Blogs from Lesser Poland, Poland, Europe - page 72

Lisa and I thought we'd do something a bit different this time for New Year's. We decided to go on a trip and visit a place neither of us had been to. And that place was Poland. We also planned to stop off in Paris on the way home to catch up with some friends. Day 1: We left Lisa's flat in London at some ridiculous hour in the morning and headed for Luton airport. Later that morning we landed in a snow-covered Warsaw. The hostel we'd booked into wasn't opening for a few hours so with our bags on our backs we took a walk around the old town. It was pretty, but rather small, and the rest of the city was very industrial. We'd been told that there wasn't that much to do or ... read more

to know I have seen too much." Since my last blog I have traveled from Warsaw to Lublin and then to Krakow. It's odd because Poland really wasn't even in the cards when I started this trip. But here I am. One major reason for my stop here was to visit some of the WWII concentration camps. My interest in WWII stems from childhood. And I do believe the first real essay I ever wrote was about Hitler in Mrs. Maye's 6th grade class. A stop here was pretty much obligatory to see with my own eyes the horrors of war and the resulting mass human extermination. I somehow felt like it was my duty as a human to visit these places and pay respects to the people who died and to try and understand what ... read more

Hey folks! First of all sorry for the lack of blog-age the last couple of days. Drama struck just like in an episode of diagnosis murder- except there was no dancing from Dick van Dyke. Since i (sam) came to Warsaw id had a bit of tummy ache- thought is was probably a dodgy kebab which dan is so fond of. However a day or so later i got really bad back pain. Anyways to cut a long story short i went to the doctors who transferred me to hospital (in a lil ambulance). I had xrays ultra sounds, some doc hitting my back, blood tests etc in the end i had a bad virus in my kidneys- heaps of pills to make me better tho, so the trip can continue! yey! SO after staying another ... read more

Hello from Krakow... Well, it's safe to say that we both loved Poland!! We found the people very nice and helpful. Those that could speak English tried their best and wanted to talk to us. The staff at the hostel where we stayed were great. They helped us make travel arrangements, check on schedules and help us with whatever questions we had. And we got that all for the bargain price of $37.90/night. We also were able to do laundry and use the internet there. We made a few side trips from Krakow. In the last three pictures we posted, you can see that we went to Auschwitz. Needless to say that it was a very moving experience. I think we both learned a few new things about what took place here. I for one did ... read more

I’ve read about it in books and watched it in movies but nothing can compare to the reality of being there. I don’t even know where to begin writing about the experience. The day I spent at Auschwitz is something that will take a lifetime to process. It put an entirely new dimension on something that I have heard about my entire life. When I walked out of the camp that day any doubt that something like that could have actually happened was removed from my mind. But it wasn’t so much like I ever doubted it, it was just that believing something like that really happened is almost impossible to do. But after having been there; after seeing the countless belongings that remained: luggage, shoes, hair, braces and canes; having walked down the same path ... read more