Krakow, Poland

Thursday morning, I hopped on a train at the main terminal in Prague, and traveled to Krakow, Poland for the past couple days.  The train ride was long, but I enjoyed most of it because we had cabins (like the ride to Hogwarts in Harry Potter), and spoke with this nice Canadian couple who were backpacking through Europe.  The total travel time of our day went from 9:30am-5:30pm.  We spend most of our time on the train, all the way to a stop in Poland, where we transferred to another train to Krakow.

Upon arriving in Krakow, it was dusk already, and we slowly slumped our luggage to the hotel, approximately 10 minutes from the station. We got to a very nice hotel that had apartment style rooms, and of course I roomed with Dan and Tom.  That night, after having a delicious Polish meal, and many perogies for dinner, the bunch of us went to walk around a bit in the Old Town.  There was beautiful architecture. I definitely noticed a difference in the way that Krakow introduced itself, compared to Prague.  The cities had similar history, but architecturally and socially, the city had a different atmosphere to it.  I really enjoyed the people, seeing all type of city life and observing the culture in a different country.  Not to say that I like Poland better than the Czech Republic, but Krakow made a very good first impression to me.

The Krakow Old Town, where I spent most of my leisure time.

The following day was a bit adventurous.  We woke up early, and walked to the square where we met a Polish professor (who spoke very good English).  He talked to us about the period between the 1950's-1980's in Poland, and the communist period that erupted during that time.  He was very informative, telling us about Pope John Paul II, and his huge impact on society. PJPII showed society how Catholicism could be a gateway to their problems and prayers at the time, allowing for a religious revolution to Catholicism in Poland.  The population is approximately 95% Catholic, which goes to show that his presence had a big effect on the country.  I can accept that fact, because around every corner on the streets of Krakow, there is a picture of him, or a big statue of him, eyeing you down.  

Later on, the group of us went to an old factory building in Nova Huta, a town that was highly impacted by the communist regime.  The factory was reconstructed into a theatre, where many performances and shows take place.  I was surprised to know that The Killers, one of my favorite bands, performed there just two months ago.  Nova Huta is recognized as an old communist town because of the physical change that the town went through.  Though it's maintained its communist styles, the people are still marked by the communist period.

The archways in one of the church's I visited.  The design was absolutely gorgeous.

Saturday was the most interesting day out of my visit to Poland.  It was the day I went to Auschwitz, the concentration and death camp during the Holocaust.  I went alone, traveled about an hour to the camp from Krakow, and I wanted to be by myself for the experience.  Upon arriving, I signed up for the "English" speaking tour, and waited in the film room where I watch a short video on the camp.  I'm not going to go through the whole tour step by step because it is an experience that I'm mainly keeping to myself, unless it comes up during a discussion.  The camp has been maintained in it's entirety, but there have been several adjustments to make it more "tour" friendly.  It was deep, intense, personal levels of information, ranging from the arrival to the camp, the separating of the prisoners, the labels of the prisoners, the daily life routine, and the executions.  The most powerful moment for me was the hallway in one of the buildings.  It had all the recovered pictures of the prisoners upon their entrance to the camp.  No matter man, woman, or child, you were shaved, given a uniform, and your picture was taken as a form of identification.  If anything were to happen, an escape or an identification purpose came about, Nazis would use these photos to identify the prisoner.  However, that system stopped after 2 years because prisoners starved and died from hunger, leaving them emaciated and unhealthy, nothing compared to their photos upon arrival.  So, the hallway had all of those pictures, side by side, just staring at you as you walked down, seeing the hundreds of faces of people who were killed.  It was just awful, seeing their faces, knowing at the time, that they had no idea of what was to come.  My tour guide even mentioned that sometimes people walk through that hallway, relatives of the victims, and identify their relatives, finding some of their personal information from the time.  

The entrance gate to the camp. This is the original gate, and it welcomed prisoners with the slogan that translates to "work brings freedom."  Clearly, the slogan was a lie.

These were some of the buildings that the prisoners stayed in.  The living conditions were horrible, and over 1,000 people were crammed into one building.

The barbed wire that separated death and freedom.

So my day ended at Auschwitz, but I kept the experience to myself for the most part, and enjoyed the rest of my evening in Krakow.  Sunday was the last day in the city, and I had a very relaxing day.  I slept in, and woke up around 11:00am to get ready for the 12:00 noon mass at the famous St. Mary's Church in the center.  I knew that if there was any place I would attend a mass during my stay, it would be in Poland.  The church was magnificent, and although I didn't understand the words spoken in Polish, I understood the order and rituals of a daily Catholic mass enough to make out what was going on.  I knew that my Umpa would be proud, sitting alongside me, attending mass in a foreign country, and telling me the bit of history that comes with the location.  In a way, it did it for him.  Trying to experience what he experienced when he traveled the world.  And now i know.

The rest of my stay included a nice shopping trip to the big mall, and the market square.  I got some nice winter sweaters, and shopped around for some market items that turned out to be more of a "window shopping" experience.  

I now sit here, on a farm, in Slovakia.  That blog will come after this, once my stay here is finished on the farm.  I go back to Prague this Friday. But don't worry mom and dad, i'm not sleeping with the cows. Haha.