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Hello all once again,
Last time we met I was still in Prague on a wettish afternoon. Well that night after some well needed washing we went out for a very glam dinner at this wonderful small, glitzzy restaurant that we had found. Can you imagine back home spending only $18 on a cocktail, glass of wine, bread and a chicken caeser salad? I love Prague baby! After some late night disco action and frivolity, we woke the next morning to hit the castle. rghhhhhhhhh I have never been surrounded by so many tourists in my whole life in one place - not even the Tower of London! It was wrong, wrong, wrong! But alas te castle was interesting. We nearly passed out trying to climb the stairs in the cathedral. But alas our efforst were well paid, as one of the est views of Prague was availed to us at the end of the journey. The rest of the afteroon was spent strolling around, checking out the souviners, a market, the (very dissappointing) town clock, then going through the very informative and sad Communism Museum. One our final night in town, we went out for a late night stroll to
appreciate Prague at night. Oh and did she deliver! The town square, Charles Bridge and the castle lit up and turned Prauge into a Grimm Brothers Fairytale setting.
On Sunday we were up and off early (again) to Teplice in the Czech mountains/Poland border area. Here we went for a 3 hour walk to check out the wonderful rock formations of the area. Hehehehe a few are defiantely phallic in their representation. But most of our time was devoted to trying to find "the bear" or "The Inca Chief" etc. In between some of the valleys, the temperature would drop away so quickly that your breath steamed up instantly. After a full afternoon, we settled into a BBQ back at the Pension. A fun night, and almost a little reminder of home. The Americans enjoyed their Independance day and Greece somehow beat Portugal in the Football Finals!!!!!!!
Up we get again, and off to cross the Polish border. Almost instantly you can recognise that Poland is no where near as affluent as the Czech Republic. With such a sad history, many towns are very run down, almost compounding this sadness. First stop was Wroclaw (pronounced like Ro-sauve). A town that
instantly felt a little dodgey in it's character, due to high levels of unemployment. We spent the afternoon at an easy pace, walkign around the town square, checking out several of the cathedrals and heading back to the hotel t clean up. A little side note, the Poles are extremely catholic people. Whilst I have seen nuns every so often cruising around Melbourne, I cannnot honestly say I have ever seen one in a full Habit. A boy, they were everywhere down near the Cathedrals!!!!!!!!!!! But we were amused when we were in a religious shop when someones mobile phone went off - it was the nun to our right!!!!!!!!!! Dinner that night was set in a spectacular and fancy restaurant underneath the town hall - it is supposedly the oldest restaurant in all of Europe!!!!!!!
After one night it was time to get to Krakow. All aboard for Amber here Ladies and Gentlemen. Despite a very cold, wet and grey afternoon, Krakow immediately revealed herself to be far more enchanting and beautiful than Wroclaw. After a bite of lunch, we decided that well, why not go see
another church? We were immediately blessed with this decision! We visited the cathedral on the corner
of the square - urghhh the name alludes me right now, but oh my lord! You have never ever seen anything like it in your life. A complete devotion to religion that has ensured that not one square inch of the interior is not ornately covered in gilt, carvings, statues or marble. Even the ceiling was a jade/blue colour filled with gold stars!!!!! We then strolled around the amber stores, through the very quiet and haunting old Jewish Quarter, then up around the castle area and the Florian Wall. For dinner we induldged in Pierogies - a polish dish. Kinda like big raviolies stuffed with meat or cabbage and mushrooms etc. Eh good, but could live without them in my regular diet! Jazz was the order of the night. Jazz is everywhere here! Went into this club, and were almost immediately swept into their VIP area that was so lush that it was a cross between being on the moulin rouge set, and being in a brothel!!!
Today I write from a lovely sunny Krakow, it is warm, the sun is out, and this lovely town with Europes largest town square is revelling in all her glory. But it has not been a
day of lovely sunshine and memories today, our morning was touched with a much darker tale of human sorry, and the incomprehensible evil of man. Today we visited Auschwitz-Birkenau. Please if you have any strong political ideologies on this topic, skip this section, as I am talking from my heart and experience of the morning, I don't care to upset or offend anyone.
After an early rise, we caught a local mini bus out to Auschwitz, but a mini bus is far more comfortable than the rickety trains that an estimate 1.5 Million Jews, Poles, Slavs, Gypsies and Political prisoners caught for the fianl journey. Ushered into the gates they were under the belief that they were only coming here to be forced into work camps. Never any suspicion that are darker truth was awaiting them. People were split into those who could work and those who couldn't. Unfortunately you can only being to imagine what happened to those who were not considered fit to work. It is a very hard place to visit indeed. There are many displays here: Typical life in the camp, the sorting process, the lies, but I think the worst thing was seeing their possessions - bags,
shoes, eye glasses, shoe polish. I suspect that this was even worse than viewing the chambers, as there was such a humn connection to them, a familiarity with everyday life. Without doubt I cried, many people in our group including me succumbed to a numb feeling of complete disbelief. It only makes me the more thankful that I have lived in a country with freedom and the ability to have courage in my convictions and opinions without fear of persecution. After so many castles, lovely dinners, gothic churches, it was certainly a sobering reminder............
Tommorrow we are off to the Tatras Mountains in Slovakia, then Bratislava, Budapest - then bring it on, the Croatian coast (it was rumoured to be 40 deg there the other day!!!!! Eat your heart out wintertime Melburnians!!!!!!)
Quickly note, my typing has not gotten worse now that I am currently unemployed, just getting around these keyboards gets a little tough every so often over here! Love you all and will write soon!
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