl who worked at the camping in Pietra Ligure, Italy and left just when I started to work there. We went out on a Tuesday in Krakow and had a good time! Nightlife seems to be good everyday in Krakow, doesn't matter if it's weekend or not!

I started exploring the city with a visit to the "Wawel Royal Castle", located on a hill. The Polish royals and other important Polish people are buried in the Cathedral, which is one of the most beautiful cathedrals I've ever seen. It's very impressive and it's too bad you're not allowed to take pictures inside! There is a route you have to follow when visiting the Cathedral which takes you also to the Royal Tombs and up one of the towers if you want. From up there you have a good view over the city.

The main square in "Stare Miasto" (old town) of Krakow is called Rynek Glówny. It's surrounded by colourful buildings, the Sukkiennice which was an old cloth market hall built more than 500 years ago, the Town Hall Tower and the St. Mary's Church. I partially joined a walking tour through the Jewish district of Kazimierz. The Jewish community of Krakow is very small today, following the Holocaust and a political crisis in Poland in 1968 during which the government started an antisemitic campaign and many Jews left the country.

At the hostel in Krakow I met with Daniel, a Cuban guy residing in Mexico who was travelling around for about 7 months already. We did some sightseeing in Krakow, went out and cooked together. We went to the impressive Wieliczka Salt Mines. The mines were built in the 1400's and stopped operating as a commercial mine in 1996; now the whole site is a museum. Visitors cannot go inside without a guide, which is included in the entrance fee. The first thing when entering is going down about 300 steps. The deepest part of the mines is 327 meters. I really enjoyed the mines but the audio-device sucked and didn't work well all the time which let me miss a part of the explanations. The most beautiful part was definitely the cathedral, it was simply stunning! Here I got interviewed by a Brazilian TV called Globo; they were filming about the site and doing short interviews with random visitors. The site is on the UNESCO World Heritage list and gets more than 1 million of visitors per year. It's a place you shouldn't miss when visiting the area of Krakow.

Another day I took a bus and went to the site of the Nazi-German concentration camp Auschwitz. The bus drops you off at Auschwitz-I, with its gate that saying "Arbeit macht frei". A tour-guide is assigned to groups of visitors and they give you a device with earphones so you'll be able to listen to the guide and it was very educational to hear the details. Auschwitz-I looked like a normal neighbourhood with many streets and two-story apartment buildings, but of course it wasn't anything like that. We went into some of the buildings where you could see different things ranging from photos of many victims, big piles of belongings of victims such as shoes, hair combs, suitcases, toys. The most horrible one was the big piles of real women hair, shaved off the heads of women to be used to make things like ropes and clothes. I can't explain what I felt when I saw that. I think that was the part of the whole visit which had the biggest impact on me. Of course it's not allowed to take pictures there. The wall where they shot many people to death was an emotional place with many people standing there, singing together and putting candles and flowers at the site. Then there was a small gas-chamber and some ovens where they burned the bodies. All the time I was just thinking "why"? It's disgusting how cruel humans can be to humans. The biggest enemy of humans, are humans themselves! Nazis created "hell on earth" on these concentration camps. After Auschwitz-I I took a free shuttle which takes you to Auschwitz-II/Birkenau. Here there is a railway entering the camp over which hundreds of thousands of Jews arrived. They were immediately separated into two groups after getting off the trains and one group was sent straight to the gas chambers to die; those considered not fit enough for the hard work on the camp. The Nazi's destroyed the gas chamber to try to hide evidence. The tour also took us to the rooms where the prisoners were sleeping in absolutely horrible conditions. There was a big group of Israeli's at the site when I was there, of course with their security men walking all over the place....I noticed at least 5 or 6 of them. They reminded me of those who did the security check on me when going to Israel. I'm glad I visited the site and it's really something I'd recommend everyone to do if they have the chance. Prepare yourself though as it can be very though for some people, but I think I managed it very well.

On my last day in Krakow I visited the Polish Aviation Museum which is really interesting if you like aviation. They should older aircrafts, including those used in past wars, and there is a lot to see and read about their aviation history in general. I was there on a Tuesday when it's free to enter, by coincidence!

After Krakow I went to Wroclaw. This city has about 700.000 people and lies in the southwest of Poland. Because I stayed a bit longer than planned in Krakow and because of rainy conditions, I only had one whole day to explore Wroclaw while I wanted two. But it doesn't matter, things don't always go the way you plan them. Compared to Krakow, it's much smaller and there is less to see and do. But I found the historic centre very, very beautiful and more colourful than Krakow. Some parts reminded me a little bit of Curaçao...gorgeous! These buildings are all located around the "Rynek" (central square) with the Wroclaw Town Hall in the middle. I walked further north and crossed the Odra River to the "Wyspa Piasek", a little island in the river. Then I crossed the Tumski bridge (full of love-padlocks) to the other side where the Wroclaw catherdral is located. Too bad I didn't have too much time in Wroclaw but I'm glad I did visit the city. Of course I couldn't leave Poland without trying something traditional. I had a good "pierogi" here, which is dumplings filled with cabbage, white cheese or potatoes.



All right that's all for Poland. I wouldn't mind to visit Poland again in the future and to know other parts of the country. I think it was better than I expected. My next blog will hopefully come before Christmas, then I'll be writing about my visit to the United Kindgom.

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Comments

[Rachael Marselia]

Poland.
Everything I saw was so beautyfull and real. I wish I was there.Keep up the good work.

[Peter]

I think, your blog is really good, with many imprortant informations. I will use your blog to my work on studies. It's incredible, that you drove such a long way to visit Poland.

[Elton]

Thank you very much Peter, your comment is appreciated!! :)