Whoever saves one life saves the world

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Poland is an extremely rewarding and fascinating tourist destination. The geographic location of the country in the heart of Europe has led to a turbulent past, including several occupations by foreign invaders, yet the country has embraced it's future in the European Union with alacrity and is destined to again be an economic power in the region. My focus on this visit is the beautiful city of Krakow, the medieval capital of Poland that is crammed with historic buildings, as the city was spared the destruction wrought on Warsaw by Luftwaffe bombing in World War ll. Krakow can also serve as the gateway to several fascinating day trips, and I've spent nearly a week in this enjoyable city.

To recap from the previous journal, dear reader, I took a night train from Prague and arrived early in the morning at Krakow train station. I checked into the excellent Nathan's Villa hostel in Krakow and immediately fell in with a great group of people, specifically two German lads. We started our first night in the hostel with a victory at the twice weekly hostel trivia competition. Later on that night between clubs I walked past a group of Aussie lads from a different trivia team, who naturally let fly with a fair dinkum gee-up. "Ah, it's the Aussie german" and "Look out, it's the quiz master" rang in my ears as I passed. The next day we took a bus down to the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. The guided tour was harrowing, but also an incredibly moving and unforgettable experience. The Nazis set up concentration camps in Poland as it was in the centre of the continent, and trains bringing in victims of the genocide arrived from all over Europe.

The next day we visited the Wieliczka salt mines as our group expanded, and five of us took another fascinating tour of the seven hundred year old mines, where the extensive salt carvings have been visited by famous Poles such as Frederic Chopin and Pope John Paul ll. The chapel of the blessed kinga carved from salt and lying 120 metres below ground is extraordinary, with many Polish couples taking the lift down to get married. From there we visited Oscar Schindler's factory and walked through his office which was used in scenes from the brilliant Stephen Spielberg movie Schindler's List. A plaque on the front of the building erected by the Jewish foundation states "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire." Schindler saved 1,100 Jews from the gas chambers and after the war visited Israel several times. In 1963 he was awarded a medal in Israel for "righteous amongst the nations".

We went on to a Polish restaurant for excellent Pierogis, and the serves were so massive my big strapping German mate was clearly struggling to finish his meal. I admonished him, then suddenly for inspiration he reached into his bag, grabbed his PDA, pressed a few buttons and next thing the theme song from the Rocky soundtrack fills the restaurant. We all burst out laughing, and it was a priceless moment! After a few days the German lads moved on, I enjoyed the company boys and it was great fun. I later teamed up with a Canadian and an Irish guy to defend the trivia title won with Team Deutschland. We won again which meant a further eight free beers, I'm pretty sure I've destroyed enough brain cells by now to ensure I could never achieve a threepeat! We did more exploring for the next few days of the Jewish quarter, the Wawel castle and cathedral, and other important tourist sights.

Krakow is a terrific city to visit, with a heaving night life thrown in for good measure. It makes for a fascinating and action packed travel destination, and I rate the city as a highlight of my European travels. I also noted from the outset the local people are friendlier and more open than some of their neighbours to the south. A country of forty million people with a growing economy, wonderful culture and traditions, and featuring plenty of fascinating tourist sights in and around Krakow, basically all of you should be here now!

They came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. They then came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. They then came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up." Martin Niemoller

As I continue my travels, until next time it's signing off for now

Tom

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Photos

Infamous entrance gate, Auschwitz
Work brings freedom written above the gate to the concentration camp

Comments

[Greg]

Gday mate
Hey Tom good to see your back on the backpacker trail. Me and Katie are still going! We had a great time travelling Oz and then a few days in Singapore. Have spent a month by the beach and are now in Laos. Poland sounds amazing i think ill go one day. Keep in touch mate. Boo the socceroos

[Marcel Fahle]

Greetings from Budapest
Hey you crazy german quiz master :) We hope you're doing well. We've recently arrived in Budapest and are now exploring the city a bit (by the way, we don't like prague either. its beatuiful but the atmosphere is crappy). so y friend, take care. we stay in touch. Marcel and Dan (those two insane german guys who kidnapped the american guy and tried to kill him with alcohol and lack of sleep ;))

[Rob]

Just a little spelling correction in a Polish name
Hi Tom, I've come across your site by accident but I stayed here a bit longer than I usually do on such occasions. You're doing a great job, I must say, though I'm not much of a traveller. Still it's better to have a virtual trip than none and yours are really good. Not that I'm picking on you, but it should be 'Restauracja samoobslugowa' (self-service restaurant). I'm Polish, you see, so you can rely on me. Apart from this one, the rest of Polish names is flawless. Cheers!

[Tom Rooney]

Thanks Rob from Poland
I have corrected my spelling error. There I was transcribing the name diligently, where all it means is self service restaurant! I thought it was maybe an exotic name but there you go...

[lucas]

concetration camps
Hi Tom, I was looking through google for some more info about Oskar Schindler and I found your blog. I'm pleased that You like Poland, but just to correct some facts - Germans used to built camps for Jews not only in Poland, There was few in Europe, one known as Sachsenhausen in Germany were my Grandads brother was killed and many many more. Auschwitz was the biggest and probably the most known because they decide to bring over all jews from Europe for the Endlosung what means that at the end of the war they wanted to have them all killed. It's sad that they choose Poland.